Dear lords I can't believe it's been so long since I posted anything. I've been drawing, don't you worry about that, but not much of robots, ships, or anything that would suit the forum. I DID however conceive this sucker last night which I'm very happy with, the Crawling Carriage.
It's more fantasy than SF (nothing wrong with that), and it definitely needs a bit of refinement and engineering, but I like it even if I don't have a place for it yet. I also feel like an idiot for it taking almost the whole page for me to think "you should model it after your left hand so you can actually SEE it when you're drawing."
Been a hot minute since I posted anything on here. Sorry I don't have any new ship designs, those have been fleeting. But two new robots, so that's something. Enjoy!
This lumpy guy is inspired by an overbokehed silhouette, hence the strange proporions and lights. I'd love to play around with this some more, I bet I could pull some interesting attitude out of him.
This second one is... different.
For an anime inspired half-idea called Hazardolls (technically Valkyrie Goddess Hazardolls, VERY 80s/90s anime) that I don't think I'm going to do much with so I can post it on here. Three awesome women in battle armour fighting unholy monsters, how can you go wrong. This is me trying to brainstorm ideas for the basic armour, roughing out shapes and plates based on musculature and so on. There's no... iconic identity to it yet, but I kinda like what I have thus far.
This one might be a bit risque for the forum, so if there's an issue, let me know.
Drew this on my walk, tiny little drawing (this was in a custom-made pocket-sized sketchbook I had made, it's the size of an old iPhone or iPod). It's meant to be a near-futuristic cargo ship. I definitely want to do a bigger version with GOOD wings on it and fit the flight deck a bit better.
6 months since my last post? I've been drawing, don't worry about that. Keeping a rewilding sketchbook, which is fun but very long term, so not much to share. And what I've been doing leans more into the robot and mecha design... which is still sci-fi, and if I have something cool, I'll share. But here's something in connection to our first love, spaceships!
An eager young space cadet! I just had the idea for the character and had to put her down, inspired a bit by the sneak peaks of Star Trek Resurgence and that feeling of being on a starship again.
And a Y2K-ish standing console with LCARS, done on a scrap page. Just thought it looked kinda nice.
Inside a cave with its entrance to the water, a pirate ship smashed against the stone dock, dead in front of an ancient temple.
Lukewarm on this execution but it's a rough draft. Designed without knowing what exactly I want.
edit:
I didn't realize my last post was "Eager Young Space Cadet" (and I also didn't realize that was only three months ago!) I did some samuria robot designs recently that aren't finished but... I feel like I should share some of them with y'all since my updates have been few and far between and those technically qualify as SF. Haven't done ships in a while, though.
There's also something I've been meaning to do for years and years which this sketch made me really feel: I've been wanting to revisit all of Blue Planet and draw from it, I think that'd be great practice as well as spark a bunch of ideas. But it's a big project so it always felt daunting.
Researchers at University of Waterloo and New York University Courant Institute have recently created an AI tool that can automatically generate unique artistic images based on text descriptions. Their method, introduced in a paper pre-published on arXiv, is based on a dynamic memory generative adversarial network (DM-GAN), a model based on two artificial neural networks that work together to generate increasingly convincing images.
"We create an end-to-end solution that can generate artistic images from text descriptions," Qinghe Tian and Pr. Jean-Claude Franchitti wrote in their paper.
Those Ai can be fun but... honestly, drawing a thing is part of understanding a thing. AI might be good for brainstorming or throwing a lot of spaghetti against a wall... and there's definitely some stuff I want to throw at Dall-E, but it's not the same to me.
Thanks Rigger, great to hear from you! Glad you're liking these. Sorry I don't have more ships, it's been mostly robots. My story ideas have been mostly earth-bound, dealing with people and machines. I did do some rough updates to the Vengeance megazord but not a full redesign. Still, might be worth posting.
"I like robots. They're .... efficient."
I need to get back to the Iron Star, feels like it's been a hot minute since I did any work on that. It deserves a pilot script, I just gotta figure out how the characters get there in the first place.
