Steampunk Myths and Legends Entry: Daniel St. Clair

#1

Daniel St. Clair is entered in the “Steampunk Myths and Legends” update: View Challenge Page

Latest Update: Concept / pre-visualization: Base idea further developed

#2

I am doing steampunk robot versions of Gog and Magog, the guardian giants of London myth.

This is a first-pass elaborated thumbnail I arrived at after much deliberation over this, or rather, these characters.

Both gog and magog will look very similar save for their weaponry and facial characteristics, as well as a few costuming features. They will literally be mirrors of one another. So in effect this image is ‘both’ of them.

My eventual goal is to have the two of the machines posed in Trafalgar square (probably taller than the monument) using a classic historical photo from a time of the earliest photography for reference. Whether I want to push these into cartoonish or more real territory will depend on how I play with them.

My goal with them is to make them ‘friendly yet ominous.’ So I am keeping early steam trains in mind with them a great deal, since I still have my childhood fascination with trains to potentially fuel this.

This entire contest will be a big learning experience for me. I am inexperienced and digital art, steampunk, AND drawing robots. I expect to work very hard and gain a lot of new knowledge over the course of this very fun contest!

Any and all feedback and critique is welcome and encouraged.

#3 

    I've changed the composition from what I had in mind with my original post.
  
  This is a test-image for working out the composition of my characters.  I am playing with shapes like paper cutouts just to get the basic idea of what I want across.  I am open to suggestions of things I could try out or if this is fine or just needs tweaking, or just plain could be redone or rearranged entirely.
 
 The intention: The fish leaps high out of the Thames and snatches Gog's arm.  Just at that moment, Magog lands on the fish's head and prepares to stab it.  (How I should make Magog more apparently 'landing' on the fish is something I am struggling with at the moment.)
 
 Also I should note that I am toying with the idea of making Gog steam powered and Magog edison-electrical powered.  Which means that all Magog will be good for here is one good stab of his electric spear before short-circuiting in the plunge.  There is also the possibility of making them giants in powered steampunk armor rather than steampunk robots.
 
    The fish is going to be a giant version of a type that often inhabits the Thames river, and kills people with its poison stingers.

EDIT: Side note - I’ve noticed that the composition when zoomed out it actually fools the eye into thinking it’s a thumbnail of a finished B&W piece. So I think I might be onto something here.

#4

Here are some thumbnails for the duo.

#5

Here’s an idea of how I could handle the head/faces.

#6

Here’s a design idea using the head.

#7

Here’s a thumbnail experimenting with proportions and body. Other than the head and interachanging weapons that will be on the two, I think this is pretty close to what I want. I think playing with it to add further mechanics might help too.

#8

Here’s more of the base body with some additions and changes. I’m basically going to be evolving further based on what I have here.

#9

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