Clockwork future - Steampunk Sketchbook Assignment

Our Assignment for a 2 week period was the theme of Steampunk; naturally a few guidelines are there e.g. it has to be recognisable on sight (so heavy use of Steampunk is probably for the best)  and as usual we have to produce some varied designs, culminating in a finished piece.

Now this is a especially exciting assignment due to how amazing some of the pieces of art and tech have come out of the aesthetic, it's basically steam powered tech that was how a Victorian era imagined future technology. It essentially becomes old methods of doing modern tech. and it known for some of it's heavy use of clockwork, steam and intricate machinery.

There was a HUGE amount of material to work with, this a really popular style among the geekier sides of the internet. You can see in all of the images the Victorian vibes, and the element of old machinery used with modern twists. It rather captures something i loved watching trains for as a kid, with the pistons showing the workings of the train being fascinating to watch. All of the clockwork and machinery are great tools to give me design idea's (though i can say that i had a few stewing already)

The background track of this assignment is going to have to be Mick Gordon's "Lycanthropy" from the killer instinct soundtrack, since this perfectly captures what i feel from a creepy yet advanced victorian era setting. So please do listen to it as you look at my designs.

If you'll allow me to paint a scenario for my creations;

"Come see the maddening Melody, Guaranteed to bring out the animal in you!" 

Victorian London, where werewolves secretly prey upon people in the full moon's, and a travelling musical group plays to draw them out and kill them.

The idea behind this first series of designs was less openly combat focused, i wanted to create an instrument that would carry the steampunk theme, and hence the idea for this travelling group. The designs here are for a violin which when played can manipulate electricity (at the user's discretion of course, there needs to be a performance that isn't a hunt)

The bow is a mixture of a stun baton, conductor and lightsaber in some manner, which is connected to a generator, this allows when the grip is pulled and played on the violin for electricity to be arced.

Going away from that for a second, i was very interested in the steampunk way of handling electricity, which is very raw and more dangerous than modern day use. So i devised a fighting inventor who uses a conductor carried on his back to emit electrical charges through the palm of his fists, it's more of an alternate and more open way of the musical theme. naturally i also gave my character some of the signature traits of old fashioned dress, long coat , thick goggles and even mechanical boots.

I spent a good deal of time agonising over the posing of the character, i went through several stages trying to capture the right posing and am very pleased with how it turned out, i wanted it to look like he had just struck someone using a wide stance (i went with the new age adaptation of Chinese inventions, in his case this being Chinese martial arts).

Returning to my musical theme, the singer of my melodies to draw werewolves in is this woman, who has mechnical legs since she has no longer her own.

I was very interested in the mechanical limbs often brought up in designs and was interested to see how Steampunk victorian era of design might handle limb loss with technology (and a lot of money of course) The legs are weaponised as well, having side compartments that have blades hidden in them for the performances were they make a catch

The legs themselves are quite bulky and hardly human looking, but they offer functionality and protection, and most of all opertunity. Her look i also was influenced from the style of heavy use of jackets and coats in the steampunk fashion, so i had her wear the coat on her shoulders.

I put alot of detail into all the intracacies of her look, both to capture a shy mood (the hair covering the eyes) and the combination of human and machine.

This assignment was very very fun, i got wrapped up in so many ideas for this project that to get them out took me a long time, i think i got some variety in there to hit some different areas of interest than what is typical and conveyed my designs well, the only issue of course becomes the time frame, perhaps a slight distance from my interest would help me speed up my workflow.

This has made me think about adding a favourite tag to posts where i've particularly had fun with the theme, or outcome for that matter as i know this has been a favourite.