Here are some more design works for “War of the Currents.” With CTN EXPO coming up, I have to put up a new animation reel and portfolio for the convention, so I don’t know if I’ll have more design work next week, but I’ll try to have another post… of something. Also, people are starting to ask me about the story behind all these characters and places, and honestly right now the ideas are just a little too jumbled for a coherent story to come out quickly. Besides, I don’t even know in which medium to attempt something like this, though most likely not comics (maybe film, or animation; or even just illustrations for a novel?) Either way, I hope you’ve been enjoying them as much as I have painting them, so once again, enjoy!
This week I continue to explore the world of War of the Currents with some more character and mechanical designs. I guess the carbon light bulb theme in all of these designs comes from a concept of reverse causality (is that even real?) in such that the energy comes from the bulb, and not from another source that makes the bulbs glow. One of the challenges of sci-fi is coming up with the science or logic of that world, and while it’s exciting and interesting, it’s also a bit overwhelming; either that or I’m too worried about things making sense.
This week, I got back into some character painting and more vehicle design, further developing the world and characters of “War of the Currents.” Besides that, there isn’t much else that I need to talk about, so I’ll let the images speak for themselves. Enjoy!
This week I’ll introduce you to my other visual development idea: War of the Currents. The name right now seems rather generic, but it refers to the so-called “war” between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla in the late 1880’s about which electrical current was superior for conductivity. I’ve been doing some reading on the subject and that has helped me shape this retro future science fiction world; however, unlike “Crimson Candle” I have a much less specific idea about characters and story, and more about world building, which makes it harder for me to think about a titular character or story core for the project. And so, “War of the Currents” seems to be the title that will work for now, but I’m sure the more I develop this idea, the closer I’ll get to the core of the story and maybe a new title (?) Either way, I hope the illustrations below can give you a glimpse of what this world looks like. Enjoy!
Here are a few early character designs for Crimson Candle; they are rather stock looking characters for now, but hopefully they’ll become more dimensional as I keep on developing them and the story in which they take place. But, lately, they’ve become a good excuse to design better custom brushes in Photoshop and to try and mimic something in between watercolor and washes.
So far I’m pretty happy with the outcome, so let’s what I else I can conjure within this concept, though next time, I’ll shift gears a bit and explore some characters and illustrations on my other idea, with a rather steampunk tone…