Step-By-Step: Drawing a Space Marine

I've always been a huge Warhammer 40k fanatic and I think it's important to get back to your roots every now and again. I decided to do a homebrew chapter for Kenton Kilgore's Fighting Tigers of Veda rather than a codex one, though this drawing could fairly easily convert over thanks to the magic of vector. 

Over the course of 11 days I took a piece from concept to completed image, which I've shared below. I included some notes for those who are also interested in drawing marines. I do all my work in Adobe Illustrator CS6. 

Day 1: I sketched out the general pose I was looking for. I knew that I wanted to do a devastator, so I blocked out an area for the gun on his shoulder. More on that later. 

Day 2: I put down some placeholders for the "soft" armor and drew out the gun at the angle I wanted it. I highly recommend grabbing your camera and photographing an actual model for reference. Though I didn't trace the photo, it was a fantastic asset in this task. At this point I noticed the top of the gun didn't really support the "over the shoulder" pose I had originally envisioned, so I had him heft it upright. 

Day 3: Leg and arm plates were added as well as the beginnings of the torso armor. For those wondering where the fuse came from, a friend of mine saw the image on day 2 and claimed it couldn't be a plasma cannon because there was no fuse. I corrected for this on Day 3, we had a good laugh about it, and moved on. 

Day 4: More detail on the legs and torso, and added power cables for the cannon.

Day 5: My old nemesis: hands. In this case I was very fortunate to find a close-up shot of some space marine hands that someone was working on. Again, these images served as invaluable references for the rest of the piece.

Day 6: I added the helmet and armor details, as well as finishing the backpack and throwing on the main logo.

Day 7: Probably the biggest number of changes. I bought the gun down and repositioned the hands. The problem I had with the gun up was that it didn't look right. Even a space marine shouldn't be able to heft a plasma cannon one-handed. Having the gun low and held in both hands gives it a lot of visual weight that it was lacking before. I also resized the shoulder pads and legs, which were undersized relative to the rest of the body to begin with. Finally, I added in line-variations to give it more interest. 

Day 8: Added the signature stripes for the Tigers marine chapter, and swapped the chest icon for a more generic skull-eagle. The tribal wing design goes well with the tiger stripes, unifying the armor. I also added some Bengali script for the word "fire".

Day 9: Color and shadow, reintroducing the logo in the background.

Day 10: Glow effects for the plasma cannon and eyes.

Day 11: I wrapped things up with a round of highlights, darkening the armor to make it less of a charcoal color. I added in black-line shading for the metallic areas for extra contrast, and set the marine against a colored background for contrast.

All in all a fun little project with a great outcome. Next week we'll be doing another step-by-step, but this time for blood bowl!

Blood Bowl League Poster

Mercutioh stopped by last week and asked for a poster for his local Blood Bowl League. I couldn't think of any reason not to, so here it is!

I'm loving the Blood Bowl Stuff. 

2012 CS Challenge Wrap-Up: Part 1

As I'm working on all the new illustration projects, some secret some not, I realized I never posted the remaining models from my collection that I had painted as part of the 2012 CS Challenge. Over the next few weeks I'll be posting these models (in no particular order). Enjoy!

Imperial Guard: Vostroyan Sniper

Imperial Guard: Cadian Style Vostroyan Sniper

Lords of the Rings: Denethor

Orks: Mek Boy

Orks: Runt Herd 

Blood Bowl Posters: Part 2

Upon seeing the first round of Blood Bowl team posters, Tristan sent me some pics of his teams, all of which were equally inspired. I think we're going to need a poster gallery on the site soon!

Bring the Blood Bowl!

I'm loving making images for members of the community. Thank you every for sharing your great ideas and inspiration.

James Draw: Blood Bowl Posters

After I had posted last week's Tau Propaganda poster, I got a really cool request from Paul (of the Man Cave).

He and his son have been building different Blood Bowl teams for a little while now and he thought it would be a good idea for me to turn my drawing sights on some team posters... I agreed. 

The only problem I had when looking at all the teams he and his son and made was trying to figure out which was cool enough to warrant a poster design. Since they were all awesome, I did the only logical thing and made posters for all of them. 

Bring on the Blood Bowl!

Many thanks to Paul for sharing his inspiring work. 

James Draw: United

Every week I bring you a new illustrated piece inspired by some of my favorite games. This week we've got a propaganda piece for the Tau Empire from Warhammer 40k. 

Legion of Everblight (7): Blackfrost Shard + Finishing Up!

This week we're looking at the conclusion of the everblight army project with this gorgeous set of models called the blackfrost shard. 

Before I even knew who these guys were I knew these models were intended as a unit. Though the unique sword design was a bit of a giveaway, there was something more that caught my eye. The predatory nature of the poses, the gestures referencing sword fighters of legend; there was something more to these three individuals. When I looked them up in the everblight army book, my suspicions were confirmed, the Blackfrost shard was all about the gestalt, meaning that the total effect was greater than the sum of it's individuals parts. In concrete terms, there are three ones here, but put them together at once and you wind up with a four. 

Once again Privateer Press has impressed me beyond my expectations. There's just so much thought that has gone into this game, so many good ideas given time to grow and flourish. In a way, this unit is synonymous with what has really left an impression on me from hordes. It's not just the artwork, the story, the models, the gameplay, it's all of those things put together at the same time in the same place. If I had time to play games, I would be purchasing my starter box today. 

And so we come up on the conclusion of yet another project. 2012 has seen an army painted! Next week, we're beginning the countdown to victory as the Clean-Slate challenge comes to a finish as well. I've got some huge projects lined up for this summer, and I can't wait to be able to share all the good stuff that's coming with everyone.