I didn’t finish the science fiction art for “The Assassin” in time for when I posted the
story early last month. If you haven’t read it yet, you should check it out.
It’s still up and, of course, it’s free! I’m just now posting the illustration here
this evening. I’m not replacing it for the clip art (which is not mine) I
provided the story with because it isn’t really complete to serve as an
illustration. In other words, I screwed up on it. And here's how:
This pen and ink drawing for “The Assassin” is supposed to
be of a laser gun in semi atom age/space age, 1950s style. This style is what we now
call atom punk for newer work based on the sci fi of that period (roughly the
1950s through mid ‘60s, but it’s often debatable). Most of this subgenre of
science fiction is based on the idea of an alternative history (also referred to as "alternative timeline") which my story involves. To learn more about this far out subgenre, check out author
Philip Reeve’s article.
The problem I had with this drawing was the butt of the laser rifle. The butt is supposed to be elongated in order to support the person’s arm that’s holding
it. I posed the rifle at a kind of diagonal angle as you can see (and if you
can’t see, then I must’ve really screwed up with this picture, eh?). And of
course, at such an angle you would not be able to see the full butt and so it
should appear smaller than if the gun was shown from a side view. Somehow, the
butt came out to look more like the smaller, more knob-like handle of a 17th
or 18th century pistol! Talk about an alternative history story!
That would be a real time clash wouldn’t it?
I made the oval object at the top of the gun for the target
monitor which is a camera in this retro-futuristic weapon as opposed to a scope
like that of an older gun. The tiny circle in the centre is the lens. If that
whole front of the camera looks like an eye it’s because I intended it to in
order to add a kind of surreal effect. The “eye” represents two qualities. It
represents the protagonist’s ambition to kill the ruler, UCoNet, who is a
living interplanetary computer network. The "eye" also stands for the tyrannical UCoNet’s omniscience, and so UCoNet is a kind of mock biblical God in this story.
These are practice and brainstorm pencil drawings for the above picture.
Want to see some real atom punk art? Check out the links
below!
As you may have noticed, I’ve been making a few changes to
the blog, mostly with pages, to make it easier for you people to navigate my
site to the topics you want. I hope it will help. If not then please let me
know in the comments box or drop me an email at strosejr@gmail.com (please put "Comments for Far Out Fantastic Site" in the subject line). I want your
experience here at the Far Out Fantastic Site to be as easy yet as exciting as
possible. Just to let you know, however, I’m still in the process of adding
pages so it may be another week or so before I get them all up. (I’m not a web
design expert, as much as I love working with web design.)
Also, September 22nd will be the first anniversary of The Fool’s Illusion! And to celebrate, I may have something
special such as a freebie! So check back here often between now and next
weekend.
Until next time . . .
Comments
Post a Comment