Love your writing too. The treatment you did on my script was fantastic! Wish I had filmed it.. life....
I have done some rethink on my universe. I am now thinking that it will be bound to our solar system with ConGlom in the process of building a Dyson ring near the orbit of Mars. It's being built in smaller self contained sections with the Seeders being the construction crews. Mars and the rest of the outer bodies are the resources.
At this point in time ConGlom controls mankind's energy resources and transportation (In particular space travel). My story arc will investigate what would happen if a disruptive technology (FTL?) was discovered that could topple their strangle hold.
(Hmmm, that just got me going down the rabbit hole.... What about being able to convert matter into a data stream and shooting it from place to place in a beam of light..... The day before you go on a trip you check into the Zap motel and have your DNA copied and your brain cell structure analyzed and Datafied, and you wake up the next morning at your destination. - that could lead to all sorts of ethical dilemmas - what do you do with the doppelganger back home?..)
The Trip Pod thing reminds me of Dark Matter, they had these pods you'd go into and it would create a clone puppet of you at your destination. And when you were done or it died, you'd just wake up where you started. No long travel time, no packing... it's brilliant!
And shooting from place to place ina beam of light is how i pictured the transporters in Star Trek working, they dont' disassemble you and reassemble you, they map out your whole cellular structure, create a matching hole at the other end, and shoot you down.
Definitely like the idea of a disruptive technology, there's a little Cory Doctorow meets James S A Corey to that idea. Kids vs the evil mega corp.
I can see the Dyson Ring being a real hypercaptalist micro-charges everywhere kind of place, everything's expensive so kids gotta find their own fun, which means getting into trouble.
Ha! I remember having the idea of making a colouring book for my little cousins for Christmas, then I realzied how few of my drawings are actually usable for that.
That plant ship's got kind of a Vorlon feel to it, it's pretty cool. I'm trying to remember if this is the "an entire jungle in a glass" ship or the ship that's inspired by a banana leaf (I don't know if I've ever done a good render of that). Or is this like the Black Sunflower?
I can see this being a seed ship, not the main jungle but like after the events of Iron Star, where Eden's people got their ship back, they start building a fleet.
A Tardis-inspired interior that I've been toying with in my head. I finally had the basics of an idea so I thought I would put it down and get some response.
The idea was to hit that late 80s/ealry 90s PALwave-turns-Betacam aesthetic, basically an early 90s Doctor Who. Better cameras picking up more detail and colours, and I wanted to change the layout a bit.
Now the room is split into three spaces, the command post which has the console which has to be used more actively: joysticks, levers, aesthetic. The console faces the 'lab" space, with a wall of monitors that provide feedback as well as other instruments. The third space is the "lounge" which is meant to have a seat and a lounger, as well as a bookshelf and anything else to give it a "homey" touch (this is also where the coat stand would be, next to the egress door while any equipment for the outside would be on the other side, on the command post space.
The walls would be those white packing pallets with lights shining behind, and some details on a layer in front, probably pipes or something like that.
Above each door is a monitor showing different status things (the one above the egress door shows the outside world, for example).
So I've been keeping a pocket sketchbook with me as I walk.. mostly to make notes about how to organize the massive library I listen to, but every now and then I'll sketch down interesting shapes or ideas.
But today... I got caught out in the rain and got drenched, with water encroaching on the corners of the pages. So I pulled out the sketches and scanned them. This is the one I like the most.
Basically it's the udnerside of a space concorde type ship, I'm imagining black panels, maybe the whole back is one long thruster. The fuselage is flat and sleek.
I wound up seeing a fair amount of videos about houseboats and yachts today... which led to quite a few sketches. I'm going to finish them off and ideally mash them up with some other influences since I think a few might be useful for Iron Star and Sprinter, but for now, here's this sketch I did modifying and "hulking" out a motor to something that might suit a smaller spaceship. I just wanted something different than your usual glowing quantum core.
