Page I

I finally dug out the pencils and spent the afternoon christening one of the empty sketchbooks that lie in my cupboard. I tend to impulse buy sketchbooks every now and then so I've now got seven of the swines... plus four or five old ones that I never finished. Let's see if I can fill at least a few during 2013.

Bedouin Punk: Voyage of the Sand Maiden

A little fun continuing a theme I started while testing Colors! 3DS which I tagged "Bedouin Punk", for the sake of a mini project title. I'm not a fan of splitting general sub genres into further fragments (it feels pretentious enough in music), but the project name is more about the mood and aesthetic in my head, rather than my attempting another derivative of Cyberpunk/Steampunk. There's too many of them already, and I'm not a fan of the current aesthetic of basically sticking a few cogs on something and calling it Steampunk. That's not how it works!

Anyway, this Bedouin Punk theme I have in my head is at least interesting enough for me to call it a "project" and so give it a name. I guess I'll return to some of the ideas I have later - no doubt in a sporadic fashion. But for now sky ships are always cool, so I'm just riffing. :)

Keeper Portrait

A bit of Thief, The Dark Project fan art. Hopefully the upcoming 4th game will be a return to form.

Pimp My Qwerty

Brewing Machine

Some Steampunk sketchery, before I snooze. I am assuming this contraption would be able to make a fairly decent pot of tea...

Bilgewater (Redux)

I was browsing through my DS Colors! speedpaints for something I could use as a basis for a PS speedie before I go snooze. I thought the original Bilgewater idea deserved more attention - if only because it is the first paint I've done (so far) where the title came before the image. As it turned out, this speedpaint opened up a lot of thematic ideas I wish to return to at some point soon.

Smogspire

Steampunk in the house...

Bilgewater

Industrial Design Topic: Abstract Sculpture

I decided to jump in and have a go at a weekly industrial design topic. I'm certainly lacking skills when it comes to plausible theoretical sci-fi/fantasy ID concepts (you know, working out the how/why and the nuts & bolts), but this weeks topic happened to be Abstract Sculpture, so I thought I'd get my toes wet as the topic affords a somewhat more gentle way to approach the subject. The pitch also demanded a story, or background to the design so I'll post that below as well. Apologies for my writing skills. Just try to visualize a Marlin. :)

The people from the city never climbed the hill - fearing what they didn't understand. It was late March when the the first rumors started to circulate amongst the more observant citizens. The summit of the hill was beginning to change shape... beginning to grow. But few people took notice of the gossip back then as they had more localized rumors to contend with. It seemed things were going missing.

Only little things at first, like sections of fencing, containers, and scrap metal. But by mid Autumn, larger things were vanishing: Engines, telephone poles, corrugated roofs - even whole sections of airplanes. The city officials were at a loss as to what to do. The ever growing shape on the neighboring hill was obviously at the heart of the matter, but the people from the city never climbed the hill; they feared what they didn't understand.

But then, as the last of winters cold embrace had began to fade into Spring, the disappearances stopped.

.............

The first rays of dawn had already cast their light upon the city below when the old man reached the foot of the hill. He noted to himself, as he always did, that the sun broke upon his back a few steps earlier than it had the day before. Several months ago he would have already reached his shack at the summit and be in his cot with a belly warm with sup; but the year gone had been long and he feared the chill of the winter would stay with him this time.

Stumbling, with a heavy load of metal at his shoulder, he halted for a while and lifted his head to the structure above - his gaze taking in each section in turn. A sudden smile alighted on the old mans face, and for a moment his wrinkled brow softened into youth. He hauled the metal from his shoulder and gave it to the brambles that lined the trail.

That morning, when the people in the city below had just begun to stir, the old man lay down in his cot and decided he would sleep from now on... his work being done.

Tomes

A quick ink sketch showing my love of musty old books.

Tallow

This post continues on from my last entry, but I have become so frustrated with my internet connection (it took me over an hour to get a sweet connection spot to upload a few kb's of picture content) that I'll just try and get this up and expand on it later. :(

Helm's Deep...

...That is, deep sea diving helmets - not that place out of The Lord of the Rings. :)

DSG_1407

Latest Daily Sketch Group topic: Sci-fi • Insect-Like Robot Has Both Mechanical + Organic Looking Components.

Diving Equipment

Some more Jules Verne inspired sketchery. Of course, Capt. Nemo wouldn't be seen dead in this style get up, but I have always been fond of the old clunky metal helmets.

Steampunk

It's funny how archaic the term 'virtual reality' sounds in this day and age. Wasn't it supposed to revolutionise everything from education to medical practice? Those big clunky headsets may have looked cool for about a week or so, when I was young, but then so did the idea of having microchips implanted in my brain. This rusty Jules Verne style VR unit seems rather fitting when you concider we were all mean't to be living on Mars by now.