Cyfa's art challenges and other bits & bobs
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Thanks, @Atolm! Although, I gave up on the squales idea, as the way I imagine their tentacles are joined to their body doesn't really match the description in Over A Torrent Sea. So, instead, I came up with this v.quick attempt at a Starfleet away team mission to the Arcadian homeworld:
This is the second appearance by Harpo the Humpback whale (he first appeared in this thread here), this time with a dolphin crewmate, as they encounter an Arcadian (whose head is too small/not bulbous enough). And, yes, that is a Z-Ray/Sinker Zoid repurposed as a Starfleet submersible - I don't know if it's clear enough, but there's a type-11 shuttlecraft in place of the Imperial Zoid cockpit.
This is the second appearance by Harpo the Humpback whale (he first appeared in this thread here), this time with a dolphin crewmate, as they encounter an Arcadian (whose head is too small/not bulbous enough). And, yes, that is a Z-Ray/Sinker Zoid repurposed as a Starfleet submersible - I don't know if it's clear enough, but there's a type-11 shuttlecraft in place of the Imperial Zoid cockpit.
I have an idea for this month's spy-themed art challenge based on some little sketches I did back in May. Except, rather than starship bugs, I thought I'd have a go at intelligence gathering bugs (without such obvious nods to which galactic power they orginate from). I might still do the starship bugs at some point, though...
I was reminded of my sketches after reading this article at io9 featuring Richard Wilkinson's Arthropoda iconicus book/exhibition.
I was reminded of my sketches after reading this article at io9 featuring Richard Wilkinson's Arthropoda iconicus book/exhibition.
Thank you, @Laura Cynthia Chambers! I'd forgotten about Roy 
Well, it's been...? Crikey! Six months since I last mustered up any enthusiasm, ideas and time for Trek art, but this months Art Challenge has stirred me into action with the promise of Looking Forward to a Brighter Future.
I have a couple of ideas for the challenge, and have actually made a start on one of them:
I have a couple of ideas for the challenge, and have actually made a start on one of them:
I've been fascinated with Romulan pixmit cards (or pikhmit, according to the Starfleet Museum on Star Trek: The Cruise, courtesy of TrekCore) ever since they first appeared in Picard. The urge to make a set has been almost over-powering, but life (and laziness) kept finding ways of thwarting me, so I only got as far as cataloguing the cards seen so far (link is to my blog - no Picard spoilers there unless you count the existence of these cards as a spoiler, in which case: Too late!).
That these pixmit/pikhmit cards could be a Romulan take on tarot cards is a good enough reason to use them to fortell a brighter future for this month's art challenge. Here's my progress so far:
After settling on a size (9cm each side), I cut out ten triangles from a piece of parchment coloured card (too thin for proper pixmit but I didn't have any thicker mounting board-like card), and had a play around with pen and ink using the leftover card. I used a gold metallic marker for the border, dark blue fineliner for the curlicues, and a gold fineliner for the outer text border. The curlicues were far too big on the trial card, but I just wanted to see if I could do them relatively quickly/easily. And the border text was too yellow so I had to walk into town to buy a different, darker pen.
As you can see below, I managed to get a couple of cards prepared for their central image/icon (I added radial lines with a gold pencil crayon). As yet, though, I haven't finalised designs for the "brighter future" icons - and only have a few ideas (a sun, a book of prophecies, a Romulan Klingon & human standing together, amongst others) so any suggestions would be welcome. Nothing too complex though, as I'm not confident with my ability to draw anything even remotely recognisable in such a small space!
Gods, these are time-consuming to make! I hope I haven't picked something too obscure? What am I doing??
That these pixmit/pikhmit cards could be a Romulan take on tarot cards is a good enough reason to use them to fortell a brighter future for this month's art challenge. Here's my progress so far:
After settling on a size (9cm each side), I cut out ten triangles from a piece of parchment coloured card (too thin for proper pixmit but I didn't have any thicker mounting board-like card), and had a play around with pen and ink using the leftover card. I used a gold metallic marker for the border, dark blue fineliner for the curlicues, and a gold fineliner for the outer text border. The curlicues were far too big on the trial card, but I just wanted to see if I could do them relatively quickly/easily. And the border text was too yellow so I had to walk into town to buy a different, darker pen.
