Pirate gangs framed prints

I'm happy because today I just finished framing my 3 prints of the pirate gangs that will be in my story "Swashbuckling Steve Silverado". Each print shows the gang's logo, members and vehicle that they use.

Swashbuckling Steve Silverado Teaser

This is the final concept for the development of my story. The next step for me is that I am going to create a book with all of the art that I have done so far for this story and explain all of the characters.

Freygor tied up colored

Freygor The Living Dragon Island

The concept is that Freygor is a Living Dragon Island that was suppressed by Captain Blackberry Beard. He tied Freygor up with his purple electric wires. Freygor was once peaceful and in control of his fire and island. Now Blackberry Beard's purple wires have infected him and caused him pain. His pain causes the entire island to become unstable purple volcanos and people cannot live on his island anymore. Freygor cannot control the pain and needs to be rid of Blackberry Beard's stranglehold on him. This is a very rough idea to show a size comparison between Steve Silverado and Freygor. It is another piece of a puzzle that is almost complete in my mind. 

Ramsey Longhorn

This original sketch was done probably about 3 years ago. I took a photo of it on my iPad and drew over it in Procreate. I added an important “mood ring” that he will be wearing which is an important element of the story.

Steamboat Pirate Ship

The Steamboat Pirates Steamboat Pirate Ship. 

I researched steamboats and came across the most common ones with the paddle wheel in the back. As I continued looking them up, I found some boats with the paddle wheel covered up and almost in the center of the ship's design. I felt that as a pirate ship that it would make more sense to have the paddle wheel in the center of the boat's design and covered up. Simply because it could be easier to defend in case the boat was under attack. It would be easier to guard in the center. As far as structure, I noticed that most steamboats have stacked layers and multiple support beams supporting those layers. Those beams seemed very flimsy to me and easily susceptible if the ship was under attack. I decided to think bulky when creating the final design. In the end, I decided to make the steamboat look like a floating metal diner with wooden decks. I also added the checkered board motif to the side of the cabin.

This is only a few of the drawings that got me to that point. 

Now the Steamboat Pirates are complete and all of the Pirate Gangs are complete. 

The next part of the story is to focus on Steve Silverado and an uncharted volcanic island that he visits.

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.