Digital Painting - "World War II Power Suits"

I've been doing some of the 'weekly' Imagine FX magazine forum competitions rather than the 'monthly' ones, which has encouraged me to speed up and improve my techniques. Instead of getting bogged down in extraneous detail, they have forced me to make sure I get maximum effect without spending hours over-working something.

This was created for the May 2011 weekly challenge entitled: "World War II Power Suits"

The 'Brief' was: "Design front and side views of each suit, and an image illustrating the clash between the prototypes."

And the 'Description' was: "Discovered in a pile of forgotten WWII records, are designs for a Nazi power suit, with which a soldier could attack the allies with added strength, armour and high-powered weaponry. Found alongside these records were the designs for an Allied response to this machine. It is doubtful that any form of mass production was started, but there is anecdotal proof that a battle occurred between the prototypes of either side."

Final "World War II Power Suits"

This final version is almost the same as the one entered in the competition, except for a few minor refinements, such as the folder in the background, the Union Jack on the allied suit's armour, and a handful others.

The suit designs were drawn traditionally, then scanned. I also created the 'aged' paper for the technical illustrations, using a few different methods, namely crumpling things up, folding them, scraping them against a rough wall, burning the odd hole, and smudging in wet coffee. I then scanned them, and overlaid the pen and ink drawings. The central painting was done digitally, but placed on a scan I made of an old photograph back, to complete the 'period' feel.

I didn't expect to have the time for a challenge in the final week of May, but seeming as the challenge picked had been my suggestion, I couldn't resist. Given that this was produced quite quickly, I've been  happy with the results. This image won that week, and is (Fingers crossed) going to be printed in the next issue of Imagine FX.

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