All Hail.....

Almost a full week since my last post. Not good. My goal was to post some art each and every day (doesn't mean I was making art each day though). But the last week and a half was busy. Life stuff. Back injury. Caregiving duties. Sad anniversaries. Or just caught in that time where I had sketches but nothing finished to post. And the rest of the month looks busy too with paperwork, more life stuff, artist sketch cards, and a potential paying gig doing book illustration. But then I already knew my commitment to another semester of Animation would be less than it was in previous semesters.

So I've been moving forward, although slowly, with my 2nd pass of THE TIME MACHINE project. Right now, the advance students are working on character designs to be turned into model sheets and eventually used as character turns. I did my primary characters last semester so I'm working on a whole batch of the secondary characters.

When I post these in the next week, those who've read H.G. Wells' THE TIME MACHINE might think "But none of these characters are in the book?" True and it might seem like a completely different project being developed. But many of these characters are additional ones I've added to my version. I wanted to show the origins of the split in humanity that led to the divisions between the Morlocks and the Eloi and that was with another stop for the Traveller in the year 5173 A.D. in the megopolis city on Lon (formerly London which has now engulfed the entire English island). Leading this city-state is Queen Eloise, ancestor of the far future's Eloi.

Above is the final design for Queen Eloise. I had several designs worked up including a rough used in last semester's story bible. Many of the designs didn't make her look like a queen or looked too superhero-ish so I chose elements from Queen Elizabeth I but modernized them. And certainly purple is a royal color although my palette above is more pinks and fuchsias. Along with using the pink makeup all over her face, there will be a diamond motif used with her designs along with her Royal Guard and the Queen's Maidens (helpers).

I'll be posting the earlier designs plus the model sheet soon along with the other secondary character designs.