Monday, August 11, 2008

Adventure! Mystery! Robot-Ninjas!





Alright, alright: I'm anticipating the outcry of the Piratical community: I have to admit, I had my own misgivings about the other half, but who can resist the opportunity to get paid to draw robot-ninjas facing off againts ghostly samurai? C'mon. ;)
This gig was good fun! A throwback to all the comics and movies of my pre-pubescence in a big way. This is the cover for a project I can't discuss much, but it's the job I've been hinting at for a few posts around here. Nothing HUGE, mind you, just a comic-pitch cover...but still, neat! (I think) So, I was comissioned by Paul Pierce (of Lucasarts games) to collaborate on a personal project of his and design the characters and put together a cover for this project (the name and plot details of which are strictly under-wraps at the moment). Albeit: hopefully the cover will give you a fair idea of what to expect :) And since I've resolved to show some of the process sketches on this little old blog for the people who like this sort of thing, here's some of the doodles that were tossed around before landing on some final designs and finishing the cover:





^ Just some of the character design doodles. Being unused to the Ninja aesthetic, myself, I tried to find a way to get robot-ninja without it looking too....stupid. Some ideas. I kind of wanted them to look sleek and impassive...like Ipods. Deadly ninja Ipods. I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted to do with the ghostly samurai! And for the kid...well...I think "white" was the predominant thought :)





^ The actual layout sketches for the cover (with and without background ninjas). Just to show y'all just how rough I start out. Hey, as long as it works, right?

Still in Michigan at the mo'...soon to be in California (LA) for a week of seeing the sights! And then...the school year! Can't wait. More work before that, though...maybe some stuff I can post, some that I can't. Keeping occupied, nonetheless!

Enjoy!

-Nick

4 comments:

poetsforpeanuts said...

Awesome, ninja robots are super sweet. Especially ipod ninja robots, lol. That's so cool that you got comissioned by someone at Lucasarts, what an honor!

I must say your art has become somewhat of an inspiration to me. Thank you for sharing your steps and whatnot, it's very educational.

Are you staying in LA for school or are you just visiting? As much as I wish to say this city will knock your pants off, you'll probably be choking on fumes too much to appreciate it, haha. ;)

Eloise said...

Hey, I just found your blog! And you've already linked to me! So I'm going to return the favor instead of just feeling like a jerk.

I like the color on this, by the way.

Darren Quach said...

Nick!
It was really cool to finally meet you last Saturday! I checked out the links you sent :D The were eh--interesting! If you have more, keep them coming dude.

I checked out Andrew's stuff too, man i was blown away :O

-Darren

Emerson Tung said...

Hey Nick, zup?
Some cool stuff here man. Really digging your sleek ninja iPods. Haha. Here's to a great school year man :) God bless.