I'm thinking it's called the Hammerhead, though looking at it, it looks a bit more like a Ram.
So while sketching out my ideas, I kind of had the idea that the Sprinter would be modular.. I don't think the whole thing should be modular because that might not be spaceworthy but also every room would have the same dimensions and that would be boring, but I could see the kitchen, bathroom, and maybe the crew cabins being replaceable modules... though it still takes hours, and even in the future they'll make minor changes so that there's not total compatibility. They want to be able to sell you new ships, after all.
Oh hey, this is a longshot, but I'm wondering if anyone on here has a higher resolution shot of this picture from the Voyager pilot... I've only been able to find a 320x240 but I'm certain there has to be a sharper image than that.
Yeah, I also tried reverse image search on Google and that's the only size to come up. Since it's a publicity still and not a screencap, I gotta figure there's a higher res version out there somewhere (I found a different angle in an old Star Trek magazine, but not that image)
Posts
Gotta go design a bunch of leg concepts for all these torso-only machines.
It's more fantasy than SF (nothing wrong with that), and it definitely needs a bit of refinement and engineering, but I like it even if I don't have a place for it yet. I also feel like an idiot for it taking almost the whole page for me to think "you should model it after your left hand so you can actually SEE it when you're drawing."
This lumpy guy is inspired by an overbokehed silhouette, hence the strange proporions and lights. I'd love to play around with this some more, I bet I could pull some interesting attitude out of him.
This second one is... different.
For an anime inspired half-idea called Hazardolls (technically Valkyrie Goddess Hazardolls, VERY 80s/90s anime) that I don't think I'm going to do much with so I can post it on here. Three awesome women in battle armour fighting unholy monsters, how can you go wrong. This is me trying to brainstorm ideas for the basic armour, roughing out shapes and plates based on musculature and so on. There's no... iconic identity to it yet, but I kinda like what I have thus far.
This one might be a bit risque for the forum, so if there's an issue, let me know.
Drew this on my walk, tiny little drawing (this was in a custom-made pocket-sized sketchbook I had made, it's the size of an old iPhone or iPod). It's meant to be a near-futuristic cargo ship. I definitely want to do a bigger version with GOOD wings on it and fit the flight deck a bit better.
(measured this: the drawing is 5 x 2.5 inches!)
An eager young space cadet! I just had the idea for the character and had to put her down, inspired a bit by the sneak peaks of Star Trek Resurgence and that feeling of being on a starship again.
And a Y2K-ish standing console with LCARS, done on a scrap page. Just thought it looked kinda nice.
Inside a cave with its entrance to the water, a pirate ship smashed against the stone dock, dead in front of an ancient temple.
Lukewarm on this execution but it's a rough draft. Designed without knowing what exactly I want.
edit:
I didn't realize my last post was "Eager Young Space Cadet" (and I also didn't realize that was only three months ago!) I did some samuria robot designs recently that aren't finished but... I feel like I should share some of them with y'all since my updates have been few and far between and those technically qualify as SF. Haven't done ships in a while, though.
There's also something I've been meaning to do for years and years which this sketch made me really feel: I've been wanting to revisit all of Blue Planet and draw from it, I think that'd be great practice as well as spark a bunch of ideas. But it's a big project so it always felt daunting.
Look at this:
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-artistic-images-based-text-descriptions.html
Researchers at University of Waterloo and New York University Courant Institute have recently created an AI tool that can automatically generate unique artistic images based on text descriptions. Their method, introduced in a paper pre-published on arXiv, is based on a dynamic memory generative adversarial network (DM-GAN), a model based on two artificial neural networks that work together to generate increasingly convincing images.
"We create an end-to-end solution that can generate artistic images from text descriptions," Qinghe Tian and Pr. Jean-Claude Franchitti wrote in their paper.
Okay, new sketch, head design for a rat drone.
Over time, the AI can get used to each artists style and be more helpful.
"I like robots. They're .... efficient."
