Michael Whelan

Michael Whelan is an artist living in California who illustrated artworks for many careers in his early years. Illustrating book covers for horrors, fantasy and science fiction book; Michael Moorcock;s Elric series, Anne McCaffrey and Pern's Dragon Aboard. And also John Carter's Princess of Mars series. His artwork is more traditionally similar to paintings before digital illustration was common

Renegades of Pern

I find his work really good and how he pictured them to relate to the stories he's read to get the settings, characters, aliens and creatures as how the writers thought of them. I think it's good for the illustrator and writer to discuss ideas of how the artwork would look and what it could need then one person doing it themselves. He was one of the artists who brought a new world of fantasy and science fiction to many artists in the later years.

Illustration Dune concept art

So far for my illustrative concept designs for Dune have started with simple sketches of them for the narrative illustration. Making sure they aren't exactly different but original from the books and here is the first part of the concept designs for the book.

Paul Atreides:
For Paul's description in the book he would have black hair from his father's and mostly brown from his mothers. For my version of him he would have a more dark copper hair and lengthen it a little, as I imagine that hair length would hardly be an issue the characters in the distant future. Still more work into him and also with the still suit, wanting it to have a more organic look and need to work on more on the body shape.

Sandworm:
"Their skin was thick, rough, and orange colored. It served the simple function of armor and was comprised of many scales, each a few feet in size. These scales overlapped and interlocked to form the armor that protected it against internal sand invasion."

• Dune Wiki

When reading more about the Sandworms and getting ideas to make them different from the traditional sandworm in Dune. Thinking about the armor, I thought it about an armored plating look but when up close would have smaller scales formed together. For the head I worked on a few sketches to know how it would look a lot different with a more jaw-shaped maw.

Reverend Mother:

The old woman was a witch shadow - hair like matted spiderwebs, hooded 'round darkness of features, eyes like glittering jewels.

• Dune: chapter one

What I am going to do for this is make the Reverend Mother concealing her face, making her appear more mysterious and alien. Fitted her with a headdress and a mask, drawn a few swirls and curves around the face and along with the elongated finger nails fused to her fingers as claws.

Digital paint experiments

I had thought of starting with some experiments on digital painting to work on the level of colors from light and darker tone.

I was thinking of how to make a good sand texture, going for a few earthly color so long as they are brownish and tried different types of brush tools to work on the texture. I may need to use one color as the sands don't have many and work more on the shading. however, I do like a little how it turns out with the texture and how it looks, would need to figure out which brush tool to use for this sort of pattern to get it as good as I can get.

Using the same idea but more on the smoother colors to make a circular shape, making the center more lighter with the darker colors around it. I added the lighter colors around the 'edges' to make it look like an object. I would have to look into art tutorials to take notes and examples of how it can be done. 

Kevin Walker's Fantasy Beasts

Kevin Walker is a fantasy artist that made many designs of creatures of mythology and fantasy. This book contains many of his artwork of creatures and explain how he illustrated his designs by studying other animals, environments and the biology to create new creatures of different worlds and imagination. I like how he thought of them and drawn 

This page shows how he would start out with his studies of animals before getting the idea first. Photos most likely taken from him with the lightening and a bat, including skeletons to know how they would look.

Some of his artwork are in many things such as Magic: The Gathering, 2000 AD, Rogue Trooper, ABC Warriors and Warhammer

Narrative Illustration book

For my Narrative Illustration I have chosen to illustrate Frank Herbert's Dune for it has been one of the most well thought out Science Fiction stories I've ever read and brought my interest into Sci Fi and Fantasy. I chose this to illustrate a few from the book in my style and make the characters into whatever I wish them to look in, but as long as these illustrations relate to the book that is most important thing for the module.

About the story:
Dune is a series that takes place in the distant future where an interstellar empire ruled by Great Houses and depend on a desert planet Arrakis which is also known as 'Dune' with the most valuable substance in the known universe; Spice. The Spice melange, which is vital for space travel for the Imperium. The book focuses on a young Atreides Heir whose family was sent to Arrakis by the Emperor until they were attacked by their hated enemies, House Harkonnen to claim the spice themselves and possibly ascend to the Golden Throne.

