Tag Archives: illustration

Steampunk ACEO Beasts, Copic Markers

Well, I’m not sick of steampunk yet!  In fact, at the end of this post I’ll post the initial sketch for my next 8 x 10.  But mostly I wanted to post some ACEOs I’ve completed since the steampunk bug hit.  And their intensely engrossing stories, of course (*cough*).

Original ACEO Steampunk Llama

Chaz the blue llama is an inventor, first. The bird shaped device he is wearing over one eye is made of leather, brass and various other metals. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, he is particularly proud of the tiny wing fashioned from an orange washer. The mechanism, with a cable connected to a power source in his front pocket, has both long-focus and enhanced night vision capabilities.

Original ACEO Steampunk Goat

Dean starting inventing eyepieces in seventh grade. The first had a rudimentary long-focus device which he made in order to better see Eliza, a popular and adorable Nubian, across the playground. Yes, of course they had a playground in seventh grade. These are farmyard type creatures, after all. Need their sunshine. Just like people actually, but that’s another story, isn’t it?

It is many years later now, and in that funny way life has of going in circles, Dean and Eliza are now dating. She doesn’t even remember him from seventh grade. Which he couldn’t be happier about.

Dean is also Chaz’s roommate (see above). They have a blue and green cat named Phil who has about as much interest in their inventions as he has in other cats, which is to say, absolutely none.

Phil the Cat, Original ACEO

It may be no surprise to many that I am a dog person, and as such have been somewhat hesitant about drawing cats. Cats have an extremely long history in art (see Bast ).  Anyway, I wouldn’t say Phil has a particularly animated expression.  But sometimes that’s the way it is, with cats.

Original ACEO Steampunk Ferret

The very latest is this fine steampunk ferret. Or possibly a related rodent of indeterminate origin – which is to say – I’m not sure it looks exactly like a ferret (color notwithstanding).  He is a terribly friendly fellow, but I haven’t been able to make heads or tails of his squeaky language.  Anyone speak ferret?

And finally, the next steampunk beast. It was modeled on a donkey but the cheeks kept getting narrower so it may be a horse. With very tall ears.

Steampunk Donkey Horse Sketch

Decided to do goggles (currently quite lopsided).  Continued attempts to make quasi-mechanical seeming devices in the shapes of birds.  Added a pipe.  Not sure about the pipe.  :)  Thank you lovely people for stopping in!

Giraffe with Copic Markers, Steampunk on Safari

Steampunk Giraffe Original Art

This is Sid. Although I do consider him the latest in my steampunk beast portrait series – it wasn’t actually a “series” until I typed that just now- he is not currently displaying any of the Victorian fashion elements the other beasts have had. Partly because sticking a scarf right under a giraffe’s chin seems silly. And once again the creature insisted on being so close to the camera I had no room for even a little hat. Particularly with those pesky ossicones (giraffe’s horns, made of cartilage – thank you Wikipedia).  In fact, he does have a hat.  A sleek, black top hat style thing with brass studs and a microscope device of some sort. But it keeps blowing off. It’s at quite an altitude when he wears it, after all.

At 9″ x 12″ he is slightly bigger than the others, and also slightly too big for my scanner, which only does 8.5″ x 11″. Here are some progress photos, from sketch to completion.  I am a big fan of blog posts with progression shots (if you hadn’t noticed).

Steampunk Giraffe Sketch

Steampunk Giraffe Ink

Steampunk Giraffe Color 0

Steampunk Giraffe Color 1

Steampunk Giraffe Color 2

Steampunk Giraffe Original Art

Finished.  I think.

Thanks for looking!

