Steampunk Myths and Legends Entry: David Cheah

#1

David Cheah is entered in the “Steampunk Myths and Legends” update: View Challenge Page

Latest Update: Work In Progress: Gears, Keys and a Buckle

#2

OK, so now i’m in this challenge for better… or for worse. ahaha.

I deliberated about what to do and what to draw for a loooong time. So this is what I’ve come up with. I’ll be doing an image based on Journey to the West, a chinese myth.

I want to plan all this out properly, because i’ve never done anything of this magnitude before. So, here’s the first concept sketch.

This is Sun Wu Kong, the monkey king. Banished from heaven for drinking the elixir of life, he’s the first disciple in the 4 travelers. Kept alive by the elixir of live even after his body was smashed under the weight of a mountain by Buddha, his entire body is now a steampunk cyborg, leaving only his enchanted neck and up.

#3

And this is a closeup of his hand concept.

#4

Second of the 3 disciples out of the 4 travelers. Zhu Ba Jie was a general who was banished from heaven because he flirted with the beautiful moon goddess in a drunken stupor.

I wanted to do something a little different for this image, so here he’s a perverted old man sitting in a steam-powered armour. Being a pervert, his helmet mount has bino lenses which he can flick up and down to see women even from far away. His armour is powered by the coal fire in its belly, which he sits on. Talk about a hot seat.

A friend also pointed out with Sun Wu Kong that I’d given the monkey a very very chinese look to his armour, which is not exactly steampunk style. So, for this i tried looking more at knights and such. I think this fits the image a little more. Might go back and redo Sun Wu Kong in a little while.

#5

Awesome!! Asian Legends! Coming from a chinese background, i’m actually pretty eager to see this come together. Good luck to you :thumbsup:

#6

Last of the 3 disciples, Sha Wujin, also known as Sandy.

Banished from heaven for breaking a glass goblet, he was turned into a ugly river ogre. But you can’t see that, because in order to walk on land he wears a face mask with a periscope from a support on his back.

He’s different from the other 2 mainly steampunk characters in that I wanted him to be weighed down by his equipment, rather than powered up. And he is, carrying 10 steam-powered arms carrying a variety of weaponry connected to compressed steam canisters on a backpack. The result of this is that he’s quiet - the strain is almost too much to bear, but highly capable and reliable.

I put alot of visual ques which point towards his character in the original Journey to the West which is a river ogre. Because the water supports the weight of the backpack in rivers, he is able to use the fins to maneuver in the water and is more apt at water combat that the other 2.

and thanks btw, for the comment, i wish you good luck too :slight_smile:

#7

I quite liked the idea of making the monk a female. It really threw a wrench and spanner and twisted the storyline around. I was thinking of a female mechanic in the vein of Winnie from Full Metal Alchemist. However, my drawing skills were unable to put that onto paper.

I also had the idea of keeping her as a normal monk.

Which ever way though, she’ll be riding a big motorcycle which replaces Xuan Zhang’s traditional white horse, and the thought of a female in monk garb riding a bike was an interesting one as well.

What do you all think?

#8

There are some good sketches, but tru focusing the spread efforts on one strong character! I love the style of the characters…so keep it up! :applause:

#9

Its been 3 days into my entry, and I’ve decided i better get off my ass and start modeling. So, in order to work faster I started off by modeling out the more complex objects that will be used extensively to detail parts of my models.

And yes, perhaps I might have to scale the image back from 4 characters into 1 or even 2, however, I intend to make full use of the assets I create, so even if I do a mechanism for a character it can be user throughout the other 3 steampunked characters etc.

CnC welcome. I hope to make these some great models :slight_smile:

#10

So how are the other models coming along? You have some great ideas here in the concept art that would make great models and the Monkey King myth is a excellent subject. I was thinking about that myth myself in the initial planning stages but decided it was too ambitious a project. I think I agree with Mrpeace when he says focus on one character. I would love to see this one when finished. Female monk on motorcycle = awesome :slight_smile: Good luck!

#11

Thanks. Reading that comment mde me really want to get going.

However, as of now, the models havent gotten far, and look like crap. I’m working on Sun Wu Kong’s head, but it just looks fugly. It doesnt do the image in my mind justice, so I shall keep working on it.

I want to finish this image, definitely, and I will, perhaps just not in time for the competition deadline. That and trying but failing is proving to me how behind I am in terms of basics. I’ve been really distracted for the past few weeks, but i’ll be able to start over again once I model an appealing Sun Wu Kong head.

#12

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