The Pilgrim's Progress

Temporarily, my War of the Worlds cross-section/cutaway project is on hold for a few months as I begin work on a project that has me extremely excited to be working on.  I will be returning to my digital stained-glass style/approach similar to that of the mural I did for Christ Church- but with a more matured use of the stained-glass look.
I am helping create art for a book that will accompany the upcoming album based on The Pilgrim's Progress (originally by John Bunyan- it is an allegorical tale of one man's journey of faith, trials and the venture to the 'Celetial City'), composed and sung by the very talented musician, Nate Currin.  Check out his music, it is amazing stuff!  I've had the opportunity to preview the upcoming album to produce the illustrations, and it is one of the best albums I have heard for this year.  Above is a sketch for the first song.  Later, I'll give a preview of the stained glass and cleaned-up linework.  I'll announce when the album and the art-book are released.  Stay tuned, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

War of the Worlds Tripod (part 9)

Here is some progress on the outer-layer line-work.  For the most part I have been doing all the line-weights at 0.15 in Illustrator.  The basket was perhaps the most complicated piece on the tripod to draw so I went ahead and finished the final line-weights on this particular section as I had built up momentum on it.  Line-weights are as follows: The outermost line (for the entire tripod) 0.75, secondary inner bold lines 0.5, inner bold lines 0.35, main line work 0.15, and plane changes/details 0.05.  It is taking quite some time to complete this stage of my project, but I want to make sure I'm doing it right.  Since I plan on publishing this and future works I want to ensure each artwork is of the best quality and close to or on par with the level of some of the masters of cutaway/cross-section art.  

Stay tuned for future updates.

War of the Worlds Tripod (part 8)

I have been unexpectedly delayed in my project for my War of the Worlds Tripod cutaway.  The past month I have been dealing with a minor disk protrusion in my lower back.  In order to let it heal, after sitting at work all day, when I have been getting home most of the time I have been laying down rather than exasperating the issue by sitting longer and working on my cutaway.  Back pain on any level is rough, but I am blessed that it is healing so quickly. 

I'm doing much better now and have started back up the linework first level for the cutaway.  I will post it here once complete.  I am also recording my process/progress and when I figure out how to put the videos together and speed it up I will put it up here as well.

Above is a quick sketch I did tonight of the direction I want to head in the design of the martians.  Some alterations from H.G.Well's version I feel are necessary as the description translated into art tends to produce a cute look rather than a sinister alien look.  Anyway, enjoy!

War of the Worlds Tripod (part 7)

I've finished the 3D sketch of my War of the Worlds Tripod!  I'll provide other views of the project as I produce the orthographic views.  I'm SOOOO exited that I can now move on to the drawing stage!!!  This was my first true 3D model I've ever made. I used Google Sketch-up due to the fact that I never received the proper training in 3D and needed a simple program to produce a movable model to rotate to any angle that I would need for this project.  Now I will produce orthographic views while starting the sketch for the exterior/interior view for the final cutaway which should be in 3-point perspective.  My next few stages will be in Photoshop and Illustrator.

I was really excited how this turned out.  The 'feet' were never drawn in my original sketch (follow label below to view previous related posts) and after modeling the feet with three 'toes' it didn't look right, so I deleted the rear 'toe' for each foot giving an odd look with only two for each... which gives it a more alien look I think.  Either way, it was never determined in my original sketch so I felt I had some leeway. 

On another side note, the figures at the bottom are representational of scale to the Martians (the larger figure) and to humans (the smaller figure).  I will be starting my sketches of the Martian soon trying to figure out their look and how closely I should resemble them to H.G. Wells' original description.

I will keep you posted as future work comes through.  Hopefully within the next month I should have one or two drawings depending on the time I'm allotted.  As usual, enjoy! 

War of the Worlds Tripod (Part 6)

Here is another update on the War of the Worlds Tripod.  I am getting closer to being done with my 3D "sketch."  I have the "whips," "tentacles" on the lower legs between the 'vertebre,' and the feet/toes.  Once I finish this stage, I will rotate the model to various general viewing angles to produce some orthos, and then use an angle fairly similar to the one shown above for a basis to produce a cutaway illustration in 3-point perspective.  There are hundreds of steps left before this part of my larger project is complete, but the Tripod should be finished hopefully sometime around summer next year or so, depending on other time-consuming factors of life.  The actual cutaway will involve having to draw the exterior and interiors and painting both.  Also, there needs to be research into pneumatics, hydraulics, steam engines, turbines, reactors, and vascular and muscular systems in humans and animals (mostly snakes, elephants, and squids) for producing a 'believable' construct for the inner workings of the tripod.  Anyway, as I continue to work on the 3D and other future stages of the project I will try to keep you up to date as best I can on the progress of it all.  Enjoy!   

