Just messing around in Photoshop today. Still on a big spacesuit kick…
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How do we do it?!
Cody Hagman and I are working on a new project. You’ve seen a few things I’ve been working on for it, but I thought folks might enjoy seeing the steps it takes for us working together.
Dress for success.
I’m trying to wind myself up for a new project. It involves lots of spacesuits, robots, and ruined, industrial sci-fi settings. Really, everything I love in life… imaginary life.
One of the most-difficult ongoing struggles I face is finding enough time to draw. The last year has been so busy, I’m thinking about not taking on more freelance commissions for the near future, at least until I’ve finished drawing a few things that have been waiting for a while now and are pounding at the door on my conscience.
Enough of that, you came here for the drawing, right? So, here’s a little sketch I cleaned up to get the juices flowing. It’s going to be on the table for that upcoming project. More on that soon…
New, deluxe model.
With this rig, you’d be ready for anything.
I wanted this space suit to have the look of “too much” room inside the helmet. One thing that always bugs me about the space suits I see in movies, comics, and even my own artwork is that it always looks like the person’s head is going to bounce off the inside of the helmet if they got a good shakin’. Unless the neck is being secured by some kind of collar, there’s still many degrees of head movement, and in the rough environments these suits are made for, one is going to end up getting a bruise from numerous smacks against that protective covering.
This design would not only keep that from happening, but leaves lots of room for screens, cushioning, windows, and communication equipment. Since the technology involved with such suits would be able to see the surroundings better than the human eye (through thick glass), the front-facing port is above the wearers head and service a camera. The person inside has a screen in center-view, and would be able to take advantage of a range of vision types.
I got the look I wanted for this one by drawing the suit by hand, scanning it into the digital realm, and then printing out several copies of the lifework on marker paper. I then did the value and local color separately, with Copic markers, combined them in Photoshop, and did a little clean-up and tweaking to get the image you see here. It was lots of fun.
At the Printer’s…
Figments, the most amazing comics anthology available anywhere, is currently seeing its 5th issue being printed. In the meantime, I thought I’d post a little preview from my story from it.
New book out soon.
I’ve been going crazy trying to get ready for my final review of my thesis work. This includes producing some new material, all the while trying to attend classes, do homework, and act as editor on our departmental comics anthology. Well, looks like I’m starting to catch up with things. The new issue of Figments comes out soon, and here’s a sneak peak at my story’s cover.
Gotta love them ‘roids
I have a project in the works right now that calls for a lot of asteroids. Here’s a bunch I worked out yesterday. I just did them freehand with my favorite brush and some FW acrylic ink. It was a very Zen experience! I then vectorized them (this is my new “clean up” procedure) in Illustrator and colored them in good ol’ Photoshop. I’m very happy with the result. I realize they may be lacking in a few hard shadows, but the good thing about digital coloring is that if I have a need for such detail later I can add it.
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