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 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.

Star Trek Art: The Sensor

The Sensor (9 percent magnification)

Pencil, Photoshop

June 2012

My first image in a series that pays homage to the Star Trek universe but in the cartoon realm of my not-too-serious imaginings. "The Sensor" is an interpretation of one of the more memorable scenes from 1979's Star Trek The Motion Picture in which Mr. Spock encounters a gigantic copy of the Deltan Ilia that overwhelms him as he attempts a mind meld with it. While most Star Trek fans count Wrath of Khan as their favorite from the original movies, I have a nostalgic place in my heart for this first movie. The effects are fantastic and there's enough camp and overacting in some scenes to keep you awake even through the long, slow V'ger sequences.