Blue Milk Special

I don’t know if anyone really got a kick out of the Little Alderaan concept as much as I did, however, its time to move on and I felt like giving this neat little base some closure. On Monday we’re starting The Empire Strikes Back officially with the opening scene and we’ll be moving to Hoth in the coming weeks. Rather than give my usual rant I’ve instead handed the blog over to T. Gatto, who, as of today is also a contributor to BMS with the Little Alderaan background you see in the panels above (with some small tweaks of my own). Like Geoffrey Padilla’s excellent 3D ship model exports, T.s backgrounds will help to sharpen the look of the webcomic. We always welcome the enthusiasm and help of our talented fans!

Now, without further ado, I give you the one and only T. Gatto!

Hi fellow BMSers;

It’s me (T. Gatto). I’m writing this because, after an incessant amount of badgering, Rod has finally agreed to let me write an article on my cartons, for his blog section of Blue Milk Special. This will be a 2 part series that will begin with the increasingly interesting (or annoying, depending on your own preferences) subject of Milk Carton Design. I call the piece “How to design your own Blue Milk Special Carton”. So here it is:

“How to design your own Blue Milk Special Carton”

Step 1 Choose a character, and get the images.
For this carton I chose the dashingly handsome bounty hunter Skorr the great (the “awesome bounty hunter also known as Skorr” – Rod). Since he only appeared in 1 BMS strip to date (and 1 similar drawing) image selection was especially easy, and here it is:

Step 2 Crop and resize the image as needed.
Try to make the face the approximate size he appears on the Blank carton Template.
Find images of the back and sides of the head as needed extrapolate on the rest.

Step 3 Draw a basic Head Outline.
This is similar for most of the cartons, but I try to re draw it each time for sake of adding some variety.

Step 4 Modify the outline to fit the character.

Notice the handsome head bumps, and cut line for the ear.
I also add a basic outline for any attachments at this time, so that I will know how much room I have to work with.

Step 5 Draw the basic facial details.

If any details are lacking in the available BMS art just make it up. If Rod (or anyone else) complains tell him to fix it themselves, or just go and pout. Note I looked up pictures of Skorr on Google Images for ideas on his Right side, and added the screw to the back of his head on my own, (because I think he is a screw head).

Step 6 Add color.

I take the colors directly from BMS strips, and use the lightest shades, so that shadows can be added later.

Step 7 Shading.

Once again I take the darker tones from BMS and shade the carton, using the original posted artwork as a guide. I also pick a background color if needed, usually from the BMS strips.

Step 8 Clean up.

I remove the yellow color from the background, (it’s there for this step alone) I also pick a color for the fold lines that will be visible, but will hopefully not stand out too much.

Step 9 Draw the attachments.

The ear is just Greedo’s ear re worked, and the earpiece took some trial and error.

Step 10 Color (and shade) the attachments.

See steps 6 and 7.

And there we have it, 1 handsome (at least to his mother) Skorr the Great (“Awesome Bounty Hunter also known as Skorr!!!!” – Rod). Since nobody responded to my request to see if he needed his own carton I’ll probably be the only one to build him but that’s my problem not yours. So, until next Installment kids remember “Buckle up, buckle up. Seat belts save our lives!”

Part 2 will deal with a do-it-yourself carton contest, so if you have artistic talent, patience, or just a lot of free time please watch this section.

By the way Rod this (the cartons) is what you get when you tell me something is too challenging for me (never underestimate a geek on a mission).

There’s also a brand new page for Milk Carton Theater where each strip is archived. As for the Milk Cartons themselves, you can view them all at the Downloads page.