Category: Art
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Issue 1 final cover
After going thru the process of getting Suzi on Comixology (still ongoing…) I have been able to sit back and take the editorial advice I have been given about the first issue. Overall, it was some minor technical issues (font choice, some artifacting from the rendering process that I missed) that I am reworking.
In looking at the cover, it just didn’t fit the story, so here is the new version of the Issue 1 cover.
What do you think?
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Happy Holiday!
We wish you all a safe and wonderful Holiday Season!
Thanks for making 2013 so great.
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Flying high!
Things are going great around here. I have the novelization of Suzi Quazar going, and nice timing for it to coincide with NaNoWriMo. Double dippin big in here!
Things are going so well, in fact, I was inspired to whip up a quick mood piece. I can’t think star-spanning action without thinking Kirby, so here we are!
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Comic Retrospective: Artistic Evolution and Ingrained Tropes
Character design is something of an arcane art, and being entirely self-taught in the concept, I fell into a very subtle trap. I read this blog post from Rachael Rippon the other day, and it made me think back to my own experiences with this trope and how it affected the development of Suzi.
I’ve talked about my motivations for creating Suzi Quazar,and now that I have the first issue completed, I want to look back at Suzi and how she has grown from concept to current state.
Original Concept
Say cheesecake! 
The first character card When I first created her, she was really just a digital doodle, so to speak. I was playing around with the idea of a retro sci-fi theme for my personal blog, and I wanted a cutesy character to use as a kind of mascot. The character was never designed to have a name, I just wanted a sexy, stylized space girl. Easy enough. I more or less stumbled across the character by accident, but once I did, I knew I wanted to do more with her than just being a mascot. The name came to me quickly, and I put together this quick character card. Now, I am certainly not ashamed of this work at all. But I can see where my concept of a female hero was skewed. Growing up I read a lot of fantasy comics, so the chain mail bikini was deeply ingrained into me as acceptable attire for any heroine.
Time for change
About midway thru Issue 1, I was looking at Suzi and wondering what tweaks I could make. (more…)
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Issue 2 sneak peek!
I wanted to give you guys a quick look at some of the concept art for Issue 2 of Suzi. You can see that it’s the same old, same old for poor Suzi.
I have some more articles that I will get scheduled this weekend, and I will discuss more about the creative process of how I took Suzi from concept to creation.You can see the original art on the left, it is a fairly plain angle. I was focused more on scale, lighting and the lightning bolt effects more than the drama of the scene. Once I was able to get the colors and tone, as well as all the visual fx elements in place, I think went back and looked for the more dramatic angle. The first issue of Suzi was a great learning experience, but I think I was so focused on the technical side of the work, that I missed opportunities for more dramatic angles. I don’t regret this, as I did my best with what I knew. The old saying “You only know what you know” applies in art as well we life. This is why I am really looking forward to Planet of Peril. I get to use everything I learned from Issue 1 as the base to build on. It’s going to be alot of fun.
Until then, enjoy some of the alien power that Suzi will encounter!
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Something different
I wanted to do something a bit different than the usual Suzi pinup.
