9/12/2005

How This Is Gonna Work

First of all, I'm going to try using Blogger's photo hosting service rather than Imageshack.us. I've been getting reports of m4d popups there (as a Mac user I don't have to worry about that), so I'll see how this works instead.

To the right you will see my Scorpion Mark II Superheavy Tank, which is a work in progress at the moment. As of the time of this post, that's all I have done. I have a vision, however, for how I'd like it to look when it's completed: I have done up this very rough sketch of what I have in mind. Though it looks very stiff and lifeless in that particular image, the actual implementation of it will be quite organic and rich (hopefully). I've borrowed some concepts from this, this, and this... guessing that the Eldar would more closely resemble the artists and painters of the far east more than they would the American Military (for instance, warning signs for jet intakes, kill markings, unit designation markers, emphasis on the technological and functional over the style and artistry). I'll be trying to lend that hard script you see in the mockup some of the organic, soft lines and styles of traditional kanji. It's a tall order for someone like me who has never tried kanji in his entire life, but it's what I see in my head... so I've got to be able to make it real somehow, right?

The Eldar see their tanks and war machines as works of art; each an article of artistry and beauty in and of itself (which is one of the reasons, I think, you rarely see Eldar models with battle damage). I felt that their supreme tank, the Engine of Vaul, should look as though it could just as easily hang on someone's wall as a tapestry as much as it could skim the surface of a planet and blow the living bejeezus out of upstart rhinos and predators. It's not going to be an easy job to do this (I'll probably do several painted mockups on CD jewel cases or tissue boxes), but once it's done I think it'll be memorable.

Either that or I'll toss it in the trash and pretend it never happened.

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