Lukas Online

One of Kate’s ancestors: Anne Corsair, an English pirate captain whose fleet terrorised shipping lanes of Old Earth from the Mediterranean to the Malacca Straights in the 18th Century. Under her captaincy the pirate fleet became so successful and powerful that even naval vessels feared to encounter them. The fleet was eventually cornered and wiped out by a naval force sent to deal with them. Anne Corsair escaped and disappeared from history leading to much speculation about her fate. One story has it that she married her first mate, raised a large family and lived out her life peacefully somewhere in Indochina.

Kate is a space adventurer, explorer and treasure hunter. Working for private collectors or major museums she explores unknown planetary systems and ancient alien ruins looking for artefacts of archaelogical significance. While most of her work is above board, Kate has extensive links to underworld figures involved in blackmarket antiquities trading. It is rumoured that she was previously a member of one of the many pirate gangs who operate along the remote Indigo Trade Route capturing trade vessels for ransom, although this has never been proved.

Here I have drawn Kate with a bionic arm as an experiment.

Below is a walkthrough of the process I used to make this image.

1. Pencil roughs. Kate’s first head wasn’t too good so I drew a new one and scanned it separately.

2. Lineart. Done digitally using a wacom tablet. Because I am ultimately developing work for print I convert the linart to a two tone image, then delete out the white.

3. Flat colours are added. I tweaked the lineart too. I decided that the way I had originally drawn the tentacles of the alien monster interferred too much with Kate, so I redrew the offending appendage. I think the final picture benefited from this decision.

4. Colour detail. All the shading, highlights and colour details are added here.

Heres the coloured version of some panels I posted awhile back of my graphic novel concept. I have a 10 page sample coloured, just trying to establish a colouring convention etc.

Here’s a concept design of Kate Corsair looking a bit spunkier than I ever intended her to be.
Kate is a character in the graphic novel concept I am currently developing and she started out looking a lot more cartoony (see here).

Ive been reading some digital illustration books by Francis Tsai (just awsome!) and they inspired me to have a shot at doing Kate in a more detailed, ‘concept art’ kind of style. She wont be looking like this in the comic though.

In the story Kate is a minor character but the more I work on her the more I like her. She has alot of personality and she might find herself being the hero in her own story someday… kind of a futuristic punk chick belting around in her clapped out space cruiser getting into trouble.

Anyway I posted some pictures showing the development of this illustration.

Here are the pencils, started out with gesture lines, then shapes. Then added some details.

Lineart done in PS4 with the trusty Intuos. Then added the flat colours.

So obviously my colouring still needs alot of work, but I feel like my drawing style is getting better and more versatile.

Truth be known I have a secret goal to be a fantasy/sci fi concept artist. That would be the ultimate!!! Gotta keep honing that illustration technique boyo! Its all about practice.. If you put in some hours you cant help but improve

Dropping the hammer! Timmy puts a short-range reconnaissance pod through it’s paces. Highly maneuverable and capable of high speeds these craft are perfect for some stunt flying… so long as Captain Morgan doesn’t find out!

This is a frame from a page that I am currently colouring. Should have some more work to put up soon too.

I haven’t been posting much artwork related to my graphic novel project lately, not because I’ve been neglecting it, far from it Ive been working on it steadily, but because I have been focusing on lineart so I dont have any nice, coloured images to post lately…

But since I dont have anything else I decided to put up a sample of the lineart I’ve been working on. I was happy with these frames, they show several different characters and kinda catch the feeling of action and mounting tension that is taking place at this stage of the story.

The planet-side research team (Research-1) has come under attack from unknown assailants. From the bridge of the Orbital Research Facility Stellar-7 Captain Morgan orders immediate deployment of an evac team… does the evac get there in time? Is the doctor and his research team ok? Who are the assailants and why are they attacking??? Stay-tuned comic lovers

Published in The Mercury.

Published in The Mercury on 27th Jan.