Man, looking back at this thread, I can't believe how many Tumblr posts don't show up anymore. Dang.
Anyway, I had an idea while out walking, since I've been thinking so much about the plant species. I had an idea of what the Black Sunflower looks like inside (high tech with roots and plants everywhere in the corridors, massive jungle under the dome), but I realized "what if that big greenhouse ship was theirs?"
Remember this thing? This could have been a grand ark for them, until they crossed paths with the human race. A few retroactive trespassing laws and transit fee hikes, and they could legally kick the greenies out. Now I imagine it's where the .1% of the galaxy's richest, douchiest, and most powerful hang out. The kind of people who own planets, CEOs, and the corrupt Council. It's paradise defiled, and a GREAT target for our freedom fighter characters.
Even though they mow down whole planets for resources, they can't stop there. A third of the wilderness inside the glass ship was cleared to make room for golf courses, racing tracks, and luxury accommodations. In the old days, if you were in the upper middle class, you might have been able to score a gig working there, but now they're so cruel they don't want to share it with anyone. They automated as much of the workforce as they could, and rumor has it that there are slaves on board as well. Imagine one of those flower folk with their petals brutally cut.
bulletin boards and safety posters on the wall, benches on the side of the wall...
HA, thats funny. I was thinking of holding the render until I built some vending machines and benches... kind of a half baked waiting area for visitors...
Totally happy you went ahead with the render, my man.
Vending machines would be in the visitation lobby... which would be a bit too big for a standing set. Although I suppose it could be a mod of the cafeteria set. Being the future, I imagine the vending machines are either japanese style mini-shops or big solid blocks with video screens on them.
You know, for all my love of fake companies and logos, don't have any ideas for soft drinks or beverages, especially for the future. Most applicable would be the M&Ms/Smarties ripoff "Dummies."
Keeley and Bobby would mostly communicate through the window dealie...
or a phone kiosk.
And yeah, the video phones exist now. They'd totally use these.
That's for official visits. For Keeleys' secret missions, we have the Alien-style "hidey hole" and the smuggled cell phones.
edit:
Just so I can post something *I* actually did, here's the other waterworld concept from back in 2012. I gotta redo the bottoms on this one as well. Told you it was skimpy.
Something that struck me was I posted this right after I did a decent (finally) doodle of Jessica Alba in Idle Hands. The waterworld girl isn't intended to be her, but the similarity in the hairstyle is making me think "hey, maybe." Plus there's that Into The Blue connection going on there, you know? Though she does have a different body type.
And I THINK I have a new idea for a face for Eden, so if I can put pencil to paper tonight, I'll give that a shot.
Did so much art today, I couldn't get it all scanned in! There's more than a few pages I'm gonna play around with more, I think the seeds for a couple interesting designs are in there.
Anyway, here's a sample of what I was working on, taking inspiration from an old Japanese superhero Gavan, and the other Space Sheriffs, and playing around with the designs.
I think there's an interesting start there... I like Shell Head and Shogun, I think playing around with those shapes some more could yield some striking results.
Another Iron Star design, this time the "chain gang" spacesuit. Wasn't sure which direction to take it in, but the idea of a classic striped suit made a certain amount of sense. The orange lights allow them to be seen at a distance, and that red thing on the ankle is their version of the chain, locks your foot in place if you stray too far from the rest of the group.
Because of that leaf stealth suit I designed the other day, I got inspired as to what the inside of the Black Sunflower looks like. This is a sample, a high tech corridor leading to the main jungle dome. The walls are being taken over by invasive roots from all the trees above, grass and leaves are blowing into the corridor.. and no one seems to mind.
I haven't decided what the control rooms or anything would look like, but following this method of thinking, it might be like the Rebel base at Yavin or the Resistance base in TFA.
Although I do have an idea of what their computers would LOOK like. If Star Trek has LCARS, then a race of living plants would have... Leaf-Cars!
I can see these being green lines on clear glass or on screens... animated, of course.
Man, looking back at this thread, I can't believe how many Tumblr posts don't show up anymore. Dang.
Anyway, I had an idea while out walking, since I've been thinking so much about the plant species. I had an idea of what the Black Sunflower looks like inside (high tech with roots and plants everywhere in the corridors, massive jungle under the dome), but I realized "what if that big greenhouse ship was theirs?"
Has a bit of a Chig looks--but fleshed out it'd be different.
Yeah. Now that I've got a story for it, I'll be able to refine the design more. It's gonna be a little more squat, a little more plant like and elegant... and I may be able to assign purposes to some of the areas.
Update: here's a refined, more elegant version of the unnamed bio-sphere ship.
The center at the front, the Oculus, could be considered to be the most beautiful spot in the universe. On the outside of the glass, you have the entire universe open to you and on the inside you have this beautiful forest. It's probably also the biggest window ever built because this species is awesome like that. I don't know if Eden ever stood there, but can't you imagine having something like that taken away from you?
oh, and what luck that my computer background tonight just happened to be glass in triangles... just like I drew!
And if that's not enough, HERE COME THE SPACE YACHTS!