I need to get back to the Iron Star, feels like it's been a hot minute since I did any work on that. It deserves a pilot script, I just gotta figure out how the characters get there in the first place.
I have done some rethink on my universe. I am now thinking that it will be bound to our solar system with ConGlom in the process of building a Dyson ring near the orbit of Mars. It's being built in smaller self contained sections with the Seeders being the construction crews. Mars and the rest of the outer bodies are the resources.
At this point in time ConGlom controls mankind's energy resources and transportation (In particular space travel). My story arc will investigate what would happen if a disruptive technology (FTL?) was discovered that could topple their strangle hold.
(Hmmm, that just got me going down the rabbit hole.... What about being able to convert matter into a data stream and shooting it from place to place in a beam of light..... The day before you go on a trip you check into the Zap motel and have your DNA copied and your brain cell structure analyzed and Datafied, and you wake up the next morning at your destination. - that could lead to all sorts of ethical dilemmas - what do you do with the doppelganger back home?..)
The Trip Pod thing reminds me of Dark Matter, they had these pods you'd go into and it would create a clone puppet of you at your destination. And when you were done or it died, you'd just wake up where you started. No long travel time, no packing... it's brilliant!
And shooting from place to place ina beam of light is how i pictured the transporters in Star Trek working, they dont' disassemble you and reassemble you, they map out your whole cellular structure, create a matching hole at the other end, and shoot you down.
Definitely like the idea of a disruptive technology, there's a little Cory Doctorow meets James S A Corey to that idea. Kids vs the evil mega corp.
I can see the Dyson Ring being a real hypercaptalist micro-charges everywhere kind of place, everything's expensive so kids gotta find their own fun, which means getting into trouble.
I'm thinking of doing the windows/solar collectors in shades of green...
If you like, print these, pull out your markers and go to town..
Hey that gives me an idea, maybe you and I should publish an adult coloring book with a SciFi theme
this is a tedious job...
That plant ship's got kind of a Vorlon feel to it, it's pretty cool. I'm trying to remember if this is the "an entire jungle in a glass" ship or the ship that's inspired by a banana leaf (I don't know if I've ever done a good render of that). Or is this like the Black Sunflower?
I can see this being a seed ship, not the main jungle but like after the events of Iron Star, where Eden's people got their ship back, they start building a fleet.
The idea was to hit that late 80s/ealry 90s PALwave-turns-Betacam aesthetic, basically an early 90s Doctor Who. Better cameras picking up more detail and colours, and I wanted to change the layout a bit.
Now the room is split into three spaces, the command post which has the console which has to be used more actively: joysticks, levers, aesthetic. The console faces the 'lab" space, with a wall of monitors that provide feedback as well as other instruments. The third space is the "lounge" which is meant to have a seat and a lounger, as well as a bookshelf and anything else to give it a "homey" touch (this is also where the coat stand would be, next to the egress door while any equipment for the outside would be on the other side, on the command post space.
The walls would be those white packing pallets with lights shining behind, and some details on a layer in front, probably pipes or something like that.
Above each door is a monitor showing different status things (the one above the egress door shows the outside world, for example).
But today... I got caught out in the rain and got drenched, with water encroaching on the corners of the pages. So I pulled out the sketches and scanned them. This is the one I like the most.
Basically it's the udnerside of a space concorde type ship, I'm imagining black panels, maybe the whole back is one long thruster. The fuselage is flat and sleek.
I'm thinking it's called the Hammerhead, though looking at it, it looks a bit more like a Ram.
So while sketching out my ideas, I kind of had the idea that the Sprinter would be modular.. I don't think the whole thing should be modular because that might not be spaceworthy but also every room would have the same dimensions and that would be boring, but I could see the kitchen, bathroom, and maybe the crew cabins being replaceable modules... though it still takes hours, and even in the future they'll make minor changes so that there's not total compatibility. They want to be able to sell you new ships, after all.
Klingon/Romulan style warships, inspired by AI-generated art.