Well, the idea of a steam-powered robot is not a product of the steampunk genre. Harry Harrison actually had a backwards planet with steam robots in one of the Stainless Steel Rat books.
This is not that particular robot however. The guy is based on a photo portrait of an ancestor of mine that sits next to my great-grandfather's pocket watches (these mechanical marvels are astounding. I'm saving up the $200 need to repair one of them. Interestingly, I live in rural Vermont, but there is a vintage watch repair place within walking distance of our house).
The piece took about 4.75 man-hours from sketch to posting. I'm not good with coloring; I have no real color sense (which probably explains my C+ in painting in art school and my subsequent foray into graphic design and typography). So, I colored it in full-color with lots of local color shadows and then "sepia-ed" it. The full-color one is here . This is the one I posted at the Weekly Challenge.
listening to while posting: Hungarian Rhapsody by Franz Liszt (not the Roger Rabbit version)
1 comment:
Really fun and well done. The robot is nice mix of modern-looking technology and steampunk design. That gives it a fresher look than the standard steam powered automaton. I really like the shading too.
Another thing that I enjoy about the piece, is that the anachronistic elements of the picture are presented as normal. On the weekly challenge site most of other pieces are presented as a shock or a surprise encounter. I always thought of anachronism in art as something normal for the subjects in the piece but strange or funny for the observer of the art. That is the real essence of something anachronistic, at least in a visual art sense.
Don’t be too hard on yourself when it comes to coloring. I think the coloring on the metal is very good. You’re doing a good job on objects it’s the people that are giving you problems.
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