This one just seems a bit heavy to me... bulky, and maybe that's its character and I just don't appreciate that yet. But it does feel like I need to do more with the middle.
I like this one, the Defledermaus, but I want to rework the front. Not sure how to balance out those knobby ends. I suppose I should be looking at old British and European luxury cars for that.
The littler one (actually just drawn littler) was me expanding on the basic curves, I wound up turning it into an interesting little rocket.
Me trying to refine things down... I started doing a more line-heavy version of the yachts with that triangular shape in the middle, and I wanted to make it more simple and less organic. Define the shape more. It's probably the most balanced between Sports Car and Yacht of all of these.
I'm not nuts about these wedges... it looks a bit too armoured to me. As I said on the page, maybe it's right for Space Force One or some other kind of armoured car. And that beveling is what I had imagined the H34V3N ship rocking, so it fits in the universe. Maybe that's the "old style," what ships looked like in the 70 and 80s.
One thing I do like is the moon roofs, usually covered by retractable doors but a force field allows you to go swimming or bask in the solarium while in space. In an atmosphere, you can shut the force field off and just take in the sun and the breeze.
Need to look at some more sports cars (of which I have plenty of reference of in my computer) to give these things a bit more style. I also need to design the lower ends ones, as these could be interesting alternates for the Anubis A130 (controller ship), since I often think it might be better suited to another idea I've been toying with.
If not, I'll probably be adapting some elements of these designs (most likely the spoiler-like antenna) onto the Anubis and taking some Anubis/Spinner elements to the yachts.
Normally, the idea of force field walls looking into space gives me a big heaping "no thank you." Don't trust it when there's nothing properly solid between me and the death vaccuum of the unknown. But for these things, I'm starting to warm up to the idea. Here's a quick sketch I did of a yacht bedroom (with some SF updates) that would have a ceiling like that. Sleep under the stars... literally.
Now, I imagine the doors that shut could have a frescoe on them or something, not just be metal or whatever material the rest of the ceiling is made out of. I'm not going to make it a holo-window, though, I'm saving those for another universe.
Now this one feels odd, wasn't that happy with it even if I like the idea of the curves.
This one I like, it's based on a real yacht concept that's wonderfully minimalist. I had to redo the nose, and I'm sure a little more research and experimentation will yield a more unique look to it.
The Hammerhead... er, Hammerbutt. Much more simple. I don't recall what I was going to do with that force field/open air bit on the side, though.
Things keep getting simple, and I wanted to see what the poor man's version of these luxury starships would be. I was imagining a houseboat or a winnebago (though obviously I don't want it to look like Spaceballs). I started with the basic design and tried to simplify it as much as possible. I think this might be a thing where I need to be inspired by a practical object.
And here's something a little different, a Tron-like girl, the operator of a starship. I was thinking of her as the Anti-Jade (or rather, Jade would be the anti-this kid) in another SF idea, the plucky assistant. But what I really like about this pic is the outfit she has on, it's SO generic sci-fi, so Tron, so Marvel, it's got all those little embellishments on there and that happened more or less by accident. I don't like those designs too much because they're not distinctive, and yet I managed to ape their style. If I continue developing the design, I'll add some more of my own touches, but for now I'm happy I managed to design something that 'looks" real.
Haven't drawn in a while, been busy with other things. In the meantime, here's a selection of sci-fi drawings from my old sketchbooks. Different stuff, some I've never been able to replicate.
Star Trek style ships.
The rudimentary design for the Trafalgar, a triple-decker Federation ship. Quite liked this one.
This dense cruiser has a little Trek to it, but I could imagine updating it with my current style, add some glow-lines to it, put it in the Iron Star-verse as a warship or a wide space yacht.
I'm not quite sure what you'd call this one, it's a bit of an odd donut-shaped airship. Feels more at home in a Final Fantasy type of world.
This looks a bit like the bad guy ships from Star Trek Insurrection, but I might be able to play around with it to make it another ship in the Anubis ship line.
And now to transition to some toku-looking robots.
This dude is basically built into his throne, a bit like that librarian character from the original Tron. I can picture all that stuff behind him rotating about like a combination lock. I'd like to redesign that helmet a little to be more menacing and expressive.
This guy I picture being gold or bronze, I want to give him a spider body on the bottom half, like a spider-centaur but I've never been able to redraw this guy for some reason.
Another built-in robot, this one can remove himself from those big wing things and walk about.
Not an original idea, but the idea of an alien having to live in an encounter suit 24/7 to hang around humans intrigues me and I wanted to design a suit... my big thing I wanted was to give the alien as wide a range of vision as possible. I also had the idea that the inside of the sphere would have holo-projectors so they can have HUDs, Picture in Picture or even VR interfaces. You can just jack into the ports on the side.
The suits also have self-cleaning capability, so you don't have to worry about the internal stank. The high-end ones would have variable textures, so you can adjust the lining to whatever suits you at the moment. But most are wearing the lower-end ones, which are basically like wearing a trailer on your back. Some aliens even have bumper stickers on their shells, have a TV antennae or satellite dish, decorative beads, or even a quilt made of graphic tees (they wanna look cool too!).
