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.

More peculiar hideout sketches.

Yeah, more of this idea.

I have a list of different hideouts/hidden residences I wish to draw. Here are some early sketches for two more.

First, the cliffside hideout. Somehow I got the idea of an enclosed, industrial living space build in to the side of a cliff, with no real indication that anything was there. I began sketching, and happened upon the idea of the entrance being concealed behind a waterfall, with a metal walkway leading to it. The walkway is, as far as anyone else knows, just a viewing path that connects to a local nature trail. Not the access platform to a hidden futuristic residence.

Should one go behind the waterfall, they would find a small cave. At the back is a smaller space behind a rock wall. A hidden switch allows access to the elevator shaft, which leads downward to the actual space.

The next one concerns a living space beneath a canal/artificial river in a city. It would be situated underneath a bridge which spans said body of what. a nearby maintenance structure, ostensibly used for the bridge and its lighting, would contain a secret elevator that leads to the residence beneath. This one needs to be hammered out a bit more, but it would feature a skylight/overhead aperture which would give the resident a view of the water and sky above. Again, this one in particular needs more work, so more on this idea will be posted as time goes by.

Sci-Fi concepts: Pod Towers.

This was an idea I had been kicking around for a while, but only finally got around to sketching it recently.

This is part of a series of unusual shelters and/or living spaces in a sci-fi context. ?IT evolved from the idea of some kind of modular, semi-obscure shelter that could be placed atop a relatively tall building (at least five stories) and somehow concealed amongst the various structural elements of said building. One of the ideas was to hide a shelter/hideout by making it look like part of an antennae setup or similar tall, metal construct. This, combined with my fondness for plant forms, led to me sketching out this idea of multiple “pods” arranged along a tall lineal element. Given this arrangement and the design of each pod, it becomes less of a hideout, and more of some sort of strange sleeping chamber. Regardless, that is the direction it took.

These hideouts/sleeping pods/listening posts/whatever are small, and arranged vertically, with a sliding canopy providing access. They would be made to move along the axis element. They would have two small levels, with room for a bed and perhaps a few other things, but not much else.

How did this strange idea evolve? I like the idea of a person having all these small hideouts, scattered across a city. This allows them to seek immediate shelter if need be, as one of the micro-residences would always be within close distance.

This isn’t exactly a serious concept. Just a cool sci-fi thing I thought up, which I might use in a comic or short story one day.

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.

Ohmu.

Just an Ohmu, from Nausicaa. I was selling prints of this at Khaotic Con.

 

Crystal tower.

Crystal towers rise above the rolling hills of the green field. They glisten in the sunlight and seem to vanish in to the endless sky. This illustration was done on illustration board, using markers, watercolor, illustration ink, and micron pens. The young woman is a wandering barbarian character, hence her being only clad in a loincloth and a top.

Crystal tower and barbarian girl

Fungal Forest

A while back I posted a sketch of an alien plant. It was titled “fungal tree”. Well, this is the ultimate outcome of that design. The piece is titled Fungal Forest. This was done on illustration board, with watercolor, markers, and micron pens. Please be sure to view the full magnification of the image. The character has reached out to touch the tree, and in the process has taken a handful of the soft, cloudlike fungus growing on it.

Fungal Forest

Screamer Ship

 

This is an older image. It’s a strange, semi-anthropomorphic space vessel, whose front section looks similar to a screaming face. It’s supposed to have an old, dirty, worn out look. The overall aesthetic has some biomechanical and insect-like elements to it.