Spacemouse 9 Logo 1.0

A while back I decided to bring to life an idea I had for a Spacemouse 9 logo. I wanted the look of the logo to be in the same vein as the titles of old comic books. Not knowing where to begin, I did a search.  I came across an excellent Photoshop/Illustrator tutorial by David Occhino and decided to give it a try. I am pleased with my first attempt, but I want to do some variations to see if I can come up with something I might like even better. Just for kicks, I also want to mock up a book cover using this logo and the silhouette idea I mentioned in a previous post.

1996 Spacemouse 9 Patrol Ship Sketches

Here are some thumbnail sketches I did in 1996. They were an attempt to visualize Spacemouse 9's patrol ship. The top sketch shows the view from within the cockpit. The bottom sketch shows inside the cargo hold. Unintentionally, the exterior of the ship ended up looking like a cross between a 1950's rocket ship, a space shuttle, and a commercial airliner. While I like certain retro elements of the design,  in recent months I have come to feel it needs a more "alien" look. After all, Spacemouse 9 is from another planet, not Earth. My goal is to revise the design of the ship in the future.

Sources of Inspiration

When I first began drawing Spacemouse 9, several characters served as inspiration for the design of his space suit. From Star Wars' stormtroopers I took the idea of a  suit built of a white plastic-like armor. From the video game character Megaman I took the idea of bulky boots which contain jet thrusters (in other drawings of Spacemouse the boots became much larger than the early drawing shown here). Finally, from Major Matt Mason toys I took the idea of a space suit with flexible rubber joints.

2003 Spacemouse 9 Storyboard

Life was incredibly busy at the beginning of March and I missed my goal of posting here a least once a week. Things are more free now, so hopefully I can devote time again to Spacemouse 9. Here are some more of my past sketches. These are the first four panels of a storyboard sequence of nine panels I did in 2003. I am a little embarrassed to share these since they are quick sketches and not what I consider my best work. Still, here can be seen one of the many variations I experimented with trying to find the right look for Spacemouse 9's spacesuit. Previously, I posted a 1997 sketch of our hero without his helmet.

Early Spacemouse 9 Sketch

I thought it was about time I showed everyone what the protagonist of Spacemouse 9 looks like. This is a rough pencil sketch I did in 1997. Back then I referred to the little guy as just "Spacemouse", but as you can see, even then the Rothi symbol for the number nine was emblazoned on his chest. The truth of the matter is that in 1997 the circle and slash symbol wasn't meant to be a nine. It  was supposed to be some type of military insignia. In recent years when I decided to call the character "Spacemouse 9", I worked backwards to create a logical numbering system where the symbol would become the number nine. In coming months I hope to share more early Spacemouse 9 artwork as I get it scanned and cleaned up in Photoshop. My goal is to use my early  artwork as a starting point to create better, more refined art to include in the book.