They're the type of aliens who would be PERFECT for the Iron Star-verse, but don't have any place in the narrative (though I can imagine Keeley wondering how they can stand being in there when chilling in a 6x8 cell drives her up the wall).
But nice side effect of these roughs is I accidentally designed a helmet or two that would work perfect for humans.
Thought you'd like this: unpacking all these boxes at work, I couldn't help but see things that would make interesting details for spaceships.
All helpfully labeled in case you couldn't see what I could. I wish I had little action figures there to put down, to give you a sense of scale.
I'm sorry to say I haven't gotten much sci fi art done recently, been busy on a bunch of other IRL projects, but I'm still shipping away at my old sketchbooks. Here are some ship ideas that I can't believe are ten freakin' years old!
What if the Federation from Star Trek and the Empire from Star Wars were amalgamated together? With apparently a dash of Andromeda thrown in? I think you'd get something like this supermassive starship,
Seeing the first episode of Renegades, aka dark Trek with the serial numbers filed off, I was struck by the double-decker design of the ships... reminded me of this concept I had made. It would be nice to find a use for this look of ships, even if I don't know what it would be yet.
Federation style hull, though definitely not Federation style design.
This interesting fellow. Picturing him red, like a crab. I was also just now inspired regarding that second head, I like the idea of it talking back to him and them bickering.
A Galactica-looking thing. Like the scales of it, I need to find a use for those in some other design.
Oh, a quick late night update. I was trying to come up with a design for Lorelei, the android form Iron Star. Did a mash-up of famous "android" faces like Olivia Wilde and Gemma Chan along with Dr K (who's a bit android like in her own way) and Dr Kat.
The bridge from the Trafalgar. Wraparound screens for the front.
A hologram projector. Got a Moebius feel to it, I think.
A comic-book-y looking spaceship.
A galactic circus. The fun happens in the spiral dome. Imagining zero gravity trapese artists and the like.
Cramped hallway for an Alien-style ship.
And this is... more recent, maybe a year old.
Been holding this one close to my chest, because I felt like he was a little more special than the others. Originally I was thinking of him like a ROM Spaceknight type, but I recently realized he might be more like Frankenstein.
Quick tiny update, something I'd been wanting to do for a while, the "Danger Boy." It's basically a portable computer used by Generation X... at least in the spin-off novels.
I love retro-tech, so this was right up my alley. You can clearly see inspiration taken from the Switch (though I tried to keep that at a minimum), the s2 Digivice, and the Turbo Navigator, and I think I managed to put my own spin on it. Big difference is the motion-tracker camera, so you can browse without needing the thumbstick. But mid-90s tech means the LCD is small and has some ghosting issues, and the hologram is a monochromatic low-res deal.
LCARS with pop-outs for 16:9 screens. Doodled while rewatching Voyager a year or so ago.
Best of both worlds, right? Rather than get a buttload of big cinema displays, get the cheap smaller ones and fit 'em into the classic backlit LCARS we know and love. Tried to keep it simple, but varied, since now we can have the screens sideways and still have them work right.
A set of uniform and costume ideas I doodled while watching Allegiant.
I didn't really like this until I coloured it, the blue reminded me of a costume design idea I had for Ender's Game. I think I'll mix in some of that with this, play with the lines more to make it a bit more retro-futuristic. Don't really have a place for it yet, but it could prove fun.
A child in the future. Maybe even Jonah, this wanderer kid I remember seeing ten years ago. Rocking a leather smock with some electronics built in. The second I doodled that watch, I remembered an electric sign that, if miniaturized, would be an interesting cyber-cuff, that's why I included it there.
You never see purple uniforms, which is odd because I think they look rather striking. Though a bit 90s, but I like the 90s. I'm kind of in a Shootingstars mood right now, and while I was doing these in black and white I thought they might work, but this colour scheme is a bit more pleasant.
There's one design I didn't include, I need to redo it a bit, but it has potential to be my fave of this batch, a "survival" jacket intended for a new crew in the Iron Star-verse... they're not a proper crew, they're more like the Scooby gang in space, and I wanted them to have heavy duty jackets to wear over their normal clothes, in the vein of the Lightspeed Rescue jackets by way of Star Wars.
Guess who's back? God I hope someone's looking at these.
This is something that came to mind a few days ago, an oily, greasy messed up take on a super sentai combiner mech, a metal razorback hog. Looking at this thing, I imagine it's a bit bigger than the other mechs (think the Galactabeasts or the Voltron lions) and can force itself into the transformation process, hijacking the body and using it for it's own ends. Meaning I gotta design a helmet for it as well. That's been giving me issues.
Gaming Mouse + Yacht = Spaceship
(you might notice that the little pod looks like a USB thumbstick)
And this one, I haven't come up with the right body to stick this onto, so I just scanned it thinking I'll just snap it on top of a body at a later date. I just didn't want it in my clipboard anymore.
