Sam Bouka: The Otter Pirate Design Process

This was a challenging assignment for myself but this character is important to my story. First, I researched otters from life and tried to find as many photos as possible of them and created a collage of these photos. I began sketching my references in my sketchbook as you can see from the first 3 photos. I was trying to pay attention to such important characteristics of what makes an otter an otter such as their elongated bodies, button nose, whiskers and long tail. 

After several drawings, I tried to determine in my head who my character would be and what kind of clothes he would wear. I was thinking first that he would be a sailor and immediately I thought of Popeye and "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou". So I made some design choices to give him an orange sock hat similar to Bill Murray in that movie plus the orange would harmonize with the Steamboat Pirates that he belongs to. To keep the orange theme, I gave him a striped shirt similar to what sailors would normally wear and kept them orange. The checkered pattern also was something that I needed to incorporate into the design so I made it appear as a handkerchief that would be hanging out of the pocket of his pants. This would indicate that he is a hard worker on the ship and often uses it to wipe his brow when he is sweating. 

The main challenge that I found in creating this character was the proportions. Simple because otters generally have an elongated body with short arm and short legs. But, for this particular character, he is a worker and often needs to take tools out of or put tools in his pants so if he had short arm and a long body, he would not be able to reach his pants. Initially, I had his torso very long and his pants areas very short. To change up the design I ended up making his arms longer, pants higher and his neck a little longer. I also gave him a little gut that would allow his pants to be a little higher in the back and lower in the front. In the end, he is able to reach his pockets with his hands with no problem and still holds the characteristics of being an otter. 

The final element that I added was a pipe that he smokes that he blows bubbles with. I was thinking maybe this is a way that he fights enemies. He blows the bubbles and either floats on them or throws steam bubbles at enemies.

I ended up drawing 4 pencil versions of the final drawing of Sam before I was happy with one.

When I got to the point of printing out the final color version. One problem that I ran into was that the nose was looking too dark when it was printed and it was difficult to see his nostrils. To fix it, I lightened up the highlighted area on the nose and the darker nostrils were able to show through when it printed.

I'm happy with how it came out and glad that he is finally part of the crew. 

I only have two more elements that I need to design for my story. 

The Steamboat Pirates

Here are 5 portraits of the Steamboat Pirates. I'm not sure if I am going to give them names yet. I still have to design a flag for these pirates. I also may design two more characters. Each character took about 4 to 5 hours a piece to design.

Captain Clifton Blascoe

 Captain of the Steamboat Pirates. I spent all last week working on this character. In my sketchbook, I spend some time altering his proportions and pushing and pulling shapes until I came up with something that I was happy with. I also definitely took some of his demeanor from Steve Harvey while I was watching the Family Feud the other night. He is a jolly fellow who dresses the part and is not phased by danger.

Steamboat Pirate Color Studies

Oranges, earthtones and checkerboard scarves are the key color elements of this band of pirates.

I based the color design on the secondary triad scheme for the 3 pirate gangs. The secondary triad of colors consists of green (The Neon Sting Rays), purple (Captain Blackberry Beard) and orange (The Steamboat Pirates). 

Steam Pirates Loose Sketches

Honestly, I'm not even sure if anyone reads any of my posts on here but I can tell you that they are truly important to me since I have been spending the last year working on designs for this story. This is also an effort to help me develop my writing and inform myself and others of my process in designing characters and elements for this story.

I started developing a very loose concept of what the final group of pirate designs will be for this story. The best description in my head that I could come up with for them was "Hipster Steam Pirates". These pirates will use a steamboat as transportation and use steam power, mist and vapor to create a cloud that they can hide in when fighting enemies. Drinking coffee will also be a part of their lifestyle. They also have an anthropomorphic otter that helps them fight battles and juggles. Orange, earthy brown tones and a distinct black and white checkered board pattern will be their color pallete.

About two weeks ago, I decided to research possible pirate clothing styles, hipster clothing styles, actor personalities and steam powered appliances. I continued more in depth research last night by finding such machines as espresso machines, steam irons, old plastic vaporizers and tea kettles. The point of this research is to gather the specific ideas and element that I would want these pirates to have and decide how to design specific characters using these elements.

For personalities a few actors that came to mind were Kate McKinnon from Saturday Night Live, Musician Reggie Watts from Comedy Bang Bang and Kumail Nanjiani from Silicon Valley. I only use a few of these people as a guide for the style and personality that I want this group of pirates to have.

It's really been a struggle for me to continue with this project. I really spent a lot of time recently trying to scratch some drawing in a small sketchbook that I carry in my bookbag. What it really comes down to is that I have to motivate myself to do this. No one else can do it for me.

Today, I reflected on the many tiny sketches that I did in my small sketchbook and decided to try to make a few more developed sketches of a few of the characters that I came up with based on my research. These are the three that I did today. They are no where near a completion only a template to work from. I still want to develop how they will use the steam in their weapons and what kind of weapons they will use. It really is a struggle for me but I'm happy and content with what I created today. I will also probably try to design a few more of these pirates.

Neon Stingrays Rays complete design portfolio

I posted this same video on Instagram, showing a compilation of some of the designs that I have been working on for this story. What you are seeing here is some of the work that I have been working on in the past year condensed into a video that is under a minute. Character design sketches, finished digitally colored character designs, costume designs, logo designs, linoleum block prints, weapon designs and a vehicle design. All of which took a lot of time to complete. So if I'm spending a long amount of time on this, it really means whole lot to me. Thank you for taking the time to view this blog. I appreciate your support.

Neon Sting Rays Jet Ski Design

Its been a little while since I have worked on any designs for my story. My goal this past weekend was to do the research, draw and get this vehicle design complete. So on Saturday, I spent a few hours looking up and drawing jet skis. On Sunday, I tried to take what I learned and apply it to designing a stingray shaped jet ski. After several rough sketch on Sunday, I felt I was sort of getting there. I then proceeded to give it another shot on Monday and finally came to a final developed result.

This is the vehicle that Jimmy Fishbone would ride. In the final color version you can see the area between the seat and handlebars where he would keep his bat. I’m thinking for the other characters vehicles I may have to alter their designs to accommodate their specific weapons to fit properly.