Commission: Tailwind!

Well, here is another pony commission!

A friend of mine wanted me to do a drawing of his pony OC, Tailwind. The basic concept was an image of her flying away from Cloudsdale, the pegasus city from the show. I agreed, and got started.

The first order of business was to get used to drawing Tailwind herself. I did these two sketches, which worked out prtty well. Part of her concept if that her wingspan is unusually large, so that had to be reflected.

Upon feeling more confident in drawing Tailwind, it was time to draw Cloudsdale. I did two versions that were radical reinventions of the city, but it was ultimately decided to go with something similar to what was seen in the show. The third and lowermost sketch in the above image as the agreed upon design. The other tow take cues from Indian temples and the minaret of the mosque of Samarra.

It was time to draw. In the end, Tail is depicted as  flying away from the city in the evening, as the sun is giving the clouds a golden hue. In the end, I was very satisfied with the results of this image.

Some landscape sketches for an upcoming project.

Not all of these began as concept art for a specific commission, but they have evolved in that direction.

I won’t reveal a whole lot about the project until it is done, but it s a fanart/pony commission, and it involves a sense of adventure. Some of this is reposted from a blog I wrote about this elsewhere.

Also, waterfalls are cool.

Notice the scale. Look at the pine trees, and how small they are. Now look at the mountain, and the tower rising from the mountain range. Consider how large it must be in relation to the rest of he environment.

A good deal of the feel and aesthetics of these concept pieces were inspired by a certain old NES game. This image in particular depicts something seen in that title. See if you can guess what it is.

A village carved in stone, beneath the shadows of futuristic ruins from an age long past.

When I finish the final image, which is going to be a coverart for a fanfic, I will post it. I may post some of the process as I work on it, if the commissioner/author is okay with it.

Anyhow, consider this a preview. I’m really excited about this project.

Pony commission: Twinkletail.

This was a commission I did for a friend of mine, of his original character Twinkletail.

He wanted a drawing of he with the character of someone else he knew. The basic concept was that Twinkletail (the one on the left) would be writing on her iPad, while the other character was drunkenly doing a radio broadcast. The idea was cute, and sounded like a fun project, so I was more than eager to take it on.

The first order of business was to get used to drawing Twinkletail. He showed me a few other images of her, and I did the above sketch, in my own style. She is a cute, personable character that is fun to draw. A good deal of thought went in to her surroundings. all the furniture and other items are real world objects,

This was the initial lineart, done with copic multiliners on watercolor paper. The desktop items such as the pencil case and tape dispenser are Crate and Barrel, as is the desk. I have an affinity for Crate and Barrel. The drink is a Hennessey, and a rather expensive one at that. The book titles are all significant as well. See if you can spot anything familiar.

Two colored versions were done. Digital and analog. The above digital coloring most closely matches Twinkletail’s color.

This version was colored with watercolors and illustration ink. Twinkle looks a bit too pink here, but I’m actually pretty satisfied with it overall. Moreso than I initially was.

In the end, this as a very enjoyable project to work on. Expect more along these lines in the future.

The Legend of Zelda: Ruins in color pt.2.

Here we are. The final version of the Zelda ruins drawings. Three rooms, each from a different labyrinth, all inspired by the artwork found in the manual of the original game.

I’m very, very satisfied with how this turned out.

 

 

From top to bottom:

 

Level 1.

Level 4.

Level 8.

 

This concept my be revisited in the future, in some form or another.

The Legend of Zelda: Ruins in color pt.1

Some time ago I posted the lineart of the ruins from the original Legend of Zelda. Well, they have since been colored! Here is the first image.

 

 

The coloring is meant to be reflective of Level 4. I sampled the color from a screenshot, actually.

 

More to come!

World 1-1 color.

The same image as before, only in color.

 

World 1-1.

This is part of a larger project that involves drawing classic NES game levels on landscape paper. First up,the ur-level of post-crash gaming, World 1-1!

 

This is the lineart version. Look for the color version later.

 

 

 

 

Gundam.

Some sketches of the original Gundam. Yep.

 

The Legend of Zelda: Ruins.

I love the original Legend of Zelda. In fact, it’s my favorite game of all time. So much can be said about it, and so much has, so I won’t rehash the more common material here. Instead, this will be more personal. One of my favorite aspects about the original game was the cold, lonely simplicity of the labyrinths. The dungeons all had the same architectural style, but different layouts and other variations. They all looked to come not only from the same civilization, but the same builder. Or, to be more out-there, the same imagination, perhaps one shared by a society very different from ours.

This is what I loved most about the original game; the mystery. Hyrule was an empty land bereft of any current civilization. Some people lived in caves, selling stuff or charging money for useless advice. Beyond that? Wilderness and ancient ruins, often with ominous entrances that resembled monstrous heads. It made you wonder who created these places, and why. Another great thing about the game was the manual; some of the artwork was wonderful, especially the artistic interpretation of the simplistic labyrinths. I’ve long had an affinity for the art in the manual, and I had been meaning to do some homages to it for a while now. Well, I finally got around to it, and here is what I came up with;

 

Statue and dungeon gate.

Envisioning a new interior.

These will be colored in the future.

The Guardian of Forever.

City on the Edge of Forever is regarded as one of the greatest episodes of the original Star Trek. The time travel story was written by Harlan Ellison, and is among the darker episodes of the original series, which was often lighter in tone and heavy on the silliness. The tragedy and uncertainty in “Forever” is on par with the paranoia and tension in “Balance of Terror”.

“Forever” also features one of the most under-appreciated an intriguing characters in Trek history: the Guardian of Forever. the Guardian is a sentient portal that can send the user anywhere in time and space, and is aware of the events of history as they unfold. His origin is mysterious. According to the dialogue in the episode, he had not interacted with anyone since at least before our sun came in to existence. He also implies that he exists outside of linear time.

I’ve been meaning to do a fanart of the guardian for a while now, and here it is;

Please click the image to see it in full-size. This was drawn on landscape paper with micron pens and copic multiliners. It was colored in photoshop.