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.

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.

Product reviews pt.2: Micron pens and brushes.

Micron pens and brushes.

When it comes to decent felt tip drawing pens, Microns are one of the most well known and widely available brands out there. They’re reliable, long lasting, and come in a variety of sizes, including very small 005 tips and large “3” chisel tips. They tend to be inexpensive, and work well on a variety of media.

I tend to keep a lot of these on hand, in varying sizes. Given my focus on crosshatching and other forms of shading, I go through the 005 and 01 sizes very quickly. The 08 sizes are perfect for bold, dramatic outlines. The wide chisel tips are classified as “graphic” pens. In addition to these are “brush” pens, with a flexible, brush-like nib that can be useful for inking something that you want to have a very light, ephemeral sense of motion.

These are perfect for sketching, and the ink works just fine on sketch paper. The following, for instance, was inked with microns, in a windpower 30% post consumer sketchbook.

As you can see, microns come in various colors. The above was done with a set of sepia colored microns, with tips ranging from .005 to .05. Microns work well with most types of markers, including copics. The image below was created with both microns and copic markers.

Microns do have their drawbacks. They can’t be refilled, so you end up generating more solid waste with them than is preferable. Line consistency isn’t the best, so these aren’t ideal for anything that requires a very smooth, steady line. These aren’t very suitable for drafting. They can be fine for earlier drafts, but for a final draft of a hand-drawn drafted document, you should use a technical pen. another issues is that the lines tend to be more sensitive to erasing than others pens, and can become faded quite badly.

The biggest problem, however, is that the nibs aren’t always that durable. The nibs of the smaller sizes can sometimes bend/break, which can affect line quality. The brush nib and the chisel style microns will sometimes become rough or frayed after repeated use. This is, by no means, the case with every single pen. But it does happen often enough to be noticeable.

In any case, microns are fine pens for most sketching and illustration tasks, especially if you don’t plan on doing much erasing.