Airship Sirius

It's an imaginary airship, of course, it could be the main character in a story set in late nineteenth century, I don't know if I will have enough time for that.
The model is probably not definitive yet, and the name is temporary, too. Also, lighting is rather basic in these renderings.

On the traditional side, besides doing some works I can't show on this blog, I'm struggling quite a bit with colors. I'm trying to find a way to "color my drawings". Basically I want to draw, but it would be nice to integrate lines with some color. Watercolor, inks and gouache are the best candidates, but I still have to find my way.

Airship Norge/2

According to some old photos, airships were carried out of hangars simply by pulling ropes. Sometimes a kind of trolley could support the airship, but I was interested in showing the magic of a giant weightless baloon being carried around.

Airship Norge

The second project I'm working on is a set of images of airships.
I'm starting with some images inspired by the explorations of Umberto Nobile in the '20s, in particular the first polar expedition with airship Norge. However I'm not claiming that my images are faithful to real facts: I'm just fantasizing on them. I will probably make some completely "imaginative" pictures in the future.

Airships are magic objects, possibly the most beautiful and poetic technological objects ever made by men. They are huge and impressive, yet "light" and "immaterial"; they look like dreams made real.

I decided to mix 3D and 2D graphics, because airships are complicated objects which need an accurate rendering, and I don't like to draw mechanical objects. I'm not really fond of 3D (I don't have much fun with it), but that seemed the best option in this case.

The airship (made with the open-source program Blender):


and some settings, on digitally painted backgrounds:

Exploration of Svalbard island (two versions, same background):



The evening before leaving


Leaving in the morning

Messy ostrich

Inkscape is a nice vector graphics editor, like Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator, but it's open-source and free.
Although vector graphics is not my favourite medium, sometimes I like to play a little with bezier curves and the like. You really have the feeeling that you are drawing with your mind, not with your hand, which can be pleasant or annoying depending on your disposition and your mood.
Last spring I took part in the contest for the splash screen of version 0.48, which included a new spray tool. In this case my approach was not "pure vector", as I first drew the main character with a pencil, then traced it (that is: convert to vector) and then compose the image, but the final result still retains the free-hand look.
The image was done in a hurry, and it shows, but anyway I thought it was worth showing.


And no, my proposal was not selected, in case you ask.

Maid service

This month James Gurney's Art by Committee is about a business card:

Cinderella's maid service

a Wish come true

Melissa - Reference available

My image is actually set some years later. Melissa is no more a maid herself, but still runs her company with some employees. The maid service has evolved a bit during the years, as Melissa is always concerned about customer satisfaction...

For those who prefer drawings:

His eyes, so bright

This month James Gurney's Art by Committee is about a strange creature:

“He is shorter than I remember, and thin. His fur is grayed to white in a fringe around his head, just below his ears. His coat is dull, thinning, and coarse. His eyes, so bright I…”

In one of my previous posts, I was complaining that my digital paintings are actually "drawings with some color below". So I decided to make no preliminary drawing on paper, and start painting from the beginning... well, almost. This is the digital sketch - anyway, less accurate than I'm used to do:



the "bright eyes" made me think the guy was not a nice person, so I ended up with this gnomish, dwarfish villain. After that, I started painting - disrespectfully covering the drawing :)
This is the "creature" without fur (I know, I should have painted the fur from the start):



at this point, I should have added some fur as described in the quotation, but I decided a satyr-like red beard was more suited for this guy, and that's the result:

The friendly pirate

A quick sketch with quick digital color, made some time ago. Just for fun.

Love is blind/1

I've made some drawings illustrating the idea of blind love: pretty "ladies" in love with ugly "guys", or the opposite. And also other strange situations... just for fun...
This is one of the series. What is perhaps more interesting is the way a drawing becomes (or should become) a painting. Here is the original pencil drawing: a little girl with her beloved dog

In my attempt to make the girl very cute, I've probably made her a bit weird, too. But anyway...
Now I add some digital color in my usual (lazy) way: I keep the drawing in a separate layer, on the top, and then quicky fill in with some color. It's a fast technique, and it has many pros, but it's probably not painting (maybe I could call it coloring)

Now I sink the drawing into the color, and remove almost all lines, using tone and color to build shape.
A notable point: what works in a drawing, may not work in a painting. Look at the muzzle of the dog. In the drawing the construction is not correct, but it works, and it even adds to the weirdness of the expression. In the painting without lines, the same shape simply looked wrong, so I had to change it in a more correct way, possibly loosing some expression.
In general I think the drawing is more incisive, the painting softer and a bit more "dreamy" (of course I could easily make it stronger and more contrasted, but I prefer this way). Anyway, I'm probably a "drawing guy".

Below some preliminary sketches of chihuahuas, made from photos found on the internet. The purpose was to stress more and more the weird side of those dogs. I definitely don't like chihuahuas, but they are so fun to draw...

Chains

"He stood and held his arms out before him, pulling the chains taut. The muscles in his shoulders and his chest bunched, standing out in sharp relief, and a moment later, the chains snapped cleanly"

This month's assignment for James Gurney's Art by Committee is probably more definite and precise than usual, which, depending on your disposition, can make things easier or more difficult. Anyway, I've decided not to be completely literal.

The drawing was a bit unclear, so I decided to put some (digital) color on it:


With digital color it's quite easy to do some variations:


without the strong contrast between flowers and backgroud the image is somewhat less focused, but perhaps more subtle:

Knight and dragon/2

While playing a little on this theme, trying to get an almost "baroque" feeling, it came to my mind that the knight and the dragon could be two different sides of the same "entity" - sometimes our worst enemy is inside ourselves, isn't it?


I've tried to develop this idea in a new version:


which I (digitally) painted


as always with me, the drawing is by far more incisive and interesting, I think.
A couple of details: