Yet another environmental drawing from Perspective & Proportion. For this one, the assignment was to illustrate a particular period in history using the architecture as the primary clue about what time period the image describes. I wasn’t terribly happy with the characters in this one, but I very much enjoyed drawing the mosque. The minarets and domes of Islamic architecture are so beautiful. It was a delight just to look at the reference photos.
Pencil on cold-press illustration board.
An Arabian City during the Crusades
Another Perspective and Proportion project. We were to illustrate a castle with strict perspective. This image is based on a photograph of Karlsborg Fortress in… Sweden, I think it was. I am not sure what part of the fortress the photograph shows. I suspect it’s looking down the exterior of the Eastern Land Front wall at the corner tower, but I can’t be certain.
The image is intended to accompany a map created by an acquantaince of mine with the screenname Hoel on the Cartographers’ Guild. The map can be viewed here.
This one is all graphite pencils on cold-press illustration board.
Karlsborg Fastning
Another project for Perspective & Proportion. The assignment was to illustrate an offworld environment—something that was obviously not of Earth, whether fantasy or science-fiction. I have been exploring some steampunk motifs recently, and steampunk always seems to go hand-in-hand with airships. So I imagined these enormous towers where the airships could dock without having to get close to the ground.
Pencil sketch inked over with a fine sharpie and finished with grey Prismacolors and a little bit of white Prismacolor pencil to bring some highlights back into it.
A Fantasy Environment with Airships
The airships are the same design that I made for my Digital Illustration class, minus the fishing net apparatus:
The original airship design image
This was the first project in my Perspective & Proportions class. We were to demonstrate our understanding of overlapping perspective and diminution (things that are farther away appear to be smaller) by drawing “The Thundering Hordes of…” We saw everything from bunny rabbits to severed heads, to butcher knife-wielding bridesmaids. So here is my tribute to decades of musical cinema. I wanted to shoehorn in Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Jamie Lee Curtis doing their tango from True Lies, but I had a hard time making a good, recognizable drawing of them, so I substituted some random nameless people in their stead. I rather regret having done that now.
Sharpie and grey Prismacolor markers on cold-press illustration board. Maybe some day I’ll do a Photoshop recolor on it—red velvet curtains would look great.
The Thundering Hordes of Hollywood Dancers
In my Perspective & Proportion class, we were given the task of designing and rendering a vehicle using a particular technique of perspective. I’d had this notion of a vehicle hinged in the middle since I was a kid, so I drew that. I laid it out on several layers of tracing vellum in pencil, then transferred it to illustration board, inked it, and did the shading in Prismacolor grey markers. In the future, I need to get reference for suspension on construction vehicles and do more detailing. This looks more like a toy than a large machine.
