In the geek/nerd/anime community, there’s a pun that goes around that “if you’re a virgin when you hit 30, you’ll become a wizard.” I fall into that category. However one night I was chatting with an ex-coworker, she mentioned that I was also a “tech wizard” in addition to that. I figured I’d embrace it it was going to happen regardless, and this happened. Now if my monitors would only stand up like that.
So in my hunt of people to interview and ask questions for the “Summer of Gaming” series, I broadened by horizons. Not only would I just focus on the guys that made my favorite games from the 90’s when I grew up, I’d also poke at some more recent fellows.
This search led me to S.C. Watson, an illustrator and artist for Space Empires V, a game I spent a whole lot of time on before getting a great new computer in 2007. His iconic “painted” portraits of the races always stuck with me, giving a greater “realism” to the game than the previous 3D models. He’s a self-taught artist, doing all sorts of traditional and digital work.
After some hunting I finally found Shane’s portfolio site and contacted him via e-mail. Explaining my intentions and project, he willingly agreed to contribute.
This was waiting to happen after Paola finished the last piece. Surprisingly while this amazed a lot of the RWBY fan community, a lot of them were on the fence with this one. Oops?
Lineart courtesy Paola Tosca.
Best holiday wishes from the Dawnstar squad. Celebrating the holidays in their own style, which involves landing on a snowy planet and planting a Christmas tree for use.
Lineart courtesy Christina Weinman.
After playing Ori and the Blind Forest for awhile, realized how Lindsey Stirling’s music style was quite similar in certain styles of the game. This idea brewed of Lindsey Stirling doing her thing with Ori looking in awe. DashingIce was happy to oblige.
While this did get posted to my Twitter with both parties tagged, this never did get any recognition from them unfortunately. Still, it’s here and there for posterity.
Idea mine. Artist dashingice.
Christina helped me conceptualize this scene; the two more “Terran” girls of Dawnstar go grab necessities, as they know the layout and acceptable behavior when landing on Terran-owned colonies. Why Happy Mart? Sue me, they probably like convenience stores better than supermarkets. Who knows?
Lineart courtesy Christina Weinman.
Something I had decided to do for the holidays, but took me a bit to finish. But this was a retro-styled art of Aunt Maddie from a non-public project I’m working on; this is one of the minor characters of the cast, a curvy redhead waitress at a pub who’s the sister of one of the main characters. Here she’s strutting her stuff and dancing away; one of my other art friends noted how it had a retro feel to it, which I can kind of see that.
Original lineart by Hannah Clark. Coloring and everything else by me.
This was an old drawn piece that I had done in my sketchbook back at ETSU, but decided to do over and give it a shot in digital a few years later. I had bought a bunch of brush packs in an attempt to paint better, and gave a few of those a shot here. These were all oil-painting type brushes, and I think they gave the effect I was looking for quite amply.
This fantastic piece showcases an alien species I’ve had in my head for use in Dawnstar for awhile now, known as the etka. These turtle-like aliens have a very tortoise-like appearance, and have one extra set of limbs to use as arms. They are very versed in laser and plasma weaponry, and cannot speak actual words that humans can understand; hence the translators grafted onto their heads. They lay eggs and are quite adept to climbing with their four feet.
The male is on the left, with the female on the right.
I’ll do a more detailed writeup of these guys one day. Only time will tell.
Lineart by Christina Weinman. Coloring by me.
I recently started trying out Hexels after seeing some people use in on deviantART. It’s an extremely interesting software and I definitely look forward to doing more with it. Did this in a short sitting when getting a hang of it; don’t think it came out too bad, but I have a long way to go with this. :S