Enviro-mental: Sense Amid Madness, Wit Amidst Folly

I'm currently reading Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks. It's the latest in a series of his that is based around a super advanced, space-faring civilisation called The Culture, a decadent people who many millennia ago developed giant sentient spacecraft called Minds. The Minds' are unfathomably intelligent and exist and think in more dimensions than the usual three. They are also in some cases huge, often housing billions upon billions of people in a space that could easily be mistaken for a natural environment as opposed to the interior of a man made ship (technically the ships are made by other ships rather than men, but I digress). It is a tiny segment of one of these craft that I have chosen as my environment.

At this point in the story, one of the main characters - Lededje - has just arrived on one of these ships for the first time, and the ship's mind, embodied in a human avatar, has taken her to this fifteen kilometre canyon just to give her a sense of scale. The ship is called 'Sense Amid Madness, Wit Amidst Folly' by the way (the ships name themselves).

Jeeso, it's hard trying to some up so much back story just to explain one picture... Anyway, I'm not totally sure I'm 100% happy with this. It's pretty much the first proper environment I've ever done though so I was never going to be happy. There's a lot more I'd have liked to have done with it and it's not quite accurate to the book, but hey ho.

Oh, look out for a traditional style flying saucer, a surf board attached to a kite, a diving bell, Da Vinci's helicopter, a beat up old car and a giant flying bottle of Irn Bru.

Feedback appreciated.

Theme 4: Portal 2

I haven't really read enough fiction as of late to justify picking an environment from one. However I did finish Portal 2 a few weeks back so here's something from that.

Theme 4: The Little Prince's Planet

For this Theme I have chosen the Little Prince's home planet.  For those of you who haven't heard of it I've copied a description of his home planet from wikipedia:

The home asteroid or "planet" of the little prince is introduced. His asteroid (planet) is the size of a house and named B-612, which has three volcanoes (two active, and one dormant) and a rose among various other objects. The naming of the asteroid is a conceptual illustration that adults will only believe a scientist who is dressed or acts as they do. According to the book, the asteroid was sighted by a Turkish astronomer in 1909 who had then made a formal demonstration of asteroid B-612 to the International Astronomical Congress. However, due to his clothing, he was ridiculed. After a Turkish dictator forced him and his people to dress like Europeans, he went again to present asteroid B-612 to the International Astronomical Congress. This time, he was believed and was credited with the discovery.

The prince spends his days caring for his "planet", pulling out the baobab trees that are constantly trying to take root there. The trees will make his little planet turn to dust if they are not removed. Throughout the book he is taught to be patient and to do hard work to keep his "planet" in order. The prince falls in love with a rose that takes root in his planet, who appears to not return his love due to her vain nature. 

And if you want to read the book (it's very short and VERY good) there's a link to download it here:

www.cs.swan.ac.uk/~cswill/The_little_prince.pdf

I always imagined the planet to be bigger than the pictures in the book, and I wanted to show the scene where the Little Prince watches the sunset 44 times in one day by moving his chair a little forward each time.  I also put the rose in too as she plays such a big part in the Little Princes life.  She's modelled on the rose from Beauty in the Beast, but with more thorns (precisely three!) and less wiltage.  Looking at the scene it feels really empty but it seemed to take so long to do.  Environments are difficult.  Goodness knows how Suba and Sarah Dargie do it!  :D

x Lynne

Fan Art Friday: Tank Girl

This drawing came about while I was up the whole night sitting waiting for renders the day before 4th year hand-in.  I like very much how she turned out.  I like to think that the gun is maybe pointed at someone's (most likely Booga's) privates.  The kinda thing TG would do if she was in a pissed-off mood.

Enjoy x

Fabulous Batman Fight Club.

This was a great idea for a theme, I'd be up for doing similar things again. I got stuck right in straight away and I'm pretty happy with the result. I probably could have fixed it up some more but I've come to realise if I spend more than a couple of hours on a piece I can't finish it.

I assume we've all seen Fight Club? This is the iconic scene when Jared Leto gets the absolute piss beaten out of him by Ed Norton. I figured most of the entries for this one would be funny, so I tried to make mine a bit more badass... but the feather boa kinda ruins that I guess :P

(Belated) Fanart Friday: Lonely Werewolf Girl

A scribbly Kalix, emaciated protagonist of "Lonely Werewolf Girl" and "Cure of the Wolf Girl" (the latter being my first Kindle purchase).

I feel I should say... I don't like her much. She is pitiable, certainly - an anorexic, drug addicted, mentally unstable teenage werewolf. I feel sorry for her, but I just can't bring myself to like her. Who knows, maybe I'm being cold hearted. But anyway, I felt like drawing her. I would love to see these novels in graphic novel form (and I'd love even more if I got to draw them!)

Her arms are weird. I have discovered that drawing crossed arms can be tricky. Should have used reference.

