Art: Autobot Symbol Hextich

This week's art project, another hextich.

Rather than the bars alternating warm and cool colors, I had the circles and background carry cool colors, except where they pass through the straight-lined, angular symbol in the middle, where they switch to warm colors.

I tried to keep the direction of the color-fading the same (lighter towards the outer edge of the circles, except where the circles crossed. At those places I blended colors and tried to have the gradation sort-of follow the combined motion of the two (or more) directions the color flowed.

I wonder if it's a little sacreligeous for me to be doing something that looks "churchy" for something that is, at its core, so devoid of meaning.

I guess I settle for the Autobot symbol instead of a crucifix, since the crucifix sets off auto-hate in so many people nowadays, and it's better than, say Superman's logo because everyone knows that deep down (see www.superdickery.com), but it's a symbol of a group who always tries to do the right thing even if they are boneheads sometimes . . . maybe even a lot of the time.

Currently listening : Big Bad Voodoo Daddy By Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Release date: 1998-10-13

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Art: Margin art "Hotcold"

Yup, pure design. No, there's no "deep meaning" here, sorry.

Materials Used: Mechanical pencil, Sakura pigment pen, Tombow brush pens

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Art:

Original on 8.5x11" paper, digital shading.

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Mod: Steampunk Weapon 1

I began this project with the intent to give the piece a steampunk or Industrial Revolution look, and specifically chose a copper-and-brass color scheme.

I don't think it counts as art, but I was careful in choosing the color and textures I wanted for the piece and was as absolutely careful as I had patience for in executing my plan.

I chose these pieces because of the science-fictiony and somewhat overcomplicated, unstreamlined look they present, completely unlike most modern handguns.  The flashlight built into the upper part is passably functional, and at a range where a dart can actually reach, the red light built in under the dart-launching barrel does a fair impression of a laser sight.

Due to time, cost and, above all, hassle considerations, I decided not to do any modification of the body of the piece to add extra steampunk features like more external pipes, glass tubes with colored liquid or dials and gauges.  I'm saving those for a more ambitious project.

It came out looking pretty slick, I think, and I'm proud enough of it that I'm putting it up here.



Materials:  Nite-Finder Nerf blaster and N-Strike Mission Kit Tactical Light (both from Hasbro), metallic hammered copper texture spraypaint, metallic gold spraypaint, dark brown spraypaint, Chaos Black and Tin Bitz paint from Citadel, high-gloss spray coating

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Art: Quotes

"Don't bother practicing your lightsaber skills if you haven't mastered the kitchen knife."
--Cyberpumpkin, on the subject of learning to draw with Photoshop without learning to draw

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Art: Librarian
Category: Art and Photography

This one was originally conceived as a thank-you for a friend who loaned me a dollar to get a Winnie-teh-Pooh cell-phone charm from a Gatchapon machine.  She'll get one of the first prints, because her desk at work doesn't have enough happy stuff.  I used this as an excuse to put my steam-powered librarian idea to use.


One of the things I thought about quite a bit while designing the cart was the handle.  In the original line drawing, it just had two straight handles, like a wheelbarrow. I decided that would be too cumbersome even for a robot, and awkward to draw if I wanted to picture him, say, waving at someone.

That problem would actually occur to a kid like I was.  He'd immediately think "How can he still pull it by one handle?" and it would continue to bother me every time my mom or dad would get to that part in the story.  I'd obsess about how hard it would be to keep the cart from just going around in a circle, pulling it by just one handle.

So I put in a crossbar in between the ends.  I also added the little bell with a leather holder, so people can hear him coming when appropriate (like an ice-cream truck!) but also keep it quiet when he wants to.


I also put thought into the idea of a steam engine in such close proximity to a wooden cart filled with dry paper.  I decided that he doesn't actually have a fire burning in his belly.  Instead, he has a continuous energy reaction that doesn't necessarily require a steam-drive, but it's more efficient that way.  He's basically a hybrid, I guess you could say.  If he needed to, say, be really quiet, he can turn off the steam works entirely, but that would deplete his energy source more quickly, and the little puffs of steam aren't enough to even worry about making the books damp (yeah, I thought of that too), but he looks cute with little puffs of steam coming out of his stack.

I like the idea of a little guy roving around the countryside with his wagon full of books, lending and delivering with his stack steaming merrily, clanking along and waving to people in the fields.  

Materials:  Mech pencil, Sakura micron pens, Tombow brush pens, colored pencils, photocopier, Corel Painter Essentials 2

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Art: Red Dragoon

  Yaaay!  I finally finished Final Fantasy III for the DS.  I ended the game with three characters doing the job of Dragoon and one as a Devout.  I decided since I'd put in so much time on the game, I'd draw a little something to commemorate finishing it.

This is a sort of techno-dragoon in a suit designed for aerial combat.  For the life of me, I couldn't come up with a way to give it jet-booster wings that looked good, so the concept is that the suit has an antigravity power, and he jumps way up into the air and uses a jet booster built into his spear to pull him through the air and/or give it an extra little strength behind a stabbing or slicing attack..

While it might make more sense to have wings on a flying suit, or a jet pack, I actually kinda like the idea of this thing zipping around in a way that looks like it's barely controlled, like The Rocketeer or the podracers in Star Wars: Episode I, sort-of hanging on for dear life.

I was listening to the Initial D soundtrack while I colored this:  It seemed very fitting to be filling in the scribbly trees and dynamic blue-sky area accompanied by Nights on Fire and Get Me Power!

People who have played the game will recognize the long-eared dragon-head helmet design influence.  It was also inspired by an artist called extiva, whose gallery I was looking at last night.

Materials:  Mech pencil, Sakura pigment pens, Tombow brush pens, colored pencil

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Art: Cyberpumpkin’s field

This is one I did last October, one of the only things I did during that months-long art slump. It was originally just a blue-pen sketch (click that thumbnail there to see it), but I was cleaning out my art case a while back and found it there.

I decided to add some color to it. I’m not really in love with it, but for a quick scribble on a really off day, it didn’t come out too shabby!

Currently playing : Mega Man ZX Release date: 12 September, 2006

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Art: New T-shirt Design!

Currently listening : Monty Python's Flying Circus (BBC Radio Collection) By Monty Python's Flying Circus Release date: 02 October, 2006

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Art: The Fluttercubes

   

 

     

     

     

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