Posting up the first one of these the other day inspired me to make another. As before, I took one of my favorite photos from my abandoned-urban-architecture explorations, stylized it, and then added some sci-fi aesthetic/neon color flair. Perhaps I’ll keep progressing this theme further and further, but for now, I leave it here.
Broken Clef.
(Happy New Year! Here’s to more art!)
Brush pen... but with real pen.
“Hang on. I wanna see something.”
He glances in either direction, checking for traffic. Looks both ways again as he crosses the street, more furtively this time. Her footsteps follow, slowly, then quicker, as she jogs across the deserted side street.
“Somehow, I’m thinking this is going to be illegal...”
“Oh, don’t worry... it most definitely is.”
Around the backside of the crumbling wall--perhaps at one point it had been a room or enclosed courtyard of sorts, though now it’s little more than chewed gravel and a sparse collection of weeds even more insistent than the winter chill cutting through his gloves--a simple linework teddy bear, five feet tall and quite pudgy around the middle, sits with his back against the corner. The bright orange spray isn’t even faded. “Hah! Yes, it’s still here.”
“That’s so badass! And completely adorable at the same time!” She chuckles. “I’m feeling like this must have been you?”
“Feel like it might’ve been,” he grins back.
TONIC (n.) - Badass, cybernetically-enhanced, industro-punk star of the dark future.
A WIP of my previous line-drawing post, this is my newest artwork for Color of a Mirror, featuring my main character!
Really trying to stick to my love of minimal, restricted color palettes (plus leaving it mostly black-and-white fits the noir feel of the book). A lot of work for me to figure out the lighting and materials--and then leaving her cybernetic arm disconnected was a late decision; I really like the asymmetry it provides, but I also love how it fits with her character arc.
This armor she's wearing is part of her concert attire, a reclaimed outer-space exosuit painted in a red-glow-in-the-dark finish. It's a piece of her character that I've always had an idea in my head of what it would look like, and to be able to finally visualize it like this is so much fun.
More progress to come on this.
(Painted entirely in Photoshop, with some 3D lighting reference work in Daz3D.)
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If you want to see Tonic's vibe from a music perspective, I have an ever-evolving playlist on Spotify. Periodically, if I hear something new that feels like her, I'll add it in, but overall I try to keep the flow nice.
And if you haven't had chance to read the book, there are still physical copies of the first printing or e-book, both available through my website.
My man Stegall, going at it... like this one a lot.
Internet. Enter a net. In a web, Caught I’ve got To break free Of this spider’s Clutch. Bow legged and Beaten; where is My digital crutch? Mind in dust. It’s been mined Into the cybernetic Crust. All blood and wire And Ethernet veins I’m hoping for an Earth that remains, A body that restrains, A mind that retains. Let’s hope one day We can break free Of this web we’ve Entered into. One day. But, not yet. We’re Still caught in the Internet.