Racer in Color

Just a simple cleaned up and colored version.

Rocket Man Optics

Just rough stuff. Since I approached the concept as a "better than the real thing" alternate history, I opted to get a little steam-punky. The ludicrous speeds these guys travel at require them to keep an eye on the road in front of them and the road way in front of them. The custom head gear that the racers wear is unique to each racer but most have the ability to see immediately in front of them, and a variety of distances, accurately gauge distances and even see to the side without turning.

"bike" concept WIP

I made a ton of bike ruffs an after many revisions here is the design I settled on. The basic shape revolves around a straight turbine engine with everything else (including the pilot) added on around that. The hardest part about making this was trying to make it look like a early 1900's piece of machinery and not too sci-fi.

The drawing is still ruff but I think there is enough information to get the idea of what everything is. This was more a study to figure out what the bike would look like so that I could use it in other drawings.

Reluctant Racer Rough

The bottom 2 is the look I am finally settling for, the rest are just some of better try's that I had (Most were pretty bad). Perhaps the top image might make a good villain. I was trying for a slight cartoony style but had a lot of trouble playing with the main guys proportions. The girl is there as motivation for him to want to race. Sort of a washed up pro getting new life when he's paired with an opposite. In this case, I pictured her inheriting the racing team that he races for and is now his boss. The dynamics that these clashing characters could make for some funny and perhaps heart felt moments.
Hate to be sappy , but I like it when there is a little heart in stories.

Rocket Man

Woot! First post. Best of all, my take on the character looks like an extra for the music video for a-ha's take me on. I envisioned the hover bikes being deadly fast and requiring protection.

Great theme. Didn't want to miss it so I cheated and colored a sketch to sneak it in at the last minute.

Rocket Racer - Round 3

Same guy as the last two, just another experimental style. I took some inspiration from the drawings Jay has been doing.

I tried playing around some with textures too.

...on to the next one! Maybe I'll finish up some of the ruff bike designs I have.

Sir Leon "Sirloin" Clutterbuck

Knighted for his outstanding innovations and actions while serving in the Queen's Royal Navy, Sir Clutterbuck was one of the most sought after pit crew chiefs during his stint in the racing circuit- it wasn't unusual for him to be the most highly paid member of the squad, much to the chagrin of the vain racers.

Cartoonin' it up

So just on a whim I took the last character I drew and tried to see how simple I could make his structure. Here is what I came up with...

Charles "Eye Steak" O'Shaughnessy

Charles O'Shaughnessy was a great innovator of safety, shown here demonstrating that his double-leather gloves, while protecting one's hands, were also dextrous enough to handle a delicate flower. Unfortunately, and some say ironically, during a race he downshifted into a hard turn, and the sudden deceleration caused his right padded glove to bump his eject button, thereby launching him into the turbine engine of a trailing Rocket Racer. He died. And his gloves were shredded.

Racer Dude

Here's my take on one of the racers. Kind of a straight forward, no nonsense guy. I still want to design his bike and he needs a helmet (like a leather cloth on your head is going to help you if you crash riding a turbine rocket bike, but anyway...)

This character was sketched on paper and then inked in Illustrator. The tones and basic lighting were added in Photoshop.

Jack "Beef" Wellington Jr.

Based on the idea that this guy is a lady's man who wears sweaters that his mom gave him. The retro style was done in 5 seconds using an addon for GIMP called "FIL" and just toning down the effect a little, the rest is Mypaint.

Reference

This is just a quick post to say that Jay and I have setup a shared Drop Box folder for reference. If anyone would like to share access the images we have gathered, or add to them, please either send Jay or me a message and we'll get you an invite to share the folder.

Just note that you will need to have a Drop Box account, which is free for up to 2 gigs for data.

Ruff Sketches

Well, I don't have much yet but I thought i'd post this page of some ruff character ideas I'm working on. Just trying to get the ball rolling...

UPDATE: I finished the last row of heads. So the above image now shows all the finished doodles...