I think I want to post more of my art. Both because it gives me a firm reason to get more stuff into a state that feels approximately finished, and because I believe that putting art into the world is a good thing. I just need to get over the fact that sometimes I spend time on art that’s nerdy and fanfiction-y.
Here’s a piece that I finished recently. I drew it as part of a Star Trek table-top RPG that I’m currently playing in. Four of our characters went off in a shuttle to investigate stuff in a nearby planetary system.
I tend to nerd hard on some of the details. Our heroes are flying off in an Argo-type shuttle (seen in Star Trek: Nemesis, possibly the least-loved TNG film). We’ve never seen the inside of the Argo, but I speculated that it looked a lot like the Danube-class runabout (the runabout set was redressed as the Type-11 shuttle for Star Trek: Insurrection).
So that lets me use reference like so:
That image formed the basis of my initial sketch
But also, that image got me noticing that at some point in later seasons, they updated the set and removed the boxy console beside Jadzia (I think, because it prevents you from using certain camera angles). There’s a similar console on the other side of Odo, also later removed.
The reference was about the look I wanted in the image. I mocked up a version of the shuttle interior in SketchUp and used that to help get my angles and proportions right.
A non-trivial amount of time was spent on the LCARS consoles. I found myself looking at (but not trying to 100% reproduce) consoles in the show. Sample reference:
(The second image is the redressed runabout. Note how they’ve added a window beside Picard to match the exterior model of the Type-11 shuttle. That window isn’t in the runabout set.)
I threw the LCARS images together in Inkscape, and then imported them into my drawing and massaged them into the approximate right perspective.
One of the characters in our mission was a Xindi (a species seen only on ST: Enterprise). Do you know that we never saw a female Xindi, even though they were the big bad for an entire season? The Xindi Primates have a series of very specific-looking bumps and ridges (and redonkulous hair) that I wanted to get right.
Anyway, it was the first thing I’ve done a while that I felt was “done”. Partially, I wanted to get it completed for a recent game. But I’d also like to make a thing of posting more art: if that’s not your bag, that’s okay.
I’m working on improving the stuff I’m weak at. It’s a journey.