As you can see below, I managed to get a couple of cards prepared for their central image/icon (I added radial lines with a gold pencil crayon). As yet, though, I haven't finalised designs for the "brighter future" icons - and only have a few ideas (a sun, a book of prophecies, a Romulan Klingon & human standing together, amongst others) so any suggestions would be welcome. Nothing too complex though, as I'm not confident with my ability to draw anything even remotely recognisable in such a small space!
Gods, these are time-consuming to make! I hope I haven't picked something too obscure? What am I doing??
Thank you, all
I've finally got the ten pikhmit (I'm going with pikhmit, not pixmit) cards prepared for their central icons, plus a gold bonus/joker/get-out-of-jail-free card which I call the Open Door (a more positive card than Seb Cheneb, The Destroyer). The gold card is not seen in ST: Picard and is entirely of my own creation. Like one or two of the other cards, it has openings on all three sides, but these openings are all the same - meaning, one can only approach and turn left into the card on any side (unless one exits an ajoining card with a right-turn-in opening opposite, like the lowermost card in this photo, in which case one can travel from that card directly into the Open Door) :
I was just about to ink the blue curlicues of the penultimate card, when I noticed on my reference screenshot that some cards had what looked like a little head in place of the two quarter-circles on the lower sides. Of the 31 different cards I've counted on screen, 11 of them have the "head", while the rest have the quarter-circles. To make up for the lack of "heads" in my limited selection, I included one on each side of the gold card to guard the opening between the quarter-circles.
Now all I've got to do is design the icons for the centres and paint them on without ruining the cards!
I've finally got the ten pikhmit (I'm going with pikhmit, not pixmit) cards prepared for their central icons, plus a gold bonus/joker/get-out-of-jail-free card which I call the Open Door (a more positive card than Seb Cheneb, The Destroyer
). The gold card is not seen in ST: Picard and is entirely of my own creation. Like one or two of the other cards, it has openings on all three sides, but these openings are all the same - meaning, one can only approach and turn left into the card on any side (unless one exits an ajoining card with a right-turn-in opening opposite, like the lowermost card in this photo, in which case one can travel from that card directly into the Open Door) :
I was just about to ink the blue curlicues of the penultimate card, when I noticed on my reference screenshot that some cards had what looked like a little head in place of the two quarter-circles on the lower sides. Of the 31 different cards I've counted on screen, 11 of them have the "head", while the rest have the quarter-circles. To make up for the lack of "heads" in my limited selection, I included one on each side of the gold card to guard the opening between the quarter-circles.
Now all I've got to do is design the icons for the centres and paint them on without ruining the cards!
I've done it. I've actually done it! I've finished my pikhmit/pixmit cards!!
This isn't my final piece for the Art Challenge, though - I intend to create a scene in which these cards are the focus.
Four of the icons can be found in Star Trek, two are from other IPs, and the remaining four I plucked from my experiences in witchcraft. Can you make out any of the images and tell what they are/where they're from? (This is where it may all fall down because of my questionable ability to draw anything recognisable in such small spaces...)
This isn't my final piece for the Art Challenge, though - I intend to create a scene in which these cards are the focus.
Four of the icons can be found in Star Trek, two are from other IPs, and the remaining four I plucked from my experiences in witchcraft. Can you make out any of the images and tell what they are/where they're from? (This is where it may all fall down because of my questionable ability to draw anything recognisable in such small spaces...)
- I'm glad at least some of the icons are recognisable. The phoenix is supposed to be the Fiery Phoenix/God Phoenix from Battle of the Planets/G-Force/Gatchaman. It wasn't until after I'd drawn it that I remembered that Star Trek has its own phoenix in the form of Zephram Cochrane's Phoenix emblem! Thanks, SCE2Aux
- Thanks, gazomg
With the pixmit/pikhmit cards themselves finished, I need to decide on a scene showing them in use as an aid for divining a brighter future. So, what do you think: With or without belemnite "game" pieces?
I love looking at all your amazing starship art (@ashefivekay, @Rekkert, @Atolm, @SCE2Aux to name but a few), but I've recently realised that I've never actually produced any finished artwork featuring one of my own (this one doesn't count because it's just a mithered photo of a little model. Neither does this one because it's... well, it's a uterus). I've just had a look through a couple of boxes of notes and sketches and ideas (which stretch back 20-30 years!) and found these, though:
This Scirocco-class starship is based on a concept drawing by Alex Jaeger for Star Trek: First Contact.