And a face, straight out of a classic flick I'm overdue to revisit: Planet Of The Apes. Nova:
Logos for TCS, "Total Correctional Solutions," the company that owns and operates the Iron Star. Though I didn't realize until I did these that they didn't build the IS... so there may be secrets in the station they don't know about. I still haven't designed a flag or even a name for the corrupt Human gov in the Iron Star-verse, but of course these guys would pledge their allegiance to the company.
The CO's badges, with TNG style rank striping. I was toying with the idea that each department would have their own icon, like in TOS, but... that's needless complication. Maybe some have stars and some don't. I'm also thinking they can tap them and talk like The Next Generation.
Hopefully these will inspire a little direction in the CO uniforms... I've done more concepts than I can remember, a mix of current day uniforms and jumpsuits... but nothing I'm happy with. I had the phrase "Fascists in need of more funding" in my head. They could fit better, the fabric could be better quality, the colours could be brighter... and of course, the suits are so old that more stuff got required that doesn't fit the aesthetic, so they all have extra laniards, medallions and techno-tchotchkies that don't "go" with the rest.
And this is just something I found at Target, I thought it would be a great pattern for a future person's shirt... maybe Page would have it underneath her scrubs (though a more waffle-shirt type would be more appropriate). It's a bit more civilian than utilitarian.
Thanks! I'm happy with the costuming as well! And thanks for the feedback, it's nice to know someone's out there! Especially since I'm doing my own thing and not an existing IP or anything.
Here's some updates from an old sketchbook.
A weird, offbeat Enterprise. Was never sure what I could do with this, now I'm thinking it might be the "mother ship" from Shootingstars, which I was thinking would look like an old junker compared to the Righteous Fury's sleek shell.
A wall control panel, very 80s and old tech. Sort of a budget Enterprise. Just now thought "maybe that's a console on the boxy off-brand Enteprise from above."
The allocator ship... I like the rolling blue spine, I want to do a redesign of this. It's a snatcher, maybe belonging to TCS or a bounty hunter collective. Too nice for the grubbier bounty hunters out there.
I only now realized that this could be an Iron Star clone... the Dell to the Iron Star's International Business Machine, cheaper, mass produced and without the high standard that the IS originally had.
That's awesome... my drawing suggested more window levels, but yours works far better. It looks like something from the 30s or 40s, art deco... a studebaker in space. And maybe more naturally because it wasn't intended to be, so it's not "in your face" about it.
I had been thinking of this as a IS clone, as you read, but now I can see it being in something like Flash Gordon.
OR, if they have those old James Cagney movies in this universe ("Aliens With Filthy Souls"), maybe that's the a setting in the movie... filmed with models and old school effects!
This thing was running through my head today and I thought "what if it's the Stargazer?" Like the Warden has the model of the last prison he ran in his office. But then I realized that his office is way too messy and no one would recognize what that was, so THEN I thought "what if it's in the conference room, among the previous Iron Stars?" Just made me laugh.
Oh, if I had the time. About to go on retreat, no scanner for a week. But hopefully LOTS of drawing and writing.
But the more I think about the IS, I think it's unique in their universe. And the designer might have been a bit of an oddball. But thinking about the art deco design made me think of maybe someone from the IS's past jumping into the future. Gave me an excuse to revisit the classic striped uniform look.
That guard uniform is pretty consistent with what I'd been experimenting with before but never really felt right, and now I realize why... it's from the wrong time period! It doesn't fit with the surgical scrub modern day look that the series takes place in.
I'm not sure what the inmate will look like yet, I'm thinking kind of light violet, maybe with fins or gills. Picturing glowing eyes, maybe some scales.
First day of retreat done, probably ten pages of art and a couple interesting ideas, including someone who lives in TV and a devil that's late for yoga.
Also ran the Iron Star concept by my favourite cousin. "That's totally a show I would watch." She also loves the idea of being a Shellie.
I had another thought for the Star-alike, it could be where Page and Sasha get sent for the first time when they're kids. Though for practical budgetary concerns, it'd probably just be a redressed hallway.
But I was thinking about that scene and pictured this little fish alien girl being in their grup:
And there's a lot more aliens down below!
Saw this old man, started adding more lines to his face, now he looks like a mix between a Mummy and a Klingon... working as a private detective. You know, some people are exaggerating when they say they've seen it all, not him.
Saw a big guy with a neck pillow, imagined it as part of his body and got this. Might redo the head, make it a bit more weird.
But the thing is, I drew this ten days after drawing this little doodle I absolutely love:
I don't think they're the same species, so I have to think of ways to distinguish them more. I figure that screen there shows simple images, reflect his mood, etc.
Did this because I couldn't see the rest of the man's head. I'm thinking it might close up like a display case and be brought around to show people.
Saw this woman texting, and something about her seemed so tall I had to exaggerate more of it. Dunno how she became a demon, though.
Faces for that devil/alien. The idea that she's married intrigues me. Think I might be depending a bit too much on the "head fin" design, because Eden has that, and I also designed this:
Inspired by a girl with braids. I think she'd be pink like a prawn, maybe she's the time traveling inmate described above, or maybe the vic in the pilot (though I could also see the dealer that Bobby and Gentry get stuck with having head gear like that).
