Monster Wranglin'

Crazy busy this last week. And after Inktober I thought I'd take a week off from the blog. Thanks for sticking with me and thanks to everyone who ordered the book.

This is a Missile Mouse commission I did a while back, finally posting it.

Missile Mouse - Page 93

Big thanks to everyone who became Facebook fans of Missile Mouse!

So today I want to share with you the process behind one of the pages from the from The Star Crusher. This was one of my favorite pages to work on in the book, but it was also a beast. As you can see from one of the panels from the page above.

Step 1: the Thumbnail

I couldn't find the thumbnail for this page, but I drew it at about 1 x 2 inches, very loose and simple, almost just stick figures.

Step 2: the Sketch

I draw this at the actual print size which is 9 x 6 inches. I keep it really loose, which helps me to focus on layout, composition, and shape and not get bogged down in details. This gives me a good sense of how it will look when printed.

Step 3: the Rough

I don't have a scan of this step, but I took a photo of the page in the middle of inking. I take my sketch page from step 2, scan it, blow it up, and print it on 11x 17 paper and use it as a guide for my roughs via the light box. You can see the roughed-in drawings in the spots not inked yet. I don't labor over the rough too much preferring to reserve some of the exploration of the drawing during inking.

Step 4: the Inks

Here it is fully inked. Microns on heavy stock laser printer paper. I bought a ream of this stuff at my local print shop and made my own guides in Photoshop, then printed them myself on my Epson. The ream cost about 35 dollars for 250 sheets as opposed to comic paper which is a buck a sheet at it's cheapest. I also letter it at this stage using a proprietary font I made from my handwriting.

Step 5: the Flats

Once the page is scanned and imported into Photoshop, I lay in the flat colors by selecting and filling, and/or using the hard round brush. I keep the characters on a separate layer from the background.

Step 6: the Final Color

Here's where I add in all the shadows and highlights and the effects like swoosh-marks, sound effects, and gun flash. And it's done. On to the next page!

Missile Mouse: Facebook

I set up a Facebook page for Missile Mouse. Eventually, I'll set up a fancy MM website with lots of artwork and information, but this will have to do for now. Check it out when you get a minute, and if you feel so inclined, become a fan. Cool!

Missile Mouse Postcards

Wow what a warm response for the Bear and Rabbit image in the last post! Thanks for all the feedback. I'm really digging these two guys so expect to see some ore of them soon.

This is the back cover art I created for The Star Crusher. When Comic-con Came around Scholastic used the image to make some postcards for me to take with me. I made Missile Mouse, the transport ship, the planet and the space BG all on separate levels so we could adjust the composition as needed with the copy that they're throwing on there. You can see MM's ear covers a little more of the spaceship in the bottom one.

Sploosh!

Missile Mouse is caught off guard by a deadly basgus. Though space mice are not a part of the usual diet for a hungry basgus Missile Mouse will do just fine to ease the hunger pains. It's shell is said to be one of the strongest materials in the galaxy. And as such, segments of it's exoskeleton go for the highest dollar on the black market. Consequently, the basgus superior design has caused it be one of the most adaptive species in the galaxy, easily evolving to survive in different extreme environments and climates. There's even word of giant basgus who live in the lava flows of distant planets.



This is a recent commission I did for someone. Since finishing the book it had been a few months since I've drawn MM and I admit I got a little rusty. Below is a video of me drawing this commission. You'll notice I had to erase parts of Missile Mouse a few times before getting it right. If you want one of these original Missile Mouse drawings you can order one here.



Drawing a Missile Mouse Commission from jakeparker on Vimeo.

Star Crusher Cover

Now that Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher is listed on Amazon I thought I'd share the cover process. I had a lot of fun with this cover. Despite the old maxim to never judge a book by it's cover the public at large sets this tidbit of wisdom aside and will usually only pick up what looks cool. With that in mind a lot of folks at my publisher have to approve this cover and make sure it's going to enhance sales instead of hinder them. Despite that there was very little back and forth between us making designing this cover a breeze.

I began with sending them some sketches of possible cover ideas. These were pulled from various scenes in the book.



Scholastic liked the one with the alien bursting through the ground and asked me to develop that further. I drew up three more designs and sent them over.

After seeing those they decided to just stick with the original idea and I went ahead and inked it. I inked the background separate from Missile Mouse so my art director Phil Falco would have more freedom in designing and placing the title.

With inks finished and approved I colored it. Below is the color I sent to them. They liked it but felt it was a little too dark for a kids book. A couple color adjustments were made and if you want to see the final for print click over to the link on amazon here.

RIP Fighter

The Rogue Imperium of Planets (RIP) in partnership with Cephalodian Defense Systems (CDS) developed this space fighter for escort missions. It's light and agile with a respectable armament of two 50mm blaster canons. In the Star Crusher, Missile Mouse faces off against two of these with nothing but a grappling hook, some rope, an interplanetary ballistic missile, and his wits.



Because of the complex shape and my looming deadline I got a friend of mine from Blue Sky to model this craft for me based on my sketch and ortho drawings. He then positioned the model according to my roughs and gave me screen grabs which I in turn drew over. Thanks again for your help Dave!

And here it is in action!