Some Sketches

[Firepower]

So I was cleaning out some files in my comp, and found these old sketches in half-complete states. Unfortunately I haven't used my Tablet in a long time, so I was a bit out of practice drawing with it, but still finished them up and wanted to share.

These fellas are a progression from candidate to full fledged marine of a DIY chapter I've fiddled around with in my head, the Broken Arrows. Simply put, the homeworld is one big windstorm, and humans have to hunt with understanding of how to shoot arrows/bolts in a way that follows the seemingly random winds. The talent carries over to the Chapter, and the marines have a talent for seemingly impossible shots (a bit short of Wanted style I imagine). The reverence for wind leads to the flowing blue images, intersected with various arrows, and tokens of whistles (the little doodads hanging from all those strings). The clothes/capes are patchwork hides of predators from the homeworld. One day I might draft up a decent Liber entry. If I get really antsy I'll make a test model or two, but aside from the turquoise details I never could come up with a scheme that I liked.

A Slaaneshi marine...not much explanation needed here I imagine. Tentacles, claws, extra limbs, piercings, spikes, leather straps...seemed Slaaneshi enough when I drew it.

I may draw up more soon enough. I found a whole bunch of concept sketches and outlines in an old folder, and some I like the potential of. I just have to practice a bit to get my Tablet drawing skills back up to snuff so I don't butcher them. I'm already a bit irritated looking at the sloppy messes I made finishing what little there was to do on these. It really shows on the Broken Arrow marine

Anyhow, hope you folks like them

[Olis]

I certainly like them. They're pretty good for just doodles. I also really like the sound of your DIY chapter - it's already got some unique character that I want to hear more of. Why not pop over to the Liber sometime and chew the cud with us? :)

[Brother 'Ussell]

Looks sweet, like your chapter idea.

[Aqui]

I certainly like them. They're pretty good for just doodles. I also really like the sound of your DIY chapter - it's already got some unique character that I want to hear more of. Why not pop over to the Liber sometime and chew the cud with us?

+1 Very cool concept ^_^

Love the sketches ^_^

[Greyall]

Very nice concepts, Fire, both the sketches and the ideas for your chapter. Do give us more.

[Octavulg]

Lovely. And neat ideas.

[Firepower]

Thanks kindly folks. I'll write up something for the Liber on my Broken Arrows when they feel less...gimmicky. Or not. Lots of the official Chapters are pretty gimmicky :P I'm still wracking my brain over a proper color scheme though. Well, a proper color scheme that I could actually paint without grinding my teeth into dust (i.e. white would make a fine base for the model, but painting white is, as we all know, masochistic).

Anywho, here's another sketch I found more or less complete. Just did some touch ups. It was largely a practice in foreshortening, particularly for those thrice damned power armor shoulders. They're so clunky and ridiculous that it's hard to imagine a working range of motion, and the shapes are just odd enough that they never look 100% perfect :P.

Also, to show what I can do with a pad and paper and a proper time investment, here's a proper bit of my work I posted over in my homey little corner of the BT subforum a while back. Unfortunately it's a photograph, since I'm still yet to get a proper, funcioning scanner. Some day! ~ruefully shakes fist to the heavens~

I've got another one on paper that's about half done which I personally think is a major step up from that. I really gotta work up the gumption to finish it.

[Aqui]

To me, those are pictures that would have tempted me over to Templars if I'd have seen them a few years back ^_^ (I like all Dorn Chapters, but Templars aren't...shooty.  I do like shooty ^_^ )

 

The first one just shouts "Bring it!" to me! :lol: The second one has just the right amount of detail to it, especially the "Mark V/VI" shoulder guard.  Quite difficult to get the shape right.

[Octavulg]

Thanks kindly folks. I'll write up something for the Liber on my Broken Arrows when they feel less...gimmicky.

Think a bit about what the chapter's like character-wise and "gimmicky" will swiftly become "interesting quirkiness".

[Firepower]

Aquilanus- The name of the pic actually is "Bring It." Good guess

Octavulg- That's where I'm at currently. I've got a lot of ideas that, together, make an almost comically cheesy concept. I'm mentally looking at how to trim the fat into a decently quirky idea. My main issue is that I'm focusing quite a bit on the nature of the homeworld and its effect on candidates and not enough on the Chapter itself. Once I strike a reasonable balance I will subject it to the gauntlet that is the Liber. Or I might just throw everythign at the Liber and see what sticks.

On a related topic, one that I'm currently struggling with is my old Grave Wardens chapter idea. Basically I'm trying to think of a way to make them funereal in appearance without abusing the typical motifs. The best idea I have so far is to make them walking grave markers/tombstones, with images of angels and gargoyles, but it's hard to make that stand out from the very common death-fetish style of 40k in general. I've also thought of them wearing death shrouds, though that won't aesthetically look any different from a Death's robe theme. Any suggestions there would be very welcome.

~Link to the very old concept Liber entry for the Grave Wardens- http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/188213-grave-wardens-first-draft/

I did however come up with a couple options for Chapter symbols, after deciding that Sanguinius would make a more appropriate primarch for their story:

OR

At any rate I'll have to throw one of my ideas at Greyall's DIY competition tomorrow, so we'll see what I come up with I suppose

[Firepower]

So, I've always had trouble drawing faces, especially at an angle. This is just a bit of practice that I think turned out fairly well (for a change). Once again, the drawing features my latest DIY, the Broken Arrows.

