Hero of the Night…

The main character – The Nutcracker – is going through major change. I have been working on him for a while, and he is heavily influenced by American special forces gear. With all the straps and the Kevlar vest with the side arm across the chest, and the desert looking scarf. When researching for references, this really grabbed my attention, and really wanted to incorporate it in the design. I also want to give him a futuristic look with some robot elements. There are a lot of elements to play with when you think about the Nutcracker suite; the soldiers, they fought with swords and cannons, and one shot rifles, how is all that going to look in 2087? Will his sword glow? Will proton cannons come out of his shoulder? But so far this is where my guy is at, the suits are the same, the red one is how he would look with his mask down, sort of like his battle mode. Color is another issue, will his armor change color, will it be some hi-tech Metal Gear Solid type camouflage?

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The Prince’s Army…

The Rat Army is growing strong, but the toy soldier of the future are right there with them. If you have been following up to this point you will see that I have about four designs, and what I’ve been doing is using different parts of each design and combining them and changing them a bit with each new design. You will see that they all have the same vest with the side arm on the chest, the arms and legs are from earlier designs which I’ve used a few times over. The possibilities are endless, and as I continue to make new designs I will bring them to your viewing pleasure. No one of these are “thy” Nutcracker, he seems like a tougher “nut” to “Crack”…(corny I know). But either way, I still need and army of toy soldiers!

New Look…!?!

Two post in one day?!?! WOW!?! Yeah I’m pretty excited about the work I have been doing and the amount I have been doing. So the Nutcracker 2087, haven’t done much work on it for a while, got caught up in some other things. Anyway, I had some time and decided to do a few things I had been meaning to do to the character. I still very much like the “Modern Warfare” look, but I have not been playing for a few months now… 😦 I do miss it, but without it I have been much more productive. Either way, I had been drawing out a few different looks, and trying to blend all the different looks together somehow. This is one of a first few, I plan to do a few more. I will also post the others I have, I don’t want to give you everything right away! 😉

This guy is going to have to go up against and army or rats! I’m not talking about some lab rats, we’re talk about big nasty live in the dark rainy allies under garbage dumps, thrown out of the science lab for being failed subjects, and have big beady red eyes! They have thick coats of fur and a thick layer of tough skin, with the agility of a possum… salivating from the mouth, I’m talking nasty, but then have the attire of and old colonial English army, but it looks beat up and worn in like it’s been living in the sewer. You can see the beginning steps to the Rat Horde in an earlier post. (I realized they all have something covering their mouths?Whoops! Now I have too give some of them teeth.) Since he is going up against a big nasty army of rabid creatures, he will need to be well equipped and ready to fight to the DEATH!

DesiGn oNE..

So I know it has been a while since I have posted something, and last week I did not get to show anything off because class was unexpectedly canceled. Anyhow, recently I have started working with and advertising company as and intern, well more like and apprentice. Long story short I go in for an interview, sparks fly, a friendship is born, and a dream begins to be fully realized!

So with the new found friendship, I was given studio space to share with a fellow artist, and some brand new material. My favorite of all was transparent vellum paper. Forget your regular tracing paper, if you don’t have transparent vellum… well you’re hurting yourself. You saw my pre-lim drawings for my main character with the blue pencil. I didn’t want to mess the original drawing up, and the tracing paper I had just wasn’t working for me. When I got my hands on the vellum, and felt the weight of the paper I couldn’t wait to work with. Even with the weight of the paper I wasn’t sure I would be able to see the blue drawing, but the translucency was actually much better than that of the lighter weight paper, and it held the ink from the pen and marker much better. This is just one of the drawings, and one of the dozen or so character I will be developing for my version of The NutCracker 2087!!

The New Nutcracker

Here is my first go at developing the New Nutcracker 2087. Different from the poster face but with the same kind of feel. I want to go with the robot aspect, but I do want to keep the human element in the story, so something with humans, robots, and cyborgs. I want the main character to still be human, but with the robot design I came to the conclusion that he had to be a cyborg. Once I wanted to go with the cyborg, I began working on some head shots. This is a tricky part, because I want him to look tough and bad ass, but still be appealing and have a soft look to him, so he could still be adored. I wanted to give him jagged features, with a five o’clock shadow and some cool scares, like an experienced soldier who has seen and lived things most soldiers wouldn’t want. But when thinking about cyborgs, they are usually clean shaven, I guess cause hair carries bacteria? So I went with the soft clean look, but gave him some scars across his face, to make it seem like he has seen his share of war. One part I am still a little unsure about is how much of him is human and what is robotic? Only skin you really see is his face, everything else is covered with his hi-tech armor. A lot of this is still in its early development stages, so there will probably be some changes, but so far for a start, I am very happy where I am at.

A frontal shot of the Nutcracker 2087. Currently I am reading the Ghost in the Shell graphic novel, by Shirow Masamune, which I have looked to for much influence in developing this character and my story.The only thing different about this drawing and the first one is, there is no cord/wire going from his mask to the gas tank on his waste belt. Why the gas tank on his belt? Adding the human, the human needs air, but if he’s a cyborg, then does he need air to live?