Work in Progress: Aliens and Spaceships #2, War of the Worlds

At this stage I’m still working on the design. The composition is somewhat what it will be, but the aliens and spaceship are on different layers, will be arranged and sized optimally, and  obviously I haven’t tackled the background yet.

This is based on a sketch I did several years ago.

I’m also making physical sketches in pen or pencil to help me generate new ideas. For example, here’s one of a body and hand I plan on incorporating, because the aliens, at least the smaller one, needs some sort of body and not just shoulders.

Once I get the design done, I’ll fix the composition, then move into color, so you can imagine a similar treatment as in my finished first image in this series, below.

Actually, I’ve gone back and worked on the above, added blue light coming through the slats in the weird inter-dimensional wall on the right. As I improve the skills I’m using – more traditional illustration or rendering skills – I’ll go back an tinker with the already completed images.

For the work above I didn’t do any sketching or black and white phase. I just worked directly in color. I like to experiment with approaches to get different results, but for this series I’m going to also try to improve my workflow and work more economically. #2 obviously, I think, uses more of my traditional drawing skills.

I’m planing on a series of at least 6 aliens & spaceships, and then I’ll do 12 or even 18 if either I’m thoroughly engrossed in them, and/or I’m getting positive reception for them, as in getting some coverage other than on my own blog, and getting some sort of interest or following.

~ Ends