I'm still struggling with eyes the most I think. The one on the right is meant to be tilted at a downward angle, but the eyes just look like some bad cartoony badguy evil-eyes. I think I'm gonna have to expand my reference material a bit and learn from those. Or just get a friend to hold still for a short while while I draw their eyes (which just sounds creepy :D)

[Messor]

Those faces came out very well, and quite characterful. I see what you mean about the guy on the right, though at the same time, I can see him how you meant. I think simply by dint of  being a drawing its harder to take them out of the 'cartoony' perspective.

[Olis]

I quite like them, even if they appear ever so slightly cartoony. As Messor said - they have character (which goes a long way).

[Firepower]

Yet another practice sketch. I despise drawing backgrounds, but it's an important skill. So this was a mix of drawing structures and perspective practice, with a couple of scouts and marines at different depths.

And of course, an ork getting what he deserves. He's supposed to be dead, but I couldn't quite manage to draw eyes that looked dead instead of...I think the closest word for that look is 'intoxicated.' Perhaps 'curious,' as in 'Oh dear, is there is a rather heavy boot on top of my cranium?'

But if nothing else I seem to be getting the hang of drawing on a tablet again. That makes life a lot easier. :)

[elohimalpha]

Sweet sassy-molassy, that chaplain is epic

[Octavulg]

I honestly wondered why the Ork was wearing a boot for a hat.

 

Sideways head might make it easier to tell what's going on. Let's you get a slack jaw going, too.

[Firepower]

I started with the forground and worked backward. The original plan was to have mister sneaky roof sniper aiming at the ork, who originally had a rather large hole in his head. It had several issues though, and the boot was a quick fix.

 

But yeah, it looks goofy. Partly because of the vertical head, partly the rolled eye, and partly because I couldn't seem to make him look like he wasn't smiling. Something of a comprehensive fail really, but the point was to practice perspective. I may go back and fix it for fun later though. :P

[Firepower]

Ever have one of those days where you just felt like drawing a horribly mutated freak of unholy nature? It's an odd sort of day to have.

Slaanesh makes for interesting drawings. You kinda get to just make up anatomy as you go along. :)

Think I'll try my hand at something Nurgley next. Or maybe s'more Broken Arrows to hold me over til I can get the damn painting going right.

[Firepower]

Slightly less weird of a day, no extra tongues or eyes or nostrils or nasty bondage thingies.

[Dosjetka]

Looking pretty neat, Firepower. Definitely better than I can do with a tablet, since I find that going from pencil to tablet is bloody hard. The last Astartes looks a but pudgy though ;)

[KaiserTJ1860]

I think the length of his bolter barrel doesnt help that "chunky" look you're talking about. Might just be me, but I think his torso seems a little small, on that image its basically the same length as his thigh.

 

Other than that I like it, and youre BT chaplain is immense.  With the right grim-dark colouring it would look right at home in any BT codex

[Firepower]

Well, dusted off the tablet again for a little doodling. I was trying to give an Arrow that more pseudo-Neanderthal appearance I've been looking for, and I think it went alright. Not great, but alright. Some day I might even work up the nerve to draw a face with an actual expression

I'm still much better on paper, but I'm a bit more accustomed to the tablet now, which is a little remarkable given how rarely I pick the thing up. So hooray for that

Edit- fixed something with the eye that was bugging the crap out of me.

[Firepower]

Still haven't got much to do...other than my ETL, but I'm using the next few days of waiting for needle lube in the mail as time off .

So I whipped this guy up. I really like him over all, especially for just an hour's work

I decided to avoid the blue for the arrows and whatnot. A bit less stylized that way, but I still like it. Dunno if I'll keep working like that.

I also decided to go with more stylized proportions, with really, really big armor. I recall a similar style from the Black Templar concept sketches (the super big fists stuck with me), and although I didn't do it nearly as well, I do rather like the style.

Anywho, here we go-

I still suck at faces. He looks kinda like he ran face first into a brick wall. The head on his shoulder is a Dark Eldar trophy, with some nasty spikes through the eyes and lips, and a hook into the center of the skull to keep it on the strap. I explain because even I can't tell just by looking

The flapping thing under it is a scaled hide of a home world beasty. I like it a lot more than the head

[Aqui]

He looks kinda like he ran face first into a brick wall.

To be fair, most Marines look like that

After seeing Greyall's work, I'm liking the "Big Armour" style more and more too The only thing that looks...out to me are his hands, his right holding the bolter looks too big. But I suck big style at drawing hands anyway

[Firepower]

Yeah, the hand's a bit big there. It was supposed to be a bit of foreshortening, but didn't really work out that way seeing as the guy's foreground side is more or less flat. Live and learn.

Anywho, I decided to take a bit more time with one today, and I'm pretty proud of the result. I decided to go back to a bit more anatomically 'normal' style as well.

Seeing as the stock Libarian models from GW really don't fit the Chapter's aesthetic well, which is the very most important for HQs, I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with a decent Librarian conversion/kitbash for my ETL. In particular, thinking of a decent force weapon option was really hanging me up. Then, this rather obvious idea hit me

Of course I won't be able to make a model with a floating, flaming bow, or swirly little flames around his shootin' hand, but painting a regular bow all glowy should do the trick...hopefully. The one issue I have with this guy is his legs, but I suck at legs in general, so I'm not too torn up about it. I sort of cheated/half assed his abdomen too, but that extreme of a twist in the torso isn't really power armor friendly to begin with.

C&C most welcome

Edit-realized his backpack was way too close. Fixed.