And finally, this is something I was toying with, the written language for Shootingstars:
I had already created a base-12 numbering system for them that was pretty basic and intuitive, basically a 1x1 version of this. Figured their text language would follow a similar set of rules. Exactly the kind of lettering you'd expect a military society to use.
It was maybe halfway through that I realized there should be some part of the letter that signifies where it is, so some of those don't technically work. I also like the idea that there are more lines the less often a letter is used, so checking the scrabble points:
1 point: E Ã14, A Ã12, N Ã9, R Ã7, O Ã6, T Ã5, U Ã5, I Ã4, L Ã4.
2 points: D Ã4.
3 points: G Ã3, S Ã3, V Ã3, H Ã2.
4 points: B Ã2, K Ã2, M Ã2, Z Ã2, ZH Ã2, CH Ã1, C'H Ã1.
5 points: P Ã1.
10 points: F Ã1, J Ã1, W Ã1, Y Ã1.
Means that F, J,W, and Y would take the most effort to write, the vowels would take the least since you'd be writing them more. I think that's a good way to distribute that.
And b/c this is a forum about hardware:
Some screwed up doodles of work vehicles. Maybe they're in the Iron Star cargo bay/warehouse.
Posts
Anyway, I had an idea while out walking, since I've been thinking so much about the plant species. I had an idea of what the Black Sunflower looks like inside (high tech with roots and plants everywhere in the corridors, massive jungle under the dome), but I realized "what if that big greenhouse ship was theirs?"
Remember this thing? This could have been a grand ark for them, until they crossed paths with the human race. A few retroactive trespassing laws and transit fee hikes, and they could legally kick the greenies out. Now I imagine it's where the .1% of the galaxy's richest, douchiest, and most powerful hang out. The kind of people who own planets, CEOs, and the corrupt Council. It's paradise defiled, and a GREAT target for our freedom fighter characters.
Even though they mow down whole planets for resources, they can't stop there. A third of the wilderness inside the glass ship was cleared to make room for golf courses, racing tracks, and luxury accommodations. In the old days, if you were in the upper middle class, you might have been able to score a gig working there, but now they're so cruel they don't want to share it with anyone. They automated as much of the workforce as they could, and rumor has it that there are slaves on board as well. Imagine one of those flower folk with their petals brutally cut.
HA, thats funny. I was thinking of holding the render until I built some vending machines and benches... kind of a half baked waiting area for visitors...
Totally happy you went ahead with the render, my man.
Vending machines would be in the visitation lobby... which would be a bit too big for a standing set. Although I suppose it could be a mod of the cafeteria set. Being the future, I imagine the vending machines are either japanese style mini-shops or big solid blocks with video screens on them.
You know, for all my love of fake companies and logos, don't have any ideas for soft drinks or beverages, especially for the future. Most applicable would be the M&Ms/Smarties ripoff "Dummies."
Keeley and Bobby would mostly communicate through the window dealie...
or a phone kiosk.
And yeah, the video phones exist now. They'd totally use these.
That's for official visits. For Keeleys' secret missions, we have the Alien-style "hidey hole" and the smuggled cell phones.
edit:
Just so I can post something *I* actually did, here's the other waterworld concept from back in 2012. I gotta redo the bottoms on this one as well. Told you it was skimpy.
Something that struck me was I posted this right after I did a decent (finally) doodle of Jessica Alba in Idle Hands. The waterworld girl isn't intended to be her, but the similarity in the hairstyle is making me think "hey, maybe." Plus there's that Into The Blue connection going on there, you know? Though she does have a different body type.
And I THINK I have a new idea for a face for Eden, so if I can put pencil to paper tonight, I'll give that a shot.
Anyway, here's a sample of what I was working on, taking inspiration from an old Japanese superhero Gavan, and the other Space Sheriffs, and playing around with the designs.
I think there's an interesting start there... I like Shell Head and Shogun, I think playing around with those shapes some more could yield some striking results.
Another Iron Star design, this time the "chain gang" spacesuit. Wasn't sure which direction to take it in, but the idea of a classic striped suit made a certain amount of sense. The orange lights allow them to be seen at a distance, and that red thing on the ankle is their version of the chain, locks your foot in place if you stray too far from the rest of the group.
I haven't decided what the control rooms or anything would look like, but following this method of thinking, it might be like the Rebel base at Yavin or the Resistance base in TFA.
Although I do have an idea of what their computers would LOOK like. If Star Trek has LCARS, then a race of living plants would have... Leaf-Cars!
I can see these being green lines on clear glass or on screens... animated, of course.
Has a bit of a Chig looks--but fleshed out it'd be different.
The center at the front, the Oculus, could be considered to be the most beautiful spot in the universe. On the outside of the glass, you have the entire universe open to you and on the inside you have this beautiful forest. It's probably also the biggest window ever built because this species is awesome like that. I don't know if Eden ever stood there, but can't you imagine having something like that taken away from you?
oh, and what luck that my computer background tonight just happened to be glass in triangles... just like I drew!
