Just to be different, RocketFans, I thought I'd actually make a post.
Kidding aside, I've been working at a day job of late and dealing with getting myself back into the groove of time management, scheduling, and all the things I haven't had to think about since comas and brain damage removed me from the conventional labor force. I'm not sure how to describe the experience. Imagine having to re-learn not only the moves and routines of something you've done all of your adult life, but have to re-learn some of the concepts behind the routines and moves. Only a strict regimen of bi-hourly doses of insulin and daily doses of anti-depressants and anxiety meds.
I only mention this to explain my sometimes (okay, often) erratic postings and tendency to tail of in mid-series. I'll put it this way: Normal blood sugar is between 70 and 90. Mine has gone from 461 to 39 in the space of six hours. At least once a week.
Moving along...
As the title suggests, I've been playing with isometric projections and cutaways. If you're not 100% familiar with the concept, It's like this:
I love these kinds of images. I've got all of the Incredible Cross Sections books and I've dreamed of being able to make my ships into art like this. After all, I taught myself how to make the deckplans, the orthos, the CG models, and everything else you've seen in my previous work, what's one more technique?
To start with, I got some iso-grid paper. This wonderful stuff is great for folks who do not have drafting tables and 3 degree triangles in their inventories and better still, it takes a lot less time to use than blank paper. After watching a brief YouTube tutorial on how to draw isometric circles, I was off and running!
Here is an image of what could be a variation of the Heinlein Rocket's Keel:
Rather than try to ink this little sketch, I did what I think is the smart thing and scanned it into the computer and printed it out at three times the original size:
This is the version I inked. I used pens and did it by hand, because I'm old school. And because it's faster...
But after that, I put the inked imaged back into the computer, fired up the GIMP, and cleaned it up. I not only scrubbed out the blue guide lines, I fixed mistakes and added some details that were just too fiddly for me to work in with a hand pen. Thank goodness for a computers extreme zoom!
A drawing like this can still be confusing if left in un-shaded black-and-white. Besides, I wanted to capture the style of the ICS books, so I colorized the image and added some additional details. This is the latest iteration:
I did not add any shading or people to the image, because this is only a test. Now that I've managed to create a workflow and get some practice in, I'm going to start working on making some real spaceship art. I will naturally be posting the results regularly on Patreon and here, and once I've finished a collection for a particular spacecraft, a published volume would not be out of order. I look forward to it.
I just want to take a moment and sing the praises of the Patreon system. Back before the advent of monthly crowd-funding, I would never have felt like I had the time to work on this kind of art. I had to stay within the bounds of the admittedly narrow style I had already developed for making deckplans and churn out books monthly if I was to expect to see any decent money from the enterprise. Even then, the money wasn't that decent, but for a family of five living on $17,000 a year, it meant the difference between a real birthday party for the kids or just a present and box cake. With Patreon, however, I'm at the level I of monthly income slightly above that of when I had to get a thirty-page book out every thirty days. That means I can actually explore new ideas, like the nano-fic, the maps, and these isometric drawings. Now I know I can take my time and work on a single, long-term project because I not only have a venue with which to share the progress, I have the support it takes to finish it. So thank you to all my Patrons out there, for making this possible.
Got a little sentimental. It happens. Anyway, soon-ish, I'll be talking about my next major project and what books Debra and I are working on, as well as whatever Rob Garitta has cooked up in his devious little mind. See you then!
Kidding aside, I've been working at a day job of late and dealing with getting myself back into the groove of time management, scheduling, and all the things I haven't had to think about since comas and brain damage removed me from the conventional labor force. I'm not sure how to describe the experience. Imagine having to re-learn not only the moves and routines of something you've done all of your adult life, but have to re-learn some of the concepts behind the routines and moves. Only a strict regimen of bi-hourly doses of insulin and daily doses of anti-depressants and anxiety meds.
I only mention this to explain my sometimes (okay, often) erratic postings and tendency to tail of in mid-series. I'll put it this way: Normal blood sugar is between 70 and 90. Mine has gone from 461 to 39 in the space of six hours. At least once a week.
Moving along...
As the title suggests, I've been playing with isometric projections and cutaways. If you're not 100% familiar with the concept, It's like this:
 |
| Tantive IV FTW |
To start with, I got some iso-grid paper. This wonderful stuff is great for folks who do not have drafting tables and 3 degree triangles in their inventories and better still, it takes a lot less time to use than blank paper. After watching a brief YouTube tutorial on how to draw isometric circles, I was off and running!
Here is an image of what could be a variation of the Heinlein Rocket's Keel:
Rather than try to ink this little sketch, I did what I think is the smart thing and scanned it into the computer and printed it out at three times the original size:
This is the version I inked. I used pens and did it by hand, because I'm old school. And because it's faster...
But after that, I put the inked imaged back into the computer, fired up the GIMP, and cleaned it up. I not only scrubbed out the blue guide lines, I fixed mistakes and added some details that were just too fiddly for me to work in with a hand pen. Thank goodness for a computers extreme zoom!
A drawing like this can still be confusing if left in un-shaded black-and-white. Besides, I wanted to capture the style of the ICS books, so I colorized the image and added some additional details. This is the latest iteration:
I did not add any shading or people to the image, because this is only a test. Now that I've managed to create a workflow and get some practice in, I'm going to start working on making some real spaceship art. I will naturally be posting the results regularly on Patreon and here, and once I've finished a collection for a particular spacecraft, a published volume would not be out of order. I look forward to it.
I just want to take a moment and sing the praises of the Patreon system. Back before the advent of monthly crowd-funding, I would never have felt like I had the time to work on this kind of art. I had to stay within the bounds of the admittedly narrow style I had already developed for making deckplans and churn out books monthly if I was to expect to see any decent money from the enterprise. Even then, the money wasn't that decent, but for a family of five living on $17,000 a year, it meant the difference between a real birthday party for the kids or just a present and box cake. With Patreon, however, I'm at the level I of monthly income slightly above that of when I had to get a thirty-page book out every thirty days. That means I can actually explore new ideas, like the nano-fic, the maps, and these isometric drawings. Now I know I can take my time and work on a single, long-term project because I not only have a venue with which to share the progress, I have the support it takes to finish it. So thank you to all my Patrons out there, for making this possible.
Got a little sentimental. It happens. Anyway, soon-ish, I'll be talking about my next major project and what books Debra and I are working on, as well as whatever Rob Garitta has cooked up in his devious little mind. See you then!
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