The Good Stuff

Chris Roberson makes up stories. Here is some stuff he likes. http://chrisroberson.net

[retroscifiart]

Warhammer 40K Battlefleet Gothic box art by John Blanche (1999)

[retroscifiart]

Art by John Blanche for Warhammer 40K

[arcadefan]

Cover artwork for Ork by the late British artist Richard Clifton-Dey. Psygnosis released Ork in 1991 for the Amiga and Atari ST.

The artwork, entitled Behemoth's World, was flipped and zoomed in a bit when it was originally used a decade earlier for Blue Öyster Cult's 7th album Cultösaurus Erectus.

[thevaultoftheatomicspaceage]

[artmagine]

The beautiful art of Thomas Blackshear II

[kingfucko]

i went to his website and saw even more great art! sharing some more which i particularly appreciated

[rowecommaadam]

Hubert de Lartigue – Shadowrun

[shoomlah]

The re-release of the Classic PS1 versions of Myst and Riven required new trophies, which required new trophy icons, and so I got permission to get a little weird and illustrative with it—super fun getting to revisit this world with a little bit of Mignola mixed in.

(The Riven trophy icons)

(Also you can get a blanket with all of these on it at the Cyan store and, speaking from experience, it is extremely cozy)

[scurviesdisneyblog]

Character designs for Robin Hood (1973) by Ken Anderson

[nattousan]

ok so, I approached my local library with a proposal to donate a mural as a way to A: build portfolio/gain practical experience and B: give back to a beloved public institution. The director was very enthusiastic about it and i've been working on it since the beginning of March. Come with me as I endeavor to paint what is in all honesty an excessive amount of birds

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

and that was a whole week on it's own so next comes the paintin' >:)

[nattousan]

and now, the birds

Birds 1 and 2/14: Red Winged Blackbird, Male and female, Agelaius phoeniceus

[nattousan]

Bird 3/14, American Robin, Turdus migratorius

[nattousan]

hoo boy, ok *out of breath*

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

this guy took me about 4 days to completely finish, all of those freakingk coverts were a bear to render

[nattousan]

speaking of obnoxious coverts:

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

the friggin stripes almost got me chat, i may not make it

[nattousan]

Madam....

[nattousan]

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

pleasantly simple to paint! next is the flickerrrrr

[nattousan]

*melts into goo*

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

nothing but pain and suffering, i'm sure hope the next bird will be much easier and with FAR less barring :)

[nattousan]

in other news, I am losing my mind hairline

[nattousan]

SHE'S DONE!!

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

[nattousan]

*does a little jig*

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

Also thank you everyone for your kind words and support throughout this whole process, it's been a genuine treat thinking there are potentially thousands of you out there cheering me on while I paint this 🥹

[nattousan]

aaaand another one bites the duck,

we're movin right along with bird numero 11!! The lady Mallard!! Anas platyrhyncos

the 16th is looming in the distance so i'm trying to get thru these as quickly as i can so i can have as much time for the GBH as possible. i still need to do the names next to all of them so i've got about a week and a half to finish everything which is GREAT because i have adhd and nothing gets my ass in gear like a fuckin deadline, let me tell you

[nattousan]

power couple that they are, here's bird number 12 and 13,

the Northern Cardinals, Cardinalis cardinalis

and NOW that they are complete, ITS GO TIME, in the next five days (library's closed for mother's day 😭😭) i need to have the GBH fully rendered, the names of the birds vectored, weeded, masked, applied to the wall, and then painted, plus additional cattails throughout. I may be able to get away with just getting the GBH done in time for the unveiling and then just have the names and cattails added later, but i'm gonna really try to get it all done in time. BUT, i have a plan. Part of why i take so long on these is because i really am just figuring it out as I do it lmao. there have been many a time where i am sitting on top of the ladder googling "how to paint birds" but I think if i take the time tomorro to do all that figuring out how to approach it beforehand, this will go a lot faster. I may also recruit some of my artist friends to help with the placing of the names... hrmm we'll see.

Anyways, shout out to the librarian who tracked down exactly the thing i needed so i could figure out where to place the highlights in my birds eyes, ur the real mvp

[nattousan]

thanks for the reminder, kid

[nattousan]

at long last, we've reached the end...

Bird number 14 out of 14,

The Great blue heron, Ardea herodius

thank you to everyone who reached out or got excited about this project, it genuinely gave me the fuel i needed to keep going. In total, the 480+ total hrs it took me to cover this wall pales in comparison to how long its expected to spend on there, hopefully imparting a sense of beauty and love for the natural world to the next generation and here's hoping i'm only getting started with these.

i'll see y'all soon :')

[enchantedbook]

'The Little Mermaid' by Hiroaki Ikeda, 1971

[vintage1976]

Star Wars Kenner toys and action figures

[chrisroberson]

Paul Kidby’s cover art for Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, in observance of the Glorious 25th of May. “How do they rise up, rise up, rise up?”

[enchantedbook]

'Vampire Hunter D' by Yoshitaka Amano

[retroscifiart]

Art by Martyn and Roger Dean and Richard Clifton-Dey originally intended for Jeff Wayne’s 1977 War of the Worlds album, but never used.

[milkywayes]

The senior crew of Starfleet's most controversial starship, the USS Normandy SR-1.

blurb and crew list under the cut!

I came up with a whole backstory for this AU, but I’ll just leave you with this blurb:

After the media circus around the Cerberus trials dies down and the rogue Section 31 cell has been thoroughly dealt with, no one expects to see key witness Shepard, ex-special forces commander, ever again. Not after she publicly disavowed Starfleet, and not with half the quadrant still questioning her involvement. They especially don’t expect to see her captaining her own starship. And to hire a turian first officer only months after the Hierarchy’s sudden and inexplicable move to join the Federation? It’s like she’s begging for negative attention. The galaxy wants to know: what leverage does she hold against Starfleet brass to make them cater to her every whim? And how long until the crew cannibalizes itself under her rogue leadership?

SENIOR CREW LIST

CMDR. Shepard, Commanding Officer LT. Moreau, Helmsman

LT. CMDR.* VAKARIAN, XO, Chief Tactical Officer LT. ALENKO, Second Officer SPECIALIST TRAYNOR, Communications Officer

*approximate rank based on Hierarchy tier

CPTN. CHAKWAS, Chief Medical Officer CPO WILLIAMS, Chief of Security N/A [INVALID NAME], Acting Chief Engineer ENSIGN T'SONI, Science Officer

[publicdomainreview]

The story of Alexander the Great’s descent beneath the waves in a “bathysphere” — whether scouting enemy defences, receiving philosophical insight, or escaping death with his pet dog, cat, and cock — has been subject of many medieval illustrations: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/alexander-bathysphere

[weirdlandtv]

Art from the 1982 EPCOT Pictorial Souvenir.