And if that's not enough, HERE COME THE SPACE YACHTS!
This one just seems a bit heavy to me... bulky, and maybe that's its character and I just don't appreciate that yet. But it does feel like I need to do more with the middle.
I like this one, the Defledermaus, but I want to rework the front. Not sure how to balance out those knobby ends. I suppose I should be looking at old British and European luxury cars for that.
The littler one (actually just drawn littler) was me expanding on the basic curves, I wound up turning it into an interesting little rocket.
Me trying to refine things down... I started doing a more line-heavy version of the yachts with that triangular shape in the middle, and I wanted to make it more simple and less organic. Define the shape more. It's probably the most balanced between Sports Car and Yacht of all of these.
I'm not nuts about these wedges... it looks a bit too armoured to me. As I said on the page, maybe it's right for Space Force One or some other kind of armoured car. And that beveling is what I had imagined the H34V3N ship rocking, so it fits in the universe. Maybe that's the "old style," what ships looked like in the 70 and 80s.
One thing I do like is the moon roofs, usually covered by retractable doors but a force field allows you to go swimming or bask in the solarium while in space. In an atmosphere, you can shut the force field off and just take in the sun and the breeze.
Need to look at some more sports cars (of which I have plenty of reference of in my computer) to give these things a bit more style. I also need to design the lower ends ones, as these could be interesting alternates for the Anubis A130 (controller ship), since I often think it might be better suited to another idea I've been toying with.
If not, I'll probably be adapting some elements of these designs (most likely the spoiler-like antenna) onto the Anubis and taking some Anubis/Spinner elements to the yachts.
Normally, the idea of force field walls looking into space gives me a big heaping "no thank you." Don't trust it when there's nothing properly solid between me and the death vaccuum of the unknown. But for these things, I'm starting to warm up to the idea. Here's a quick sketch I did of a yacht bedroom (with some SF updates) that would have a ceiling like that. Sleep under the stars... literally.
Now, I imagine the doors that shut could have a frescoe on them or something, not just be metal or whatever material the rest of the ceiling is made out of. I'm not going to make it a holo-window, though, I'm saving those for another universe.
Now this one feels odd, wasn't that happy with it even if I like the idea of the curves.
This one I like, it's based on a real yacht concept that's wonderfully minimalist. I had to redo the nose, and I'm sure a little more research and experimentation will yield a more unique look to it.
The Hammerhead... er, Hammerbutt. Much more simple. I don't recall what I was going to do with that force field/open air bit on the side, though.
Things keep getting simple, and I wanted to see what the poor man's version of these luxury starships would be. I was imagining a houseboat or a winnebago (though obviously I don't want it to look like Spaceballs). I started with the basic design and tried to simplify it as much as possible. I think this might be a thing where I need to be inspired by a practical object.
And here's something a little different, a Tron-like girl, the operator of a starship. I was thinking of her as the Anti-Jade (or rather, Jade would be the anti-this kid) in another SF idea, the plucky assistant. But what I really like about this pic is the outfit she has on, it's SO generic sci-fi, so Tron, so Marvel, it's got all those little embellishments on there and that happened more or less by accident. I don't like those designs too much because they're not distinctive, and yet I managed to ape their style. If I continue developing the design, I'll add some more of my own touches, but for now I'm happy I managed to design something that 'looks" real.
Star Trek style ships.
The rudimentary design for the Trafalgar, a triple-decker Federation ship. Quite liked this one.
This dense cruiser has a little Trek to it, but I could imagine updating it with my current style, add some glow-lines to it, put it in the Iron Star-verse as a warship or a wide space yacht.
I'm not quite sure what you'd call this one, it's a bit of an odd donut-shaped airship. Feels more at home in a Final Fantasy type of world.
This looks a bit like the bad guy ships from Star Trek Insurrection, but I might be able to play around with it to make it another ship in the Anubis ship line.
And now to transition to some toku-looking robots.
This dude is basically built into his throne, a bit like that librarian character from the original Tron. I can picture all that stuff behind him rotating about like a combination lock. I'd like to redesign that helmet a little to be more menacing and expressive.
This guy I picture being gold or bronze, I want to give him a spider body on the bottom half, like a spider-centaur but I've never been able to redraw this guy for some reason.
Another built-in robot, this one can remove himself from those big wing things and walk about.
Not an original idea, but the idea of an alien having to live in an encounter suit 24/7 to hang around humans intrigues me and I wanted to design a suit... my big thing I wanted was to give the alien as wide a range of vision as possible. I also had the idea that the inside of the sphere would have holo-projectors so they can have HUDs, Picture in Picture or even VR interfaces. You can just jack into the ports on the side.
The suits also have self-cleaning capability, so you don't have to worry about the internal stank. The high-end ones would have variable textures, so you can adjust the lining to whatever suits you at the moment. But most are wearing the lower-end ones, which are basically like wearing a trailer on your back. Some aliens even have bumper stickers on their shells, have a TV antennae or satellite dish, decorative beads, or even a quilt made of graphic tees (they wanna look cool too!).