Theme 5

I thought it would be fun for the next theme if we used this Videogame Name Generator. For those that don't know, it mixes words to create very amusing and imaginative titles.
So maybe we could use it (individually) and draw something from it.

For example, "Johnny Turbo's Hippo World" or "Generic Barbarian - 3rd Strike".
Just keep clicking on "Make me another name!" until you find one you like. (The sillier the better)

Fanart Funday - Holo

Ohhh yeah. Fanart time.. few days late but fun to do :)
This is Holo the wise wolf from Spice and Wolf, which I've been watching over the past few months.

Lynsey - Super Villain - Fantasy

Apologies for this being about a month late, between having no A3 scanner and Blogger being down I felt like I would never get it up (WEEEEY).  So yes, Lynsey - Super Villain - Fantasy.  Fantasy was a difficult one.  I kinda went half fantasy fantasy, with the horns and moon and such, and male fantasy with the sexy Super Villain comic book-esque super suit.  Also, as a Super Villain I felt she needed her signature 'critic' pose.  I have not a name for her though, any suggestions? 

Hope you like it Lynsey :) x

Fan Art... Mondays?

I'm like 4 days late but whatever... Those that don't know/play Team Fortress 2 won't appreciate this in the slightest but I'm just trying to get back into using the tablet, it's been a while. 

I reckon you guys would like the artwork in that game actually, it's got some great character design. 

Theme 4

Pick a book (fiction being preferable) and draw an environment from it.

(eg. The Lord of the Rings -> Rivendell or Harry Potter -> Dumbledore's office)

There can be characters in it if you like, but they should be secondary to their surroundings.

Don't be afraid to use films or existing illustrations etc.  for reference and inspiration, but try to make it your own vision. (It would also be cool if you did use any sort of reference to feature it in your submission post!)

Deadline for this one is May 22nd (roughly - we remain easy-going in regards to deadlines ^_^ )

Fan-Art... Sundays...? - GET ITEM

I know, I'm super late with this. I spent most of Friday finishing off a commission and decided to just do a quick sketch on Saturday morning for Fan art Friday. Unfortunately, when I started the 'quick sketch', I actually really got into it and instead spent the whole day on it instead.

I've been playing through Link's Awakening on the Gameboy colour recently. That game is hard. For anyone who's not played it, when you obtain an item in the game you get the message, "You got ______" and Link holds it above his head and a little fanfare plays. I got to the bit where you have to accompany Marin somewhere and I think I genuinely laughed out loud when this happened.

It's not perfect. I'm not too happy about the way Link's holding Marin for starters, it's missing any real sense of weight. Couple of other niggles too but hey, it was fun.

Kieran - Futuristic - Superhero

Meet Lens McFlare and his faithful companion, Grossibot.

Kieran Duncan was your average after effects obsessed animator boy, working long into the night rendering on his laptop. After an accident involving Irn Bru and curry spilling on his laptop during his later AE adventure, Kieran found himself fused with the laptop and transported thousands of years into the future. With his ability to shoot lens flares from his chest and travel speeds any motion blur would be jealous of, our hero LENS McFLARE is born!
Of course, our hero was lonely thousands of years in the future without a certain flatmate, so he made a companion robot to help him fight crime called Grossibot, modeled accurately to resemble his friend he left behind. Together our two heroes combat darkness, blinding all that is evil with his epic lens flares.

Fanart Friday - 10th Kingdom

Some quick Fan art for the wonderful short series 10th Kingdom. I remember waiting and hoping for a second season to be produced, (as is promised in the final scene) but it never happened.

Time taken, about 2 chapters of Goblet of Fire read by Stephen Fry.
Stephen Fry as Severus Snape? Awesome

Fanart Friday 06/05/11 - Lynsey's

Been listening to the Harry Potter books as read in the deliciously dulcet tones of Stephen Fry the past week or so. Inevitably, started doodling the characters.

I hope it's somewhat obvious, but here's Hermione.

Kat - Steam Punk - Disney Princess

Blogger makes the colours look a bit washed out, which works quite well for the theme. This is Kat with her clockwork owl sidekick.

Remember it's the first Fanart Friday today! And we need suggestions for the new theme on Sunday.

Lynne Robot Babies

Aye.

Tom G - Street Fighter - Mythology

That is one tiny unicorn.


This past week I've been trying to work on some commission work but I've had a major creative block since we broke up from uni. Decided to take a wee break from it and give this another go instead and it's really helped me get back on form, so thanks Fortnightly Themed Sketch Group!

Dog - Susan - Stoneage

Had to repost this cos the zoom wasnt working..

Had a lot of fun with this sketch, lessons learned this time round.. always save your work! My own fault. Also, posing in the mirror helps lol. Think her balance is a bit off in this but I'm quite happy with it. I want a dino dog!

Suzanne - Film Noir - OAP

I give to you Suzanne, as a classy old broad (heavily armed).

Now that I look at it, it's really off balance... looks like she would be toppling to the left  =/