War of the Worlds Tripod (Part 5)

Here is more progress on the 3D base for my future cut-away of H.G. Well's War of the Worlds' Tripod "Fighting Machine."  I've finally figured out a decent enough 'basket' design for the back to store helpless human victims prey to vicious, ruthless martians.  In the book they are described as a 'fisherman's basket' which has a woven look, but not as excitingly designed as I wanted it to be.  Through most of this model I am taking a lot of 'artistic license' in keeping to the original descriptions.

All I have left now are the whips protruding from behind the 'eye' and the upper legs, and lower tentacle legs plus the 'feet' or 'toes.'  I'll keep you updated on the progress when I can.  Enjoy!

War of the Worlds Tripod (part 4)

The process on the tripod has been going pretty slow lately as I have been very busy moving into a new apartment, projects at my job, and other various things.  Nevertheless, here is an update for the tripod.  I am still in the Google Sketch-up phase, learning the program and such.  Once I get this all finished I can get on to the more exciting part for me, drawing all the different angles and planning the cutaways.  

I wasn't happy with how the first version of the 3D arm turned out so I re-did it to match closer to the original sketch.  As always,  I will continue to keep you updated on my progress for the War of the Worlds Tripod cutaway.

War of the Worlds Tripod (part 3)

Here is some more progress on the War of the Worlds tripod work in Google SketchUp.  This, again, is only so I have something to rotate around into the angle I need it rather than having to figure out what might be going on when I draw it in a different perspective.  Here is a link to the original sketch: tripod 

It has been interesting trying to teach myself 3D, but a rewarding factor is seeing how menacing the thing can look when rotated to another angle.  You can't always anticipate that when drawing one angle 2Dimensionally.

Here is a sketch I quickly did during break at work.  I've been trying to think of how some of the framework might look within the tripod.  I want it to look alien and organic, yet still have a mechanical and structural look. 

Anyway, stay tuned for more when I become able to work on the project and post stuff here!

War of the Worlds Tripod (part 2)

Here is some in-progress for the design-faze before I cutaway the tripod / fighting-machine for War of the Worlds.  

This is what I'm affectionately calling the Martian "T-rex Arm."  What is the arm for?  Not sure, but it will have something to do with the extermination of humankind... There are three on the main body of the tripod just above the three main legs (see previous post for the tripod sketch).  

I am sketching in Google SketchUp as it will be easier to cutaway rotating the 3D image to different angles (like from the front and the back, etc.).  I have barely touched 3D- in fact today was probably my most exposure to using a 3D program.  It's not going to look perfect, but as long as it is near the general shape I want then I'm happy as ultimately I will be drawing over the 3D image in Adobe Ai and Photoshop.  

Anyway, as usual I will post the progress as it comes along when I'm not busy with work at my job.

War of the Worlds Redux (part 1)

Here is a quick, rough sketch of a long project I have ahead of me.  I am currently planning a complete cutaway, cross-section book based on H.G. Well's War of the Worlds.  There are a about 3-5 versions of tripods (or fighting machines), 2 worker machines, 2 versions of the cylinder, an "assembler", a miniature alien pod, and several other machines for the martians that I plan to design and cutaway.  Each will need to be fully designed- having all the proper orthographics before being cutaway.  The tripods will be loosely based on my previous tripod designs I had cutaway long ago, but hopefully better designed and in proper perspective.  

The project will take a very long time to complete mostly due to the fact that I have a full-time illustration job with a long commute.  I will try and post what I have as I develop rough sketches and flesh out the ideas that make the martians and their machines work as they do.

This proposed book will be very thorough covering the smallest of tech to largest and potential reasons why the martians have developed the tech as they have.  As for the finish of this project, expect it to be done 3-6 years from now at least.  As to why I'm doing all this crazy work on the side from my job... because it's sci-fi, it's cutaway art, and most of all... it's fun!

Job in the Space Industry!

Awesome news for all of you who didn't get to see my facebook post.  I recently was hired as a full-time technical illustrator for Space Systems Loral down in Palo Alto, California.  I will be mostly illustrating satellites.  They are a great company and have been around for the past 50 years so they have great experience and deep connections with the space industry world wide.  I'm still currently living in SF, but hope to move closer to work as soon as I'm able.  On the side I will continue to create cutaways and cross-sections and have a book (based on a very popular science fiction novel) in the works that will probably be published in the next two or three years depending on the time I'll be able to devote to it.  Either way, in the future you will be able to see updates and in-progress of the book.  As far as seeing what I produce for SS/L you will just have to wait, if and when, those images are posted by the company on the site.  

Workspace Update