 

Steampunk Kangaroo, Copic Markers, and the Tricky Nose Edit

Good morning/afternoon/evening/dead of night, chums!  Thank you kindly for stopping in for another installment of farmyard steampunk animals.  Well, not exactly farmyard, I suppose, in this case.  But that is simpler than “another installment of steampunk herbivores with big, comical noses” which seems to be the more specific genre I am currently mining.  Or inventing!  No, probably not inventing.  :o)

Steampunk Kangaroo Initial Ink

The gadgets are fun to do, as are the Victorian-inspired details (the hair and choker). No hat this time, though I am rather fond of the owl-shaped device on the ear. I tried to get her to tell me the purpose of that particular gadget but she was evasive.  Very secretive, these inventor types.

Steampunk Kangaroo Color 1

Steampunk Kangaroo Color 2

Copic markers , hooray! I have a feeling I abuse them somewhat more than they are meant to be abused.  I have watched a couple youtube how-to videos where talented, soft-spoken young folk delicately paint and dab with their Copics. My own technique could not be characterized as delicate, I must say, with the possible exception of detail work with a 0.05 nib. But of course that is the pen and not the marker.  :o)

After a lot more ink, mostly outlining with a 0.8 and an 0.3 for the smaller bits, I decided I was finished:

Steampunk Kangaroo Final (not Really)

If you imagine her without the hair, she kinda looks like a kangaroo. Or a donkey. Or llama. I googled kangaroos, unsatisfied.  And decided the nose needed to be dark, as she is modeled on a red kangaroo. Which means going over another color and not being sure exactly what would happen. As I type this now it occurs to me I could have experimented on a separate sheet. Bah, caution. Here is what happened:

Steampunk Kangaroo Final (Really!)

Had to do the ear also.  Kind of hard to tell in these scans but the nose is dark grey but kept a pinkish tinge. I’m not sure that it makes it look more like a kangaroo, really. But I like it. So what do you think – should I have stuck to the pink nose?

In case you wondered, her name is Daphne and yes, she invented all her own gadgets. I think she had to outsource those flower-shaped gears, though. (Nice touch, right?) Thank you for visiting!

Steampunk Sheep (Might Be a Goat) – Work In Progress

Steampunk Sheep (Or a Goat?) -Not Quite Finished

Straight from the pen that brought you that other steampunk farmyard animal-in-progress type post, comes steampunk sheep! Or he might be a goat.  If he’s a sheep do I need to add horns?  Could he be, like, a dandy who trimmed his horns way back so as not to adversely affect the tilt of his hat? The trouble is, I think, that I wanted to do a steampunk sheep and used a girl sheep photo as a guide. See for yourself:

Is this a Girl Sheep?

Which is fine, I would totally do a female steampunk sheep.  Except I just did a female steampunk llama, so I wanted to do a male steampunk sheep. Anyway, do female sheep tend to look like male goats?  Perhaps this doesn’t matter.  He is certainly at least one of, a sheep and a goat.  Here is what he looked like in the beginning:

Steampunk Sheep (Goat?) Sketch

And then

Steampunk Sheep (Goat?) Initial Ink

And then this monstrosity

Steampunk Sheep Color 1 (Horror)

I mentioned in the steampunk llama post that sometimes the first layer of color looks so bad I consider abandoning the drawing.  Well, I seriously considered abandoning this fellow at this point.  I mean, yikes.  First, the color combination is looking horrible, and second, I turned the brooch-type thingie into a cane, which is an idea I like but one which would have been nice to decide before inking the ear.  But anyway. I didn’t abandon him, but I didn’t have high hopes for him.  And really, is that fair?

I am pleased to report he is looking much better now (in my opinion) (thank you Copic markers!) and if it weren’t for that scanned picture above, I would find it hard to believe the color was as bad as it definitely was.  Not quite done:

Steampunk Sheep Not Quite Done

I have to decide whether to fill most of the cane in, in black, because it’s too busy and not doing the overall drawing any favors in its current state. Might do a background.  (I said that last time but decided against it.) I can picture an old style plane in the background but I don’t know how to draw a plane.  Actually, an airship would be cool.  Not this time, probably.  Might have to branch out into scenery with airships eventually, though.  Now there’s a thought.

Do you have an opinion on this or any remotely related topic?  Do share!