Toolkit: Pencil & Eraser Character Final + Egg Cup

Still not entirely happy, lighting seems a bit muddy now I look back at it.

And an egg cup.

The Clockwork Soldier - Character Discussion

The Clockwork Soldier is a clockwork-powered automaton built for war and ‘piloted’ by a transplanted human brain formerly belonging to a prisoner of war. Prior to being implanted into the machine his mind was brutally and systematically broken to make him co-operative and destroy his will to rebel against his captors, but slowly, over the century or so he was in active service, his mind began to heal. He has no recollection of his life before becoming the soldier, but he has made a new life regardless. He fell back in love with the world, and acquired a great number of mementos and treasures from the places war took him.

Eventually newer, more advanced forms of the machine-soldier were brought into production, and the Clockwork Soldier was outmoded. With such an impressive armoury built into him, and being a military and industrial secret, he could not be released into the civilian population, but due to being built to be completely tamper-proof he could not be safely dismantled. Thus, his ‘commanders’ had no other option but to lock him away and wait until he wound down by himself.

It has been a very long time since the Soldier was locked away. The commanders who imprisoned him are long dead, as is anyone who remembers the reason the bomb-proof underground bunker is so heavily guarded. It doesn’t need to be; the Soldier never wanted war, and has resigned himself to living away his days alone with his books and his treasures.

He is not unhappy, at least most of the time. He knows most of his books by heart but still reads them out of affection, and carefully maintains his clockwork shell out of a stubborn refusal to die when he’s supposed to. He has made his prison into a home, with all sorts of improvised furniture and storage space to reflect the world he loved and lost. He surrounds himself with his keepsakes and memories of the outside, having long since come to terms with the fact that he will never see sunlight again.

His brain, like any brain, requires sleep and food to survive. Though he cannot feel the comfort of a bed he has one anyway, and, once a week, a tiny hatch is opened to provide him with just enough food and water to live on, and a little oil to keep him going. Nobody on the other side knows why, but they follow orders, and so the Clockwork Soldier persists.

‘Live well. It is the best revenge.’ – The Talmud

The Secret Lair of the Clockwork Solider

The concept of a clockwork soldier is equal parts fascinating and frustrating. Fascinating because the two elements are wildly incongruous; clockwork is often associated with children's toys, not the stuff of warfare, and frustrating because steampunk, the genre most closely associated with clockwork, has been touched upon so often as to become a cliché in and of itself. Now would probably be a useful time to mention that, of all the -punk genres, steampunk is my least favourite for two reasons. One, most of it seems to be Victoriana + cogs + airships = steampunk. Two, it's not actually a -punk genre; -punk implies deconstruction of a concept, while steampunk seems to romanticise the Victorian and Edwardian eras. I am sure there is deep and challenging steampunk fiction out there, but I have yet to find it.

As a result, I am deciding not to reference the steampunk genre at all for this project, unless I should find myself in dire circumstances regarding ideas and need something Right Now. Either that, or I will take steampunk and make it -punk.

The element I am particularly interested in is the soldier. The term 'soldier' has very different implications than, say, 'warrior', or even 'fighter'. 'Soldier' suggests a degree of discipline and organisation, of being part of a bigger unit or army. The concept of a soldier is also quite broad. They could be a mercenary, a military guard, a front line fighter, a guerilla, a combat engineer, a medic, a pilot (either of land or air vehicles), a paratrooper, a marine, a cavalry soldier (I can almost hear Phil shouting at his monitor), a special forces soldier, a militia soldier, a drafted soldier, a supersoldier...

There is also the question of rank, which will be critical in determining the nature of their space. Are they a commander, with a huge war room at their disposal, or a private with a dinky little billet not much better than a cell? Is the space shared? How does military discipline (or perhaps lack thereof) affect the layout of the room?

The other element, clockwork, is tantalisingly tricky. To me the most important thing is the time period in which the soldier exists. Are they in the far future, reaching back to simpler times through old technology, or are they in the past where clockwork is on the cutting edge? How does the clockwork integrate with the character? Are they a toymaker drafted into the military, are they partly or wholly clockwork themselves, are they a zany engineer with a fondness for clockwork gadgetry? Is the clockwork a metaphor for a strictly regimented military life? Are little clockwork gubbins stress relief or mementos? Do they have a suit of clockwork power armour? Does the clockwork replace a steam or internal combustion engine for convenience, having no fuel needs other than a pair of strong arms to wind it, like a knight without a squire might paint their armour black for easier cleaning?

I've probably typed way too much. My apologies if you sat and read all of that.

Maya Characters

Aaaaand... a final render, before all the preliminary work! Muggins here forgot to save the Maya files as ASCIIs to make them (sort of) backwards compatible, so I'll get the un-textured models up here tomorrow. Sorry about that.

Damn, now that I look at the render it seems really under-lit. I'll add 'fix the lights' to my to-do list.

Sleipnir... again

So this happened. In the end I lengthened the body out to 'accurate' length because it looked better to my finicky horses-do-not-work-that-way eye, and I fixed the hell out of the head. I'm pretty pleased with the result, and hopefully this will be the last time I get the hankering to make a difficult subject any more more difficult by doubling the number of limbs.

Sleipnir

Because I can't just go through this break without drawing a horse to bother Phil. This may get painted at some point; not right now though. I've had more than enough of fighting with those legs for tonight (he's not actually in a specific gait, more just prancing-on-the-spot. I put the legs where they looked good - if I tried to give an eight-legged horse an actual gait I would have broken down crying). Thank goodness for Eadweard Muybridge and George Stubbs.

Believe it or not his body is actually too short! There should be more space between the back-front leg and the front-back leg, but he was looking like a dachshund horse so I decided to make him look less weird by shortening his middle.

Also, I'm coming back in September instead of the planned March. Course changes mean the Animation unit is now a year-round series of workshops.

Lions!

Well, only one lion, actually.

I've been noodling around in Sculptris to try and get my brain back in 3D gear. Here's my very first sculpture. Why a lion? Because I've never drawn a lion before, let alone sculpted one. You might think this would be an excellent reason not to sculpt a lion for your very first venture into a new program, but I've never been one to let common sense get in the way of ambition.

Just a quick doodle...

Decided to muck about with expressions, and particularly the fold between the mouth and nose, and how the eyes behave.  I don't know what she's scheming, but no good can come of it and I don't want to be on the receiving end.

WHARRGARBL Part 2

Thank you everyone for the welcomes-back! It's lovely to hear from you all again!

Anywho, a touch more progress on that painting.

Do you ever have those moments with a painting or drawing where you leave it for a couple of days and then go back to it and think 'dear god, what have I done?' I had one of those with Korra's face. It has been fixed posthaste - she no longer has that horrific overbite, and she actually has cheekbones now. I'm still not sure what I want to do with her eyes, so for now they're just nonexistent. I also cut back the saturation and messed with atmospheric perspective a bit, so the environment now has a bit more depth to it.

Unfortunately, without the spray it looks like Korra is about to get eaten. Oh well.