Crystal Process - Spaceships, Philip K. Dick etc!

[Sybo]

Hello,
I've been a member of CA for ages, I had a sketchbook way too long ago, and I just started work on illustration for a story by Philip K Dick called The Crystal Crypt for the digital publishers Pictorical.com. I though I would post up my process as a kind of sketchbook.

My style has changed a lot over the years, and I guess its a little different to most of the other SBs around here, hope its still acceptable! Plus I've working in a kind of 50's book cover rip-off to suit the dated story writing style and theme. Anyway, here's the process so far

Spaceship designs










For more detail on the process etc, hit up my blog http://crystalprocess.wordpress.com/

[NickyBeats]

cool stuff man! like the style in this last page~

[Sybo]

These are character designs for the main characters in the other big project I am working on apart from the Philip K. Dick story. The story called 'The Spirit Fox' and its going to be a comic for kids.

[Sybo]

Here's the first page of the Spirit fox, a short comic I am working on in all my spare time! heheh

[Velocity Kendall]

I sure do love PKD, great work. Id love to see what you made off Psyman Heal My Child or Upon the Dull Earth...

[Hive_minD]

Some really great stuff going on here, love the spaceship tutorial. So simple yet effective!

[jellyswirl]

Well congrats on being on CA for long and creating a fresh board. But I really like your style with the great character design and variety of textures.

[Sybo]

Hey guys, thanks a lot for the encouragement, and yes I've been coming back here for years. My vision and style have changed a LOT over the past 2 years, mostly due to creating 2 kids books which really pushed me to explore new techniques, both traditional and digital.

Velocity> well, I have actually only read a few of Dick's earlier stories and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, all of which were fantastic. And watched a lot of movies based on his books. They're almost unavoidable. Anyway, you've just given me two new stories to hunt down, thanks man.

Hive> glad you like the process, not really a tutorial, but I do have one that is quite useful, on separating scanned linework in Photoshop, so you can colour the lines independently: http://illustrationlife.com/?p=271

Jellyswirl> Glad you like the designs and work up here, texture is what its all about my friend ! I love em.

[Sybo]

Here are a few new drawings for The Crystal Crypt. I feel a little off my game this week, and a close family member of mine has just passed away, and I can't attend the funeral as I am overseas. They look simple, but hopefully these drawings are going to be fine to work with when I go ahead and colour them for the book...

[Sybo]

A sketch based on an old photo. (50 mins)

[Sybo]

Some more quick sketchbook stuff, pretty rough!



cheers guys!

[Velocity Kendall]

Im slowly working through all PKD. I think hes not writing to create high art, but hes an amazing innovator of ideas. His stories seem to have more ideas per page than many sci fi books have in a chapter.
I also really enjoyed The Zap Gun and The 3 Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.
As a side note you cant got wrong with any of the Science Fiction Masterworks series, I buy them by the foot from the charity shop... Tiger Tiger by Alfred Bester started kind of slow and seemed very old fashioned but kept on changing gear till it was white hot by the end. And More the Human by Theodore Sturgeon and Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut made me laughy-cry. Truly mind-expanding stuff.

[Sybo]

Velocity: PKD was a man of ideas. I do remember reading one of his books that was quite literary, it quoted Jame Joyce's Ulysses, it was an awesome short-novel, one of his early ones. I will try and find the title, I have the book back at home but Im living overseas at the moment. Science fiction Masterworks seem to be a good place to start with the best of SF. I have read Gene Wolfe's Shadow & Claw, which is number one of the Fantasy Masterworks series, and the following two books in his Book of the New Sun series, and it was mindblowingly awesome. Its a strange mix, neither fantasy, nor SF, but something crazier and multi-leveled. I must try to get hold of the SF masterworks series books, I believe Dhalgren by Samuel Delany in in the series, and that is one crazy, out-there, mind-shattering masterpiece. Wish I had such a shop that sold the series locally, but where I live, its a bit harder to get hold of them. Getting a Kindle soon, so hopefully that'll help. Anyway, thanks for the recommendations, they'll be put to good use, I've been waiting to read More than human for a while now.
Oh, and over at Ofblog, Larry has done some great reviews one the series, http://ofblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/g...-what-ive.html

New Sketch, of an Indian in a bonnet. 50 mins.

[Vulgar`]

Nice book - my kind of sketchbook.. I love sci fi novels. I have a few PKD books but haven't read one through yet, blame it on laziness.

[Velocity Kendall]

"Gene Wolfe's Shadow & Claw, which is number one of the Fantasy Masterworks series, and the following two books in his Book of the New Sun series,

Oh man dont get me started. I need to reread that as an adult badly.
SF is full of interesting interelations; Paul McAuley used Wolfe's devce of employing odd-sounding but real words in his Confluence stories, also set in the deep future, this time on an artificial world build by mankind's godlike decendents and people by human-shaped animals..
which brings me to my favourite SF of all, that of Cordwainer Smith.
Check cher-check check check cher check it out. The Rediscovery of Man is.. superlatives run out, yknow?

[Sybo]

New 50min sketch... struggled with this one.



Vulgar - Thanks. I'm a little bit similar with some authors, but PKD is one you just cannot ignore. It's an either 'love or hate' situation.

Velocity- yes, you will not regret a reread. Wolfe's novels are many layered, I have as many of his books I can get my hands on. Gaiman said that the first time he read Wolfe's 'Peace' it was a detective novel / exploration of the idea of life and death. The second time it was like reading a completely different novel, horrific, gothic and sinister.

I haven't heard of Mcauley, but I will check him out, sounds like an interesting idea. I like Bank's culture novels as an examination on what may happen to mankind in the far far future, although it's wildly different to Wolfe's version. Cordwainer Smith is high on my list as well, I just heard of him a couple of months ago and put some books on order. Scaners live in Vain sounds cool....

[Sybo]

New digital Sketch - Australian Gangster / boxer, with a seriously messed up face. this took 1 hour more or less...

[dan liimatta]

Very nice - especially the PKD piece and the spirit wolf - really like the style and how you do things like the portrait from the old photo - and also you've made me read Wolfe again - now if I could only find my old books :/

Gene was probably my favorite author groving up - no idea why I haven't read any for the last 5 years ~ (I still have atleast 2 books left).

PKD is also nice - especially the older to mid stuff, some of the later get a bit too strange/weird to be as enjoyable - but I still like it, and I agree about him being a man of ideas.

Anyway thanks for posting these and for the book discussion - both parts are highly enjoyable.

[Sybo]

Hey Dan, thanks a lot for the compliments! Really encouraging! Im really trying to develop a style / consistancy of my own, but my interests really vary a lot, and sometimes I flip from one technique to another to another.

As for Wolfe, you just can't go wrong with his books. I just read his The Knight, and it was so visually inspiring! I guess it was because I discovered the work of Sam Bosman at the same time I was reading the book, because the story was so colorful, fast=paced, weird, and full of imagination. I need to get onto The Wizard now!

Here's another 50 min piece, I don't think it was hugely successful but I should post it up anyway.

[dan liimatta]

yeah Wolfe never went wrong - I think though that I just drifted off to other things around the Knight (one of few I haven't read) - going to order them actually ~


And short pieces - hit or miss - are fun either way

It does remind me of something - as in I think I've seen someone look more or less like it - probably when I was looking for steampunk refs for a game 2 years back - but dunno - could have been just that I've seen parts that are similar while browsing flicker.

[jellyswirl]

Ya I am not a big sci fi except for a few series but all your great work made me interested and wanted to look into them further ^^.And for your last piece I like how the skin and lighting really stands out from the piece.

[CLANLESS]

You have beautiful, interesting art.