They're the type of aliens who would be PERFECT for the Iron Star-verse, but don't have any place in the narrative (though I can imagine Keeley wondering how they can stand being in there when chilling in a 6x8 cell drives her up the wall).
But nice side effect of these roughs is I accidentally designed a helmet or two that would work perfect for humans.
All helpfully labeled in case you couldn't see what I could. I wish I had little action figures there to put down, to give you a sense of scale.
I'm sorry to say I haven't gotten much sci fi art done recently, been busy on a bunch of other IRL projects, but I'm still shipping away at my old sketchbooks. Here are some ship ideas that I can't believe are ten freakin' years old!
What if the Federation from Star Trek and the Empire from Star Wars were amalgamated together? With apparently a dash of Andromeda thrown in? I think you'd get something like this supermassive starship,
Seeing the first episode of Renegades, aka dark Trek with the serial numbers filed off, I was struck by the double-decker design of the ships... reminded me of this concept I had made. It would be nice to find a use for this look of ships, even if I don't know what it would be yet.
Federation style hull, though definitely not Federation style design.
This interesting fellow. Picturing him red, like a crab. I was also just now inspired regarding that second head, I like the idea of it talking back to him and them bickering.
A Galactica-looking thing. Like the scales of it, I need to find a use for those in some other design.
Oh, a quick late night update. I was trying to come up with a design for Lorelei, the android form Iron Star. Did a mash-up of famous "android" faces like Olivia Wilde and Gemma Chan along with Dr K (who's a bit android like in her own way) and Dr Kat.
The bridge from the Trafalgar. Wraparound screens for the front.
A hologram projector. Got a Moebius feel to it, I think.
A comic-book-y looking spaceship.
A galactic circus. The fun happens in the spiral dome. Imagining zero gravity trapese artists and the like.
Cramped hallway for an Alien-style ship.
And this is... more recent, maybe a year old.
Been holding this one close to my chest, because I felt like he was a little more special than the others. Originally I was thinking of him like a ROM Spaceknight type, but I recently realized he might be more like Frankenstein.
I love retro-tech, so this was right up my alley. You can clearly see inspiration taken from the Switch (though I tried to keep that at a minimum), the s2 Digivice, and the Turbo Navigator, and I think I managed to put my own spin on it. Big difference is the motion-tracker camera, so you can browse without needing the thumbstick. But mid-90s tech means the LCD is small and has some ghosting issues, and the hologram is a monochromatic low-res deal.
Best of both worlds, right? Rather than get a buttload of big cinema displays, get the cheap smaller ones and fit 'em into the classic backlit LCARS we know and love. Tried to keep it simple, but varied, since now we can have the screens sideways and still have them work right.
A set of uniform and costume ideas I doodled while watching Allegiant.
I didn't really like this until I coloured it, the blue reminded me of a costume design idea I had for Ender's Game. I think I'll mix in some of that with this, play with the lines more to make it a bit more retro-futuristic. Don't really have a place for it yet, but it could prove fun.
A child in the future. Maybe even Jonah, this wanderer kid I remember seeing ten years ago. Rocking a leather smock with some electronics built in. The second I doodled that watch, I remembered an electric sign that, if miniaturized, would be an interesting cyber-cuff, that's why I included it there.
You never see purple uniforms, which is odd because I think they look rather striking. Though a bit 90s, but I like the 90s. I'm kind of in a Shootingstars mood right now, and while I was doing these in black and white I thought they might work, but this colour scheme is a bit more pleasant.
There's one design I didn't include, I need to redo it a bit, but it has potential to be my fave of this batch, a "survival" jacket intended for a new crew in the Iron Star-verse... they're not a proper crew, they're more like the Scooby gang in space, and I wanted them to have heavy duty jackets to wear over their normal clothes, in the vein of the Lightspeed Rescue jackets by way of Star Wars.
This is something that came to mind a few days ago, an oily, greasy messed up take on a super sentai combiner mech, a metal razorback hog. Looking at this thing, I imagine it's a bit bigger than the other mechs (think the Galactabeasts or the Voltron lions) and can force itself into the transformation process, hijacking the body and using it for it's own ends. Meaning I gotta design a helmet for it as well. That's been giving me issues.
Gaming Mouse + Yacht = Spaceship
(you might notice that the little pod looks like a USB thumbstick)
And this one, I haven't come up with the right body to stick this onto, so I just scanned it thinking I'll just snap it on top of a body at a later date. I just didn't want it in my clipboard anymore.
And a face, straight out of a classic flick I'm overdue to revisit: Planet Of The Apes. Nova:
Logos for TCS, "Total Correctional Solutions," the company that owns and operates the Iron Star. Though I didn't realize until I did these that they didn't build the IS... so there may be secrets in the station they don't know about. I still haven't designed a flag or even a name for the corrupt Human gov in the Iron Star-verse, but of course these guys would pledge their allegiance to the company.
The CO's badges, with TNG style rank striping. I was toying with the idea that each department would have their own icon, like in TOS, but... that's needless complication. Maybe some have stars and some don't. I'm also thinking they can tap them and talk like The Next Generation.
