To help promote the webcomic series What the Fott?, I was commissioned by @bl23c to illustrate a piece showing the three heroes in some perilous scenario. He was inspired by the comic book cover art from the August 1986 issue of Star Wars. What the Fott? is pretty lighthearted and colorful, so this was pretty fitting.

The Wire Frame

Depth perception is everything in am image like this. Its suppose to be exaggerated and over the top (no pun intended). Utility the Dranit is a drone soldier, much like the storm trooper from the original reference. Likewise, the damsel in distress is Cera O'Malley, like her counterpart Princess Leia. Rozdower was thrown in there for good measure.

The Sketch

I turn down my wire frame layer opacity to 25% and I make my sketch over the top. I try to put in as much detail as possible to avoid making stuff up in the line art phase. At the same time I don't worry too much about how precise the details are. I scribble and draw messy and that's okay in this step of the process.

The Line Art

The more I have down in my sketch reference the better it is. I may not trace every line in my lineart. I can pick and choose which ones look right. But it's much easier to have more line than not enough. Free drawing in the line art stage rarely looks good and requires a lot of erasing, drawing, or hitting undo.

The Flat Colors

I took inspiration from the Star Wars cover that this illustration references and used warm colors for the cliffs. Obviously this must me some alien world. The character colors were taken 1:1 from the other drawings I made for each one. It's important to keep it consistent.

The Finished Illustration

I felt is was important to not use black lineart for the cliff. This helps the characters pop out, as well as enable the bottom of the canyon to look faded, as if it was quite a distance away. This is something I am still working on, how to render background distance and create the illusion of depth.

This is a colorful cast of characters and they have a very interesting chemistry. Even Utility, who otherwise is a pretty unintelligent being, is often the comic relief and helps propel the plot forward in unexpected ways. If you are unfamiliar with this comic series, I highly recommend reading What the Fott?.