DS - Gunslingin' Alchemist

A topic from conceptart.org, just getting back into the swing of doing some speed concepts.

Concept - Sky Squid

Finished! And, frankly, I'm pretty satisfied. I'm definitely more satisfied than most other concepts I've done recently. I mean, c'mon, people. This is practically professional quality material. Practically -- not quite -- but very nearly. I still have problems with it. For some reason, I have a difficult time shading things and making it look good. You'd think it'd be easy, but I make it look amateury. But! That aside! We're getting close to gold, here, folks. S'right, I said it. And I'm gonna be damn cocky about it, too. That's all.

Using their two pairs of gills, the sky squids intake air, which mixes with the chemical compounds in their lungs to create a more buoyant compound, allowing them to float -- this is the power humans harness when using the squids as an energy source for their sky ships. Mostly peaceful in nature, sky squids feed mostly off of insects and plants; with few predators (other than humans), the squids have little need to defend themselves or get away hastily. In the wild, most squids travel in small family groups, and are often playful and highly communicative, while in captivity, squids are often despondent and almost always eerily silent. Squids are highly intelligent, and have been thought to be able to understand parts of human conversations, although this has yet to be confirmed.

Concept - Sky Squid (lines)

I've rewritten this so many times because every time I go to upload it, it gives me an error and erases everything I've written. So we're keepin' it short, folks.

-Angels will be up soon, I promise (we've had some minor complications)
-Cower ideas have been mulling in the back of my head, and it's time to get them to paper (including attempts at some of the in-game maps)
-the trip was amazing, and gave me so many world building ideas for the world these sky squid belong to -- those concepts will pop up now and then, as well
-I'm working on updating and revising my personal art site so that it's presentable
-I accidentally resized this, and then saved over the large size. So now I'm working a lot smaller than I had intended, and I'm not too pleased about it. Actually, currently I'm raging, but I'll get over it. ...promise.
-also, everything looks better on old, crinkled paper texture -- might be time for a paper texture making party soon?
-shaded (finished) version to be posted shortly

DS - Sky Squid layout

Thumbnails are the bestest thing ever. I was trying to work on the dirigible, but then I realized I really couldn't figure out how they would look or work until I really knew what the beings keeping them afloat looked like (and how they worked). So I did thumbnails! And then this. And I'ma finish this, then go back to the sky squid-powered dirigibles. I'm trying to work on a wedding present, plus get one and a half more pages of the comic done, plus pack, plus move, plus pack again so I can go to England, plus work five days a week 'cause my work hates me...point being, I may not update much until I get back from England! And that's the 22nd!

DS -dirigible sketches!

So, these were super fun. I'm starting to sorta really enjoy thumbnails. Initially sketched, very abstractly, in Alchemy, then brought to photoshop. I'm working on world building for the graphic novel I have planned after we finish Ninth Circle! (23/25) The goal changed. Also, it won't be launching 'til I get back from England...so, September? We just want it to be perfect, things'll be smooth from then on! Perfect update schedules and everything! I figured the delay was better now, when not many people even know about it. Thanks all.

Concept - Slayer

 don't like the strictly side view, and yet I don't know a better way to depict this and show everything on the bike. I want to do another, the Scavenger. Slayers and Scavengers travel together in packs so that the Slayer, as name and tools imply, clear the path while the Scavengers are heavy-duty collection vehicles. 

DS - Creature Thumbnails, p2

Some definition! As you can see, some of these were dropped and didn't make it to this stage. More will be dropped and not make it to the next stage. This method is working out better than I'd hoped, although these creatures are looking pretty mech-y.

DS - Creature Thumbnails

I still have trouble with creatures. I thought I'd try what I've seen other people do when sketching out thumbnail ideas for creatures -- even though I haven't use thumbnails that often, I do think they can be pretty useful, so I'm going to try to start using them a little and see what I can come up with.

I can almost see creatures in the clouds. As always, I'll have to go further with these.

DS - Zombie Slayin' Bicycle

Yep, this was fun. I want to go farther with this. I always want to develop my sketches more, though, so I guess that's not new. It'll be news when I actually do so! Zombie slayin' bicycle. Because we all know the remaining fuel is going to run dry quickly in a post-apocalyptic world.

Concept - Kelpie

Kelpies are awesome, really creepy dark-fae creatures which are beautiful, but deadly (like all dark-fae creatures, right?) that use that beauty to lure children to climb onto their backs, then dive under the water and drown them. And eat them. Of course. In most tales, the Kelpies fuse the child's skin to their own to trap them -- which seems too macabre and unnecessarily unnatural. In my version, they either use their long, finned tail (which is under the water here) or their tangled mane to trap the child. My Kelpie doesn't have eyes, either, which would be mostly useless under those marshy waters. They use touch and smell to hunt down their victims.

Concept - The Steampunk Post

This was fun, and good practice. My website needs more industrial design, more than anything else, so I'll prolly be doing this quick-lines-then-(supposedly)-quick-colors method for quite a few more IDs. I'm almost happy with how it turned out, too. I have trouble, when working on concepts, making the background simple and non-distracting, while still making the design seem like it isn't out of place. Also, I think this post is a little too monochromatic, even for the steampunks. I tend to branch out into color very tentatively, because I'm not all that good at it. And now I curse myself for being the art kid who only worked with pen and ink and graphite -- and who still refuses to paint (traditionally), and probably always will.