alexries

Detailing

Disabled most of the color so that I could render in details

Old Book Concepts

This year I want to put together a pitch for the first Birrin book.  A few years ago I made some mock ups which could be interesting to see!

Robot!

What I have been working on the past couple years: a book for Kids Can Press due out later this year. 

See lots more on my ArtStation:  https://www.artstation.com/abiogenesis

Dashbot

Putting my folio together and finding lots of my older art.

This image appears in Zoobots, one of the first books I ever worked on!

Foliose

Popping in some tough High Kiln plants

Mirror

Flipped and more progress. Ground crew focus next.

Directions for Backdrops

What do yall think? Deciding between a simpler, less cluttered desert scene (would have missile trails, clouds etc in the sky) Or a more complex environment among rocks. 

Thoughts?

Drone Carrier

Adding more detail; now that the basic design for the plane is fairly solid, I want to spend some time developing the surrounding scene and background.

Toying with the idea that part of the munitions carried is a drone/cruise missile that can be launched to provide remote targeting, recon and decoy duties.

Color

Experimenting with colors as I flesh out the details.

The aircraft features a virtual cockpit, with vision provided by cameras in the landing gear nacelles. An optical periscope is provided in the event of a power failure.

Landing Gear

Workin out the details for the retractable gear: current design retracts backwards into the nacelles, pivoting on the main wing spar. Have to lower the tail wheel...

Busy Bees

Adding in the ground crew and pilot...

Deets

Adding details as I go, threw on some color as part of ongoing experiments. Will add birrin groundcrew.

Masking

Working on masking out all the main elements via paintover. Every major part is now on its own layer, and will be given a value pass in greatscale.

Aircraft Tender

Working on the design for the aircraft crew service vehicle; the region these planes operate in can be so hot it is beyond Birrin survival limits. These climate controlled vehicles provide power to cool grounded aircraft and deliver crew and technicians to the field.

At the moment the design has teleoperated arms, avoiding cre...

Close Air Support

Some photobash tests for my birrin Close Air Support work.

These fighters, hybrid electric and relatively slow, are deployed from bases in the Kiln. They support and protect Reclaimation efforts in pre-Fall city ruins and refuse dumps in the region

Kiln Staging Area

Resuming work on the hybrid turbojet-electric mudfighter some birrin factions use to protect their reclaimation efforts at the edges of the Kiln.

Placing my basic 3D model and throwing in some temp backgrounds helps me get a feel for things before diving in.

Workin'

Old sketch of a birrin at the office.

Next Peice

Time for a Klingon redesign methinks...

Reward Rollout - Tomorrow

Rolling out the next set of rewards soon - several images of possible Birrin aircraft designs

Rewards Coming

Hey folks,

Rewards will start rolling out for supporters of the 'Cresting Wave' piece this weekend. 

Regards,

Alex

Cresting Wave

Built from plans that predate the Fall, the Cresting Wave is a major component in southern logistics and passenger transport on the Birrin world. As a flying boat, it is an ideal vehicle to service the lakebound cities of the floating forest and the numerous towns and settlements that dot the coasts of Tuetalli.

Flying wings, ...

3D Proxies

Prior to finalising the artwork, I created some simple 3D models to make sure I got the perspective right; here they are doing a little flying!

Variants

I went through a lot of concepts for the engine pod, I couldnt find a balance between plausible power level and the look I wanted for some time!

Sudden Progress

The previous sketch developed directly to this image uneventfully; I used a simple blue Overlay layer to give a sense of colour whilst I worked on the value study (the actual image was greyscale)

While I was largely happy with the hull, the engine nacelle was giving me issues and went through many iterations as you shall see.<...

Color Test

A later abandoned, but rather intriguing lighting test. In te end, was too murky to use.

Layout

Before proceeding with the painting, I did a basic drawing to flesh out a possible fueselage

New Direction

The sketch that made me decide to paint the Birrin Seaplane as a lifting body. A high mounted engine was conceived to avoid as much salt spray as possible on takeoff. 

Heavy Lifter Floatplane

This design ultimate went in a very different direction, but I took the design of the lifter quite far. 

Legacy Artwork - Seaplane

While I put the finishing touches on an illustrated robot book in the next few months, I would like to share with you the development of a Birrin aircraft painting that I completed, but never released, from a few years ago.

Thisl sketch was inspired by giant flying boats of the Golden Age of aviation, and the end result was qu...

Composition Tests

Would you pefer to see them on the ground, in the air, or maybe do two paintings in the series?