visual art Rascal's Steampunk/Electric Art thread [HELP NEEDED PLEASE]

[Rascal~ 657]

So, I've always been a bit of a drawer of electric/robotic things.usually eyes are what I do when I do electric, but I'm moving to more complex things. I've just started into doing steampunk, as I love the colour palette that it uses and it just looks cool. So I thought that I would make a thread just dedicated to my journey through Steampunk and complex robotic/electronic art. I would love it if you guys would help me out, I'm no experts in these fields though I'm sure some of you people are better experts than me.

 

Robotic Eyeball Design- Sketch with Colour

 

 

 

 

^Something I posted here a little while ago, but it fits being here. Just a design I like and have been drawing for a couple of weeks.

 

A Primitive Combustion Engine- WIP Sketch

 

 

 

 

^ In science we've been doing a lot of work in energy, and so my teacher draws up Combustions and generators and all that up on the board quite a bit. I don't know a lot about combustion engines, and my sketch is based from the crude sketchings of my teacher. Steampunk style of course, I plan for it to be like a primitive Combustion engine that uses steam, and is like in a display case.

 

A Steampunk Me- WIP Sketch

 

 

 

 

^ Literally the first time I have ever drawn a human, I'm really shocked that it actually looks like a human being. But anyways, this is going to hopefully turn out to be a steampunky version of myself. As you can probably see, a leg brace or splint has been added. I don't have a really cool and awesome leg brace/splint for my left leg, I have a kinda worn out metal and plastic walking stick. Though as much as walking sticks are cool and all, and kinda pretty annoying in real life, a leg brace is so much cooler. So Steampunk me has a leg brace. Also, I've updated my hairstyle recently in real life, so I kinda matched it. And I've gotten rid of the chest features that I have in real life too.

 

So, this is it for now, Hope you guys enjoy my sketches. Help is always wanted, since I am a learning bugger.

Edited June 16, 2014 by Rascal61

[SkyBound 829]

I am neither an expert in Steampunk nor electronics of any kind, though I will admit that I find both the concept and the art I have seen in a Steampunk theme are rather intriguing.  Goggles, top hats and gears galore, there is just something about it that draws my attention.  Though I will admit that jumping into something as possibly complex as drawing robotics and other such similar subject matter seems rather large leap, you seem to be heading in the right direction thus far.  Honestly, with this genre, the only limitation seems to be one's imagination.

 

The sketches you have here do give a basic idea of what you are trying to portray, and the next step to illustrate your ideas further is to try showing the object from different perspectives (for example, show the eye in a profile and 3/4 view to show off more of the design).  This can also give you ideas a bit more life to them.  I would like to hear more about what ideas you have for the combustion engine as well.

 

And I must say that for a first attempt at drawing a human, it came out remarkably well and far better than what I could produce at my first stab at it.  Proportions are nearly spot in, with the exception of the one arm being a tad short, you seem to have a decent grasp of the human form.  I do like the idea of the leg brace and I hope you attempt a more detailed version so we can see more of what you have in mind for this.  Perhaps you can just do a close up drawing of a leg for that one?  

 

My apologizes that I could not provide a lot of insight on this one, but I do hope to see more of your Steampunk ideas soon as I am certainly interested in what you have right now.  Best of luck to you and take care!

[Rascal~ 657]

 

 

I am neither an expert in Steampunk nor electronics of any kind, though I will admit that I find both the concept and the art I have seen in a Steampunk theme are rather intriguing.  Goggles, top hats and gears galore, there is just something about it that draws my attention.  Though I will admit that jumping into something as possibly complex as drawing robotics and other such similar subject matter seems rather large leap, you seem to be heading in the right direction thus far.  Honestly, with this genre, the only limitation seems to be one's imagination.

The intricacy of both themes really earn my respect and my awe. I love both, since they can be so complex in such a small area, but the colour palette and just the designs also look amazing. Steampunk really got me with the gears and Costumes, since I love Tophats and in that theme walking stick or canes don't seem all that out there, which actually makes me relate to the theme. 
But with Robotics/electric/Electronic, the theme is so sci-fi, that literally anything is possible, and it's all such bright colours and glows. It's amazing, I really do well with the eyes. You would find hundreds of them all throughout my workbooks and random pieces of paper,  in fact the eyeball I did digitally is what I envisioned an eye design of mine would look like if it were taken out of it's socket. 

 

The sketches you have here do give a basic idea of what you are trying to portray, and the next step to illustrate your ideas further is to try showing the object from different perspectives (for example, show the eye in a profile and 3/4 view to show off more of the design).  This can also give you ideas a bit more life to them.  I would like to hear more about what ideas you have for the combustion engine as well.