Hopefully these will inspire a little direction in the CO uniforms... I've done more concepts than I can remember, a mix of current day uniforms and jumpsuits... but nothing I'm happy with. I had the phrase "Fascists in need of more funding" in my head. They could fit better, the fabric could be better quality, the colours could be brighter... and of course, the suits are so old that more stuff got required that doesn't fit the aesthetic, so they all have extra laniards, medallions and techno-tchotchkies that don't "go" with the rest.
And this is just something I found at Target, I thought it would be a great pattern for a future person's shirt... maybe Page would have it underneath her scrubs (though a more waffle-shirt type would be more appropriate). It's a bit more civilian than utilitarian.
Here's some updates from an old sketchbook.
A weird, offbeat Enterprise. Was never sure what I could do with this, now I'm thinking it might be the "mother ship" from Shootingstars, which I was thinking would look like an old junker compared to the Righteous Fury's sleek shell.
A wall control panel, very 80s and old tech. Sort of a budget Enterprise. Just now thought "maybe that's a console on the boxy off-brand Enteprise from above."
The allocator ship... I like the rolling blue spine, I want to do a redesign of this. It's a snatcher, maybe belonging to TCS or a bounty hunter collective. Too nice for the grubbier bounty hunters out there.
I only now realized that this could be an Iron Star clone... the Dell to the Iron Star's International Business Machine, cheaper, mass produced and without the high standard that the IS originally had.
Like this Not sure where I'll use it.
That's awesome... my drawing suggested more window levels, but yours works far better. It looks like something from the 30s or 40s, art deco... a studebaker in space. And maybe more naturally because it wasn't intended to be, so it's not "in your face" about it.
I had been thinking of this as a IS clone, as you read, but now I can see it being in something like Flash Gordon.
OR, if they have those old James Cagney movies in this universe ("Aliens With Filthy Souls"), maybe that's the a setting in the movie... filmed with models and old school effects!
But the more I think about the IS, I think it's unique in their universe. And the designer might have been a bit of an oddball. But thinking about the art deco design made me think of maybe someone from the IS's past jumping into the future. Gave me an excuse to revisit the classic striped uniform look.
That guard uniform is pretty consistent with what I'd been experimenting with before but never really felt right, and now I realize why... it's from the wrong time period! It doesn't fit with the surgical scrub modern day look that the series takes place in.
I'm not sure what the inmate will look like yet, I'm thinking kind of light violet, maybe with fins or gills. Picturing glowing eyes, maybe some scales.
Also ran the Iron Star concept by my favourite cousin. "That's totally a show I would watch." She also loves the idea of being a Shellie.
But I was thinking about that scene and pictured this little fish alien girl being in their grup:
And there's a lot more aliens down below!
Saw this old man, started adding more lines to his face, now he looks like a mix between a Mummy and a Klingon... working as a private detective. You know, some people are exaggerating when they say they've seen it all, not him.
Saw a big guy with a neck pillow, imagined it as part of his body and got this. Might redo the head, make it a bit more weird.
But the thing is, I drew this ten days after drawing this little doodle I absolutely love:
I don't think they're the same species, so I have to think of ways to distinguish them more. I figure that screen there shows simple images, reflect his mood, etc.
Did this because I couldn't see the rest of the man's head. I'm thinking it might close up like a display case and be brought around to show people.
Saw this woman texting, and something about her seemed so tall I had to exaggerate more of it. Dunno how she became a demon, though.
Faces for that devil/alien. The idea that she's married intrigues me. Think I might be depending a bit too much on the "head fin" design, because Eden has that, and I also designed this:
Inspired by a girl with braids. I think she'd be pink like a prawn, maybe she's the time traveling inmate described above, or maybe the vic in the pilot (though I could also see the dealer that Bobby and Gentry get stuck with having head gear like that).
And finally, this is something I was toying with, the written language for Shootingstars:
I had already created a base-12 numbering system for them that was pretty basic and intuitive, basically a 1x1 version of this. Figured their text language would follow a similar set of rules. Exactly the kind of lettering you'd expect a military society to use.
It was maybe halfway through that I realized there should be some part of the letter that signifies where it is, so some of those don't technically work. I also like the idea that there are more lines the less often a letter is used, so checking the scrabble points:
1 point: E Ã14, A Ã12, N Ã9, R Ã7, O Ã6, T Ã5, U Ã5, I Ã4, L Ã4.
2 points: D Ã4.
3 points: G Ã3, S Ã3, V Ã3, H Ã2.
4 points: B Ã2, K Ã2, M Ã2, Z Ã2, ZH Ã2, CH Ã1, C'H Ã1.
5 points: P Ã1.
10 points: F Ã1, J Ã1, W Ã1, Y Ã1.
Means that F, J,W, and Y would take the most effort to write, the vowels would take the least since you'd be writing them more. I think that's a good way to distribute that.
And b/c this is a forum about hardware:
Some screwed up doodles of work vehicles. Maybe they're in the Iron Star cargo bay/warehouse.