Hey everyone! I've been working off-and-on on some alternate-art cards, and since I now will have an abundance of time over Christmas break, I thought I would post them here. I'd love to hear your critiques and opinions on these, as I'm planning on using MakePlayingCards to print up a whole ton of the ones I like to give to my buddies at the FLGS.

So without further ado, here's the design journey for Rho Squadron Veteran.

First, the sketch. Done in a booth at an all-you-can-eat buffet. The waitress kinda gave it a funny look before moving along!

Then I used a lightbox to ink the drawing. Note that one of the guns ended up out of perspective and was fixed later.

Next, I colored it in. I actually kinda like the comic book-like look of this one.

Next up, some fancy shading work to make it look a little more professional.

Finally I added the words and stuff. What's funny is that the Wookieepedia page for Aurabesh actually includes links to a downloadable font.

So, what do you think? Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks for looking! Cheers!

The paint scheme is... odd. I would prefer a Lambda-color paintjob.

Ace Gunboat pack confirmed!!

(now I want a red Gunboat too)

Just now, Odanan said:

Ace Gunboat pack confirmed!!

(now I want a red Gunboat too)

It’s only a brush away.

Just now, FlyingAnchors said:

It’s only a brush away.

I will need brush. And paint. And talent.

Nope, I won't desecrate my Gunboats... (but I might pay someone to do it)

4 minutes ago, Odanan said:

I will need brush. And paint. And talent.

Nope, I won't desecrate my Gunboats... (but I might pay someone to do it)

I agree with the bob Ross school of thought that anyone can learn to paint.

Of course, I also understand wanting them to look nice. I put a lot of coats on the first t-70 I painted.

Thanks for the feedback! Much appreciated.

28 minutes ago, Celestial Lizards said:

The paint scheme is... odd. I would prefer a Lambda-color paintjob.

I thought of the white, and then I wasn't really sure what I'd do with the clouds. I ended up using enough white in the clouds that I wasn't sure the GUNBOAT would show up well. Stay posted - I'll try to make a version with the white paint scheme later this week.

25 minutes ago, Odanan said:

I will need brush. And paint. And talent.

Nope, I won't desecrate my Gunboats... (but I might pay someone to do it)

Same. I want to paint up some ace GUNBOATS, but after seeing what happened with my second Lambda when I tried to paint it red, I might just hold off on that for a while... those "ace" paint schemes seem to be the hardest.

16 minutes ago, FlyingAnchors said:

I agree with the bob Ross school of thought that anyone can learn to paint.

Of course, I also understand wanting them to look nice. I put a lot of coats on the first t-70 I painted.

Same here, my first HotAC X-Wing definitely weighs noticeably more than my normal X-Wings!

Photoshop some cats onto it, because cats.

Looks great! I might paint one like your scheme. Here is some gunboat art of my own!

Awesome! Thanks everyone. I tried out the white paint scheme (and some more legible numbers) real quick. Let me know what you think!

I like that the ship is a little more clear (it was a little too foggy in the first one). As for color scheme, I think they are both good. I like the aurebesh and the numbers on the original one, to be honest.

11 hours ago, Odanan said:

Ace Gunboat pack confirmed!!

(now I want a red Gunboat too)

We only need a 300+ pages of a red GUNBOAT thread...

Red Imperial ships are fasta, kids. THAT's FACT!

11 hours ago, Kieransi said:

So, what do you think? Thoughts? Suggestions?

I think the nose looks a bit short? Seems a bit odd.

Other than that, a Red GUNBOAT is always good in my book!

2 hours ago, Malasombra said:

Red Imperial ships are fasta, kids. THAT's FACT!

Seriously; try one of the aces with Push The Limit and Engine Upgrade. The result is truly ridiculously fast (Maneuver 3-Bank, SLAM 3-Bank, Boost 1-Bank)...

hey, this is great!