I'll take your advice here, since perspective is something I'm trying to work on in all my work.  I think a three quarter profile would actually show more, and I could probably add a little more detail that could make a little more sense. 
For my combustion engine, I realise now that when I saved the preview of the WIP, I left the background on too much of a high opacity, so you can't see the actual main design of said engine all that well. Kinda kicking myself now, but oh well. 
Basically, since steampunk is really about technology and such of a universe or world where steam technology is the best technology, I thought that I would incorporate steam and water into the engine than what it usually has, which I believe is some kind of fuel. I don't know much, but what I do know and what I'm going to be making up right now is:

Water is added to a tank above the display, and of course go down the tubes to the valves that control the amount of water entering the piston chamber. From there, pistons go up and down, with the friction they are causing by going up and down, they heat up the water entering the chambers to very high temperatures. Another valve on the other side of the piston chambers controls the pressure in the chamber, when it opens and relieves the pressure, steam is able to be formed and then escape of the piston chamber and move into the display case. The Valve closes, and the piston keeps doing what it's doing. 
The Steam now is in the display case, which has a lower pressure than the piston chambers, so it is still steam. The Pressure that the steam is causing through it's movement in the box causes the cogs and gears to move. From that movement, I'm pretty electric can be made, but I'm unsure as to how you can go about collecting it or storing it, and I think I have a system in place for water droplets that are sure to form, but I'm not completely certain on it just yet. 

^Anyone with a much better understanding of combustion engines could probably do a much better job of explaining it, and can probably see the 10 thousand flaws with my engine. So if someone does, please do help yourself to some well needed knowledge sharing. 

 

And I must say that for a first attempt at drawing a human, it came out remarkably well and far better than what I could produce at my first stab at it.  Proportions are nearly spot in, with the exception of the one arm being a tad short, you seem to have a decent grasp of the human form.  I do like the idea of the leg brace and I hope you attempt a more detailed version so we can see more of what you have in mind for this.  Perhaps you can just do a close up drawing of a leg for that one?     My apologizes that I could not provide a lot of insight on this one, but I do hope to see more of your Steampunk ideas soon as I am certainly interested in what you have right now.  Best of luck to you and take care!

Thanks Skybound, I've learned a bit already about what you've said, you may not be an expert in the exact field, I'm not either, but anyone can see if anatomy is wrong. I'll see if I can fix the arms, I have an idea as to how too. And I may also do a close up on the leg, the design and concept is pretty simple, and I've done a pony version before, but I could probably make it more complex as I get better with it all.

You've been a great help, and definitely worth the over 2700 characters used in this post!
 

[Rascal~ 657]

So, I thought that I would just show the progress I made with the colour and gears today. And dear lord, it was a lot of hard work, and I hope that someone will come by and help me out. I know it doesn't look the best, but I'm hoping to learn a little better by showing to you guys and getting some feedback.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope those popped up right. But I added the colour with sketch, the just colour, and the coloured gears with the coloured box.

[thegoodhen 698]

 

 

From there, pistons go up and down, with the friction they are causing by going up and down, they heat up the water entering the chambers to very high temperatures.

I don't really think that would work irl.  Maybe I am missing something, but it sounds like a "Perpettum mobile"-or a perpetual motion machine.-one that powers itself, breaking laws of physics in process (thus it can't work). The friction wouldn't be high enough to heat up the water to such a high temperature! Sure, friction can generate a lot of heat, but where'd you get the energy to turn the motor in the first place? You need some sort of heating element to heat up the water.

 

I don't think combustion engine related research is useful for what you need. Try searching for James Watt steam engine.

[Rascal~ 657]

@@thegoodhen,
Yeah, I didn't think that it would actually work in real life. But in the Steampunk world, Anything with steam is possible!
 I'll have a look at the steam engine, but if anything the start of movement for the pistons to start heating up would probably be from just pouring water through the cogs. 
Thanks for coming along and helping out. 

[thegoodhen 698]

@@thegoodhen,

Yeah, I didn't think that it would actually work in real life. But in the Steampunk world, Anything with steam is possible!

 I'll have a look at the steam engine, but if anything the start of movement for the pistons to start heating up would probably be from just pouring water through the cogs. 

Thanks for coming along and helping out. 

No problem. I think it should be at least plausible-you know, at least belieavable to start with. 

 

You need something that at least LOOKS like it could work. A common mistake would be to "Just glue some gears on it and call it steampunk."

 

Every aspect of your design should be there for reason. This also helps you define the look of your creation and make it really unique. Function defines look. That's how it is irl, or at least how it should be. 

 

I suggest you take a look at steam cars, old steam trains (Rocket?) and this kind of stuff.

If you try and design it around a combustion engine, it won't look steampunkish, since combustion engines weren't around when steam was manesteam.