To Boldly Go…
I like drawing spaceships, you know that by now right? I’ve been working on a few new pages of spaceship concepts recently, in pen and marker, and I thought I’d share them – and a few other older ones – with you.
this northern boy
Illustrations for an imaginary age
Tag: science fiction
July 31, 2015
Steampunk Spaceship
My most recent commission was for a spaceship, with some steampunk influences. I wanted to keep it very much like one of my spaceships though, so it’s kind of an amalgam of my asteroid belt clippers, and some weird alt-history Victorian airship.
I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out, it was one of those rare illustrations that just flows nicely all the way from initial doodles right through to the final ink.
Finished Steampunk Spaceship.
Work in progress.
Initial sketch.
June 17, 2015
Astronaut.
I’ve always wanted to be an astronaut, and even now at 42 years old, I haven’t quite given up hope, so when Jeremy Marshall commissioned an illustration and said “… is there any chance of an astronaut featuring?” I jumped at the chance.
The astronaut.
Details.
April 18, 2015
Return of the Robots
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, or following me on Twitter, Tumblr or Instagram, you’ll know that between August 2013 and August 2014, I drew a robot a day for a whole year. It was quite daunting committing to a daily project of that length, but it was something I felt I had to do to get me in to the routine of drawing every day – a skill or habit that I’d need if I wanted to become an illustrator for a living. I think it achieved its purpose – I now get pretty restless if I don’t draw at all for a day, and I’m currently work on my first book illustration project.
I haven’t really drawn robots since I finished the Droid a Day adventure though, and to be honest, I’ve missed them.
Today I’ve given myself the day off from paying work to rustle up another droid, and I’m pretty pleased with the way he came out.
Droid V.366.0
Initial sketch.
Final inks.
April 14, 2015
Fragment of Laputa
A floating island, or a fragment of one. Not unlike the Kingdom of Laputa described by Jonathon Swift in Gulliver’s Travels.
Fragment of Laputa.
Rocks.
Lonely tree.
Drawn with Copic Multiliners on cartridge paper.
Floating islands are a continued theme with my drawings, more here and here.
February 10, 2015
Orange Fleet
As I’ve written before, I do love drawing spaceships. Here’s a whole double page spread from my Moleskine, full of little orange spaceships.
Drawn with Staedtler Pigment Liners and coloured with Copic Ciao Markers.
The Orange Fleet
January 9, 2015
Draw it, Post-It…
Post-It notes have to be my most used medium for doodling, often while I’m at my day job, waiting for my Mac to finish doing something. They’re great because they are so disposable. Sketching in a Moleskine, or on a fresh sheet of beautiful Bristol Board can sometimes be inhibiting. Scrawling ideas and shapes on a Post-It or a scrap of paper can be liberating.
Draw-it, Post-It.
November 24, 2014
A lone spaceship…
It’s been a while since I drew a spaceship, so it was fun to create this little one-man flyer. I think it’ll get some colour in the next few days – probably orange.
One-man flyer.
August 24, 2014
Tentacles
One of the recurring themes of my droids has to be tentacles. I don’t know why but I do love drawing a nice set of tentacles (no sniggering at the back). I quite like drawing octopus and squid too, so it’s not just droids.
There’s definitely a weird hybrid of jellyfish and octopus going on in most of these, with hints of The Matrix and The Empire Strikes Back.
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- Robot 2
August 10, 2014
The home straight…
I’m 355 days into my Droid A Day project. Further than, at times, I thought I’d ever get. Close enough to the finish that I’m thinking constantly about what I do when it’s over. Definitely not another daily drawing project that’s for sure (not straight away).
With just a few more droids to go I thought I’d post some of my recent favourite. Warning: there may be colour.
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- Comet Capture.
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- Land of Confusion.
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- From the Deep.
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- Asteroid Survey Mech.
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- Silver Linings.
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- Surrender.
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- Robot 1
this northern boy 