2002 works

Context

I was posting art on Roundeye's forum called Eatpoo at this time, and a little on Sijun (speed paintings) and Itchi's (comic) forum. Francis Tsai's Concept Design Forum had sunk recently and the new ConceptArt.org forum gained a lot of early momentum as it harbored many of the scattered lifeboats. CA and Eatpoo had a little bit if playful rivalry going on, which was manifested as art wars ("Thunderdome" contests). Ultimately, CA overtook Eatpoo in terms of registered members.

I no longer post much on forums. It's nice to get feedback, praise, validation, and new network connections, but somehow that stuff is less valuable to me now (ten years later). Posting on general art forums is a wide-beam sort of thing. Nowadays I like to shoot off my artwork in narrow beams towards some intended target.

Eureka

Mantis reptile. This painting was a bit of a Eureka moment for me, because I realized that I could scan pencil thumbnails and just paint right over. It felt much more natural than drawing a grid over a thumbnail, carefully enlarge it and refine the lines, ink, then risk ruining the drawing with paints, or try to airbrush digitally over the line art. Somehow the... organic, undefined qualities which I saw in my thumbnails never survived that process. This new technique worked a lot better in that regard, and it made me a lot more daring and productive.

I realized much later that since I skipped the line art stage, my figures were often not thought through on a functional detail level. I noticed early on that I was better at painting than at drawing and it was not until about 2007 or so I began to remedy that.

Mantis Reptile

Thunderdome

Here are some pieces which I did for one of the CA vs Eatpoo art wars. Pencil thumbnails + Photoshop colors. I've added a few annotations.

Mutated Atomic Monster Mice

This guy was painted with acrylics but the background was done digitally. It's a rather haphazard thing. I think I was trying to mimic what Bisley was doing with his chiaroscuro inks and detail vaguery. In hindsight, I think that was a mistake. I allowed myself to be too sloppy with the structures.

Cyborg Beast acrylic painting

Misc. stuff

Here's a mecha which I did for the Dungeons and Dragons magazine (Paizo). Striking colors but nonsense pose. I was still working with ink pens and a soft digital airbrush in 2002, but I've pretty much abandoned that technique since.


I've been drawing these kind of crazy zombie heads since I was in 9th grade or something. Acrylics on A4 paper.

DeamonGate is a sci-fi setting which I've been working on since the mid-late 90's.

I've had this character design in my head for the longest time, but it has never quite manifested itself on paper properly. Nowadays I suppose the designs is dime-a-dozen but back in 97 or so I felt that bulky armored cenobite with scythes on the back was something fresh and cool.

Centurion ink

Robots: X, 7, 5, 2, Chicken, Walker - imbalanced with nonsense legs, Super Deformed mech, Acrylics, Mecha - inspired by "Spoogedemon's" stuff, Robot - inspired by a certain "Gecko" on the Sijun forums, Leaning mech - I had not yet noticed that I draw leaning figures -nowadays I'm more careful, or just un-skew them digitally, Mech - pointless pose, pointless armour.

Misc: Pumpkinmen logo - which went nowhere, Horned Deamon, Giant insect - I kinda like this, still, Golem - Acrylics and digital colors, Ember golem - Acrylics and digital colors, Raccoon - ink and digital colors, Thrawn portrait - guy from the Star Wars setting... where's the back of his head? Diver - ink and acrylics, possibly older, Underwater test - nonsense pose, Imagined cubes, Duckface? - I was trying to draw stuff from Marvel cartoons at the time and did lots of these kind of faces... Demon face - A fairly successful color test, for the time, Spaceship captain Baltazar, Beauties and the beast - Acrylics and digital colors. I'm still bad at drawing characters flowing well together.

Robotrek

This comic project has been on ice for many years now, but I still play with it in my head. I worked on a synopsis for the story and briefly worked with a writer, but it poured out into the sand. It's pretty much a ABC warriors + Matalzoic ripoff.

I was thinking that the characters are very mortal (despite being robots). They die and get replaced, like cells in a body, so the story is carried like the olympic torch. This makes it possible for me to use a lot of different designs. Maybe I'll keep just one or two characters thoughout the story, but I don't want the reader to know which ones. And yes, there's a girl too, she functions mainly as a familar scale (and eyecandy).

I did a lot of acrylic pieces and sketches of the characters though most of them were junk.

Keel was supposed to be the main character along with the savage girl Zoot. He was very inspired by Kev Walker's ABC warriors cover. This was a speedpainting. They'd all have to be, for a comic.

Keel, acrylics

Goor was the compulsory brute.

Goor, acrylics

Zurg was a Lawful Evil type of character, looking a bit like a large mechanical Zergling.

Zurg, acrylics

The gargants were larger robots, old and ancient, like ents. Not sure if I captured that.

Ink

Sabre. One ofthe antagonists. I think I used those shoulder-pad-scythes elsewhere this year...

Sabre, acrylics

Vector.

Vector, acrylics

Nok.

Nok, acrylics

Joan comic

I worked for a bit on a comic about a female knight. I think Zoot from the Robotrek setting migrated to this comic. Ultimately, I didn't have the skills to do a comic, and I still don't.

Our heroine. The first one is one of my favorite paintings of 2002. The head is a tad large on both. That's what happens with natural media. But then again, comics and 6-7 heads...

Joan, ink and acrylics Joan, ink and acrylics

Generic three point landing. Undefined, too many directions.

Mech

Page sketches: 9, 10, 11, 12, Sketches.

Star Wars

Episode 1 had come out recently, so I felt like elaborating on the designs in the movie.

Star Wars droid and vehicle concepts


Art by Arne Niklas Jansson, 2002-2012