The Mutara Battle Part 2, Wrath of Khan Tribute

This is my second illustration to one of my favorite movies of all time, Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan. I based Kirk's image on that memorable (kinda funny, actually) scene where he yells "KHAN!" and then they loop his voice over and over again "KHAN! KHAN! KHAN!"

As usual the image at left is reduced to 12% from the original illustration on my hard drive. 

The detail image at right is reduced to 25%.

The Mutara Battle 2

Pencil, Adobe Photoshop

October 2012

The Wrath of Khan in two parts

The genetically advanced, perfect soldier Khan has stolen not only the starship Reliant but the powerful Genesis experiment as well in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In the dramatic ending of the film he follows the Enterprise into the mysterious Mutara Nebula, a turbulent region of space that disrupts both of the starships' sensors and disables their shields. This is part 1 of my tribute to this climactic battle.

As usual the image at left in the preview is the full illustration reduced to 12% from the original, while the detail at right is reduced to 25%.

The Mutara Battle 1

Pencil, Adobe Photoshop

October 2012

Anatomy of a Cartoon Starship Part CUATRO

As I mentioned earlier, while it's not required, symmetry works with industrial or mechanical designs, like spaceships for example. After duplicating the "warp nacelles" or engines, rectangular guides are laid out on separate layers to help balance the two sides.

I didn't like the handwritten call letters I started with, so I opted for photoshop fonts. In the case of this particular whimsical cartoon rendition, I felt the giant letters looked appropriate.

Anatomy of a Cartoon Starship Part SAN

I'll honestly admit without hesitation that I'll use the computer to fix certain areas that require "perfectly smooth" lines, like the sensor bands running around the saucer. At a certain point, rectangular layers provide visual guides to help maintain symmetry, which I think is important for this kind of project.

The addition of the warp nacelle sketch on the left starts making this design more recognizable.

Anatomy of a Cartoon Starship Part DEUX

This next step makes one imagine I'm crafting a really ugly image but it demonstrates a process that helps tremendously when making something like this. While I wouldn't do this for every illustration I create, in this case duplicating and flipping selected elements makes mechanical objects (like spaceships) more symmetrical.

Anatomy of a Cartoon Starship Part ONE

As some of you already know, I'm a huge Sci-Fi geek. Primarily "vintage" Star Wars, Star Trek, Dune, Doctor Who, to list only a few. While some artists might work in such realms as the bizarre, others the violent, some the shocking and yet others the abstract, I try to stay in the realm of "cute" (at least half the time). So a lot of my recent sci-fi homages have been "cute-ified" to some degree.

Anyhow I want to share with you the "construction" of a cartoon-ified Starship Enterprise. To begin I started by sketching certain parts of the Enterprise that I later merge with other parts recycled from scans of my cartoon Reliant. Both are very similar so it works, me thinks.