Hey, really nice concepts, you’ll have enough to illustrate the comic at this rate! I personally like the images of her in the sea, but understand it’s not so easy to tell the story. Perhaps have her in the act of desroying the pirate ship? That could be cool, lots of bubbles and very dramatic.
:buttrock:
I guess that being able to balet your way out of being chased by a squadron of steam-powered frog submersibles at the deapth of 100m, truly defines the phrase “GRACE UDNER PRESSURE”…
I think that I?ve experimented with EVERY conceivable creature to create an ultimate scary steam-powered submersible. And after all the sharks, octopi and sea mammals, I think it?s safe to say that the stuff of nightmares is definitely a frog. Granted, this one is mostly skeletal and has three hind legs, but I was anxious to incorporate in its design an ultimate amphibian?s weapon; a retractable and lightning-fast harpoon tongue which is used to snatch prey and drag it in range of the pincer-claws. The pilot sits in a glass (270 degree) transparent bubble on his stomach in the fashion of Wright brothers? FLYER. The extra leg is there for two reasons: firstly, to provide a 120 degrees steering system to handle pitch and yaw maneuvers and secondly, to satisfy my own sense of macabre. I hate frogs. I understand their role in every ecosystem, but why would people keep them as pets is beyond me…
This is a thumbnail sketch which I used to experiment with composition and lighting. I basically did a variation on a pose of the statue of the Little Mermaid watching over the harbor of Copenhagen. I like the simple physical longing that the artist captured and it truly represents not just the quest for the unreachable in all of us, but also pure genius that was Hans Christian Andersen.
I used heavy backlighting when it came to the portrait of the Little Steammaid because it seemed to me that the best time of day in which the action of the illustration would transpire would be the sunset. The way in which the sun erases the clear line between the clear sky and polluted metropolis is just right, and since the light source is placed beneath her chin there is a big emphasis on her eyes.
OK, by popular demand from my girlfriend, colleagues, neighbors (and a strange man from a marketplace that sells beets and other root vegetables) I decided to render one more concept illustration before I submitted the final entry.
It depicts our beloved Steammaid locked in mortal combat with her arch rival and it paves the way for the ultimate depiction.
Some may say that I have submitted a couple pieces of conceptual artwork too many, but I felt that the story of the Little Steammaid is spread over a vast universe. Not just of locations, but also of her emotional states.
If you have enjoyed viewing my illustrations half as much as I have doing them, then it has been worth it.
All the best and rots of rove from your friend from the boiler room,
Mido
Since there’s something wrong with the “upload final entry” option on the CGSociety server, I decided to submit (yet another) conceptual sketch.
It’s the top and side view of our favorite aquatic heroine.
Hi Mido, fantastic work… You told us a story, not a simply illustration… good luck!
Luca
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?threadid=696220
Software: Photoshop
Not every Evil is evil in itself; to turn the mirror around and realize ones greatness is hardest when you are small and helpless
-he whispered, hunched over, not noticing the shadows that the ships oil lamp drew across his face. He didnt feel the rocking of the waves nor did he hear the howl of the wind. The salty air tasted stale in his mouth.
But, I had only those things.
My senses.
The waves laid me down in an old cradle where I saw the eyes of one old and sad teddy-bear. The last glimpse of lucidity remembered only that and the thin rays of sunlight that cut the deep water.
Freedom within nothingness is strange. Gods wisdom is not revealed to everyone. While I cut the waves to the place where no one is waiting for me, it hurts me but then I go wild with sudden freedom and unchained release! The surface glimmers and folds beneath me while dolphins, silvery fish and seagulls teach me my first steps just like a mother.
I cried bitter tears when I first met him. I was in the sea and he was on the shore, the good old Doctor; my friend, my second father. He said: I did what I could to wrench your life from the hands of fate. You are where you are.My new body was in spasm and the tears mixed with seawater, while a desperate cry of pain gathered on my voiceless lips. He saw that and said: All of my memories of your parents are now in you. I helped you even though I could not do anything for them. The thing that I now place in water is my revenge. Your Enemy does not sail anymore; he has retired to land and pulls his wicked strings from there. There is nothing more I can give you but a chance to get even. Take it if you wish.
As I swam to the deep, I heard him whisper:Swim, my little Steammaid. I will pray to the Almighty that we meet again on the waves
Now I only have my cradle and my teddy, a sad reminder of someone elses joy in which I drowned my own sorrow and my failed dreams. I dont know how long Ive slept
I am a warrior now, an avenger that prays on the ships and their crews. The sea has shown me the way to kill an evil octopus that is my Enemy, how to pluck one by one of its tentacles. While I hunt down his men, I dream of a day when his silhouette will be submerged in front of me. That will be the day of reckoning. The ocean in which I swim carries the memories of loved ones.
I swim, feared by some, unseen by all others.
After all the battles, there is just the sea and my cradle in which I laid all my memories. Two stories merged into one. Let them dream, let them rest
until another shadow appears on the oceans surface.
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