This is USS Proteus (NX-77177) - I'd only drawn one half of it, so I flipped it over just now to create the whole thing.
And this is USS Auriga (NCC-79989-δ) - again, only half a ship flipped to make it whole (those phaser arrays strung between the nacelles are not part of the ship - they were part of a different sketch on the same piece of paper).
With the extra time that a certain event has freed up, I intend to produce a finished bit of starship art of some description. But first, I'll need to do a lot more sketches...
This Scirocco-class starship is based on a concept drawing by Alex Jaeger for Star Trek: First Contact.
This is USS Proteus (NX-77177) - I'd only drawn one half of it, so I flipped it over just now to create the whole thing.
And this is USS Auriga (NCC-79989-δ) - again, only half a ship flipped to make it whole (those phaser arrays strung between the nacelles are not part of the ship - they were part of a different sketch on the same piece of paper).
With the extra time that a certain event has freed up, I intend to produce a finished bit of starship art of some description. But first, I'll need to do a lot more sketches...
- I'm glad at least some of the icons are recognisable. The phoenix is supposed to be the Fiery Phoenix/God Phoenix from Battle of the Planets/G-Force/Gatchaman. It wasn't until after I'd drawn it that I remembered that Star Trek has its own phoenix in the form of Zephram Cochrane's Phoenix emblem! Thanks, SCE2Aux
- Thanks, gazomg
With the pixmit/pikhmit cards themselves finished, I need to decide on a scene showing them in use as an aid for divining a brighter future. So, what do you think: With or without belemnite "game" pieces?
Those turned out great, @Cyfa! Very well done!
Thanks, @Michael - and to everyone who voted for my pikhmit/pixmit cards in last month's challenge!
I've have a couple of ideas for this months challenge, but before I get on to them, for anyone who was even vaguely interested in what the images on the cards are (@SCE2Aux managed to identify three of them):
Four of the icons can be found in Star Trek - Whale Probe (blue cylinder), Eisn (pink Romulan sun), raptor wings superimposed on Starfleet Delta (as IDed by SCE2Aux), and Bird-of-Prey (in a crystal ball, also IDed by SCE2Aux). Two are from other shows - the Fiery Phoenix from Battle of the Planets/G-Force/Gatchaman, and The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch from Good Omens (book). The remaining four I plucked from my experiences (in witchcraft, amongst other things) - Nature (tree, deer, Romulan), Witch paraphernalia (cauldron & broomstick), Light bloom (although it looks like a cauliflower...), and Tower.
Then there's the gold bonus/joker/get-out-of-jail-free Open Door card and its blue opposite number (which is based on the UFP flag bordered by Vulcan script)
Anyway, back to this month's art challenge, Into the Arboretum... A couple of quick sketches of my ideas so far: a giant space flower made of starship parts, and a more traditional starship arboretum filled with non-traditional (and even a few non-Trek) botanical specimens.
I've have a couple of ideas for this months challenge, but before I get on to them, for anyone who was even vaguely interested in what the images on the cards are (@SCE2Aux managed to identify three of them):
Four of the icons can be found in Star Trek - Whale Probe (blue cylinder), Eisn (pink Romulan sun), raptor wings superimposed on Starfleet Delta (as IDed by SCE2Aux), and Bird-of-Prey (in a crystal ball, also IDed by SCE2Aux). Two are from other shows - the Fiery Phoenix from Battle of the Planets/G-Force/Gatchaman, and The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch from Good Omens (book). The remaining four I plucked from my experiences (in witchcraft, amongst other things) - Nature (tree, deer, Romulan), Witch paraphernalia (cauldron & broomstick), Light bloom (although it looks like a cauliflower...), and Tower.
Then there's the gold bonus/joker/get-out-of-jail-free Open Door card and its blue opposite number (which is based on the UFP flag bordered by Vulcan script)
Anyway, back to this month's art challenge, Into the Arboretum... A couple of quick sketches of my ideas so far: a giant space flower made of starship parts, and a more traditional starship arboretum filled with non-traditional (and even a few non-Trek) botanical specimens.
Just some fleshing out of my ideas for Into the Arboretum:
And a snippet of what might be my final piece. Maybe...
And a snippet of what might be my final piece. Maybe...