What everyone knows about Arrakis/Dune is it's inhabited by a society of nomadic humans called the Fremen and the giant sandworms. The humans on the planet somehow able to survive on the harsh deserts and coexist with the worms. Everything on the planet has spice in it: the food, water, deserts, the air and even in worms. The planet becomes a battlefield between the natives to take back their homes from the Harkonnens until the Emperor made his journey to the planet to deal with the situation. Paul, now calling himself Muad'Dib launches an attack on them and defeated his enemies, thus proclaiming himself as the new Emperor of the known universe.

Characters:

• Paul Atreides: Paul is the heir to the House Atreides whose family had moved from their homeworld to the planet Arrakis starts having these visions that soon become clear about his destiny and the connections to Dune and then begins a revolution against the Harkonnen regime on Dune, becoming a messiah to the people as "Muad'Dib" who would liberate the natives to freedom. 

• Baron Harkonnen: A cruel tyrant who is the Baron of Hous Harkonnen

• Fremen: The Fremen are a nomadic tribe that have these blue eyes after breathing in the spice, those who are born on the planet only get them when they reached puperty or at a young age. 

• Spacing Guild: The guild is the most reliable organization for the Empire to travel and expand their territories in the known universeconsist of those who have higher sense to travel through spice with the help of the spice that mutates them, extending their lifespans, thought and power. The Navigators turn into less human after thousands of years of exposing themselves to the Spice.

• Chani: a Fremen born on Dune and love interest of Paul/Muad'Dib.
• Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam: ABene Gesserit  who runs an organization for women to use their powers. She trained Jessica Atreides who became the concubine of Leto Atreides and gave birth to Paul instead of having a daughter. She is secretly Jessica's mother and joined a conspiracy to kill Paul and the end to the House Atreides.

Plans to illustrate the story:

Having chose Dune to illustrate I would first read most of the book to illustrate, get a clear idea on what Im gonna draw, know what the characters look and make them different in my own design so I would show I did research on the novel.

Creature design: Shark Manta Ray

Another creature design for the booklet, I thought about making a creature that would be aquatic and resemble some sort of fish but more like it was flying with wing-like fins. I've looked into a few species of fish to make it into the creature I want it, took thought abut the sharks and Manta Ray as they are one of the biggest fishes in the sea. Searched for a few photos of Manta Rays and Sharks to... 'mix them up'! So this is how I done it from a few steps to know how I did it.

1. Decided to make two of these for the booklet but different by view to see more of their appearances, draw the fins into more like wings as they spread out, like it was either swimming or flying. Gave it a tail so it would have speed and look more serpentine-shaped but with fins added so it would not stand out, the tip of it was made into a tail fine with roughed edges as some fish have split fins but not too much, only near the edges and same to the wing/fins.

2. After scanning the sketch to the
computer to begin the next step using digital developments. Cleaning up the mess on the page such as any rubbed off drawings, spots, the rest of the page except for the fish. Brighting it a little and checking for anything I left untouched when cleaning it up. Decided to ink line the whole thing in the next layer so it be easier to to colour it without needing to select a few parts or going over the lines.





3. For the third step, colour as it is important than having it all blank. Wanting a greyish colour for the skin as it's usually common for large fish species but with an add of blue to blend in with it, lowering the opacity of 30% as I did for the tail fin.

4. Adding another layer over the colour to add lighter colours. Again, I lowered the opacity and tolerance low enough to create some sort of lighter skin around the wings, tail and underbelly but also around the back so it would not have a simple plain grey colour, make so where the light would probably be seen. Now for shading, the mouth first as it would be slightly dark but not too much so the inside of it's jaw. Adding a few minor touches before I go on to the next and possibly final step of the design.


5.  On to the final stage is the background and wanting it to be a blueish and watery theme for the large swimmer. Giving it a greenish blue colour with the centre being darker then the outer edges as thought it was all misty and cloudy. Creating a trail of watery debris from the wings and tail as it moves it's body.

Another of the Shark Manta Ray in a different pose as the back is clearly seen, showing it's back with gill-like features along with two sets of eyes.

The Complete Book of Dragons

The Complete Book of Dragons is an illustrated book of which tells about the famous mythological creatures; Dragons. Explaining about the varied types of dragons across the planet, how they are born from hatchlings to fully grown adults. It's one of the well thought out books that talk about them and like the use of coloured media and sketches of the dragons. Given a more medieval artwork as some are commonly seen in a lot of detailed notes and information about. Tells about their behaviour based on other fairy tales and used in this book.