#mike faille

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Skeletons' Tomb by Mike Faille

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Gammatober, Day 2: Badder

I’m really kinda excited how the Badder turned out.

First and foremost, his kit -- technologically -- had to be

But not without having scavenged some of his stuff. (Like it says, approximate.) His shield may not be a stop sign, but it’s close, in terms of tone.

Also, when I was searching my Badder tag, I was specifically looking for that one illustration of the Badder swinging an axe at a target mannequin. And much to my shock, it wasn’t there. How could Black Ray Gun gotten this far without the quintessential Badder?

If you don’t know it, it’s

It’s from Gamma World Survival Module GW2, ‘Famine in Far-Go’. I’m 95% sure it’s by Larry Elmore, but Timothy Truman did art for that module as well, and their brushwork and tones are similar. But I’m still guessing Elmore.

Another exceptional Badder is the one Mike Faille included in his series of Gamma World monsters. Here it is:

So Day 2 is done and I’m pleased.

Tomorrow is ‘Zoopremacists’. Now I’m anxious.

[menofcolorinfantasyart]

Mike Faille

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Gammatober, Day 24: Yexil

Mixed results today. I don’t dislike it, but I’m not crazy about the fur (it’s not for nothing that last year I did a hairless owlbear and featherless gryphon) and it could have been better. I also pictured my Yexil rearing up on its rear legs as if to intimidate the viewer. That didn’t quite work out -- maybe his back isn’t arched enough.

I am happy that I did my best to draw canon:

Long hair legs. Fur-lined wings. Lion-like head. Large mandibles.

I didn’t go with everything. My guy’s neck isn’t long, and I put his hands where other artist have put his hands -- which aren’t really at the “end” of his wings. That would be weird.

But that did get me thinking: maybe I should have drawn him exactly as he’s described, long neck and oddly-placed hands and all. What’s the worst that can happen? He’d look silly? Can’t have a Yexil looking silly.

My Yexil owes less to David Trampier’s original:

and more to Larry Elmore’s version from 4th edition:

Mike Faille did a good Yexil, but it’s more cool than goofy:

The Tomorrow Men haven’t met a Yexil, but they know guy -- and old solider named 12-7 Mike Mike, who made Fatbox’s license plate lorica segmentata -- who weaves clothes and textiles to feed one.

And the Yexil character in Paul Kidd’s ‘Red Sails in the Fallout’ was fun.

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Gammatober, Day 4: Shark

I did this today (the 5th) because I was out of town all day yesterday and couldn’t pass up doing one of my favorite subjects: Sharks. More specifically, Seps:

To put that damage into perspective, 9d6 does an average of 32 (rounded up) points of damage. In Gamma World (1st edition, at least) a 10 is “average” for a Basic Attribute, and a character’s hit points are 