So I'm going to try and help out here, with my still somewhat rudimentary knowledge of drawing Star Wars ships but hopefully this will help and form a useful set of pointers, based on some general art principles of constructing perspective. I'm not going to focus on how you render the image, i.e. how you colour and shade it, but instead address the underlying fundamentals that should be adhered to, even if it's on the back of a napkin in a buffet ;P

Right, good form and skeletal work underlying your work is crucial. I have illustrated the general procedure of how I go about an image in 3d, and have then cut and warped your image to fit those criteria so you can see how I'm thinking about the lines.

1. pick a flat plane, define your two outer edges. You've taken a long lens view, ie. its like looking through a telescope, so its almost isometric, which is fine. I usually aim for something around 18mm or 15mm for a really dynamic shot, but this is personal preference.

2. Define your three axes, decide if you want multiple vanishing points. For a long-lens view you likely only have one, as I've shown here, where two of your three axes are parallel.

3. Define the space box of your major shape. In this case, for simplicity I've left out the wings, and gone for the bulk of the body of the ship in this box. You have to start thinking about positionally where things are in 3D space, so...

4. define one of your silhouettes. I like the side view, I find it to be most important for the profile of a ship. So here, I can paint it on the side of the box roughly and use it as a guide for where things should be.

5. when drawing the ship, align ALL your axes that are in plane with the corresponding plane, and you start getting something that looks physically realistic with consistent angles.

6. This is the 3D shape I'm thinking about within the box.


hopefully this helps!
Pete



fullsize: https://i.imgur.com/lZXuTn7.jpg

and side by side before and after:

Wow, thanks Pete!

I read all the way through your alt-art thread, and your work was so amazing that it really inspired me, and that's actually why I made this card in the first place. This was actually my first foray into drawing ships of any sort, so I have to admit I was kind of winging it (no pun intended)!

That's certainly a lot more scientific of a process than I've been going about it. Pretty much the whole thing was done with the "left-brain" style, i.e. squinting at my GUNBOAT model and then trying to copy what I saw onto the paper. That kind of thing has kind of mixed results for a right-brained engineering student like me, so I'm really happy for all your help with adding some structure and science to it! I'm not really sure which ship to draw next, but I'm definitely going to use your instructions when I do!

Again, thanks so much for all your help!

Kieran

1 hour ago, Kieransi said:

Wow, thanks Pete!

I read all the way through your alt-art thread, and your work was so amazing that it really inspired me, and that's actually why I made this card in the first place. This was actually my first foray into drawing ships of any sort, so I have to admit I was kind of winging it (no pun intended)!

That's certainly a lot more scientific of a process than I've been going about it. Pretty much the whole thing was done with the "left-brain" style, i.e. squinting at my GUNBOAT model and then trying to copy what I saw onto the paper. That kind of thing has kind of mixed results for a right-brained engineering student like me, so I'm really happy for all your help with adding some structure and science to it! I'm not really sure which ship to draw next, but I'm definitely going to use your instructions when I do!

Again, thanks so much for all your help!

Kieran

Hey no worries at all. I have historically had a lot of trouble with perspective on mechanical shapes, I just find it really tough to get major forms down, so I've been slowly working my way through diferent methods of improving. This one as I was showing above is what I've been using recently, and it's really been helpful. Some people go WAY more in depth into angles and positions and everything and measuring different segments of their boxes, but I have been finding just trying to break down a ship into major geometric shapes has been really successful for me over what I was doing before, and I expect it might be for you too.

I think the simple explanation is if you can visualize your exact 'bounding box' of the ship, it's a LOT easier to figure out where things should go. Curved shapes are still a nightmare, but something like this is nice and angular so it helps. But you're definitely going about it the right way, really trying to see the shapes in the panels will help you a lot.

I've found the following book really good to this effect:
Scott Robertson's text is very concept art and machinery specific, using a boatload of case studies over different situations, using mostly sci fi cars and planes. I just started working through it, it's really a phenomenal text for anything sci-fi related.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-sketching-environments-imagination/dp/1933492732/ref=pd_sim_14_7?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1933492732&pd_rd_r=B7KJSHRCKKJ3CKZ1ZW4S&pd_rd_w=rKkyE&pd_rd_wg=Kqiej&psc=1&refRID=B7KJSHRCKKJ3CKZ1ZW4S

keep up the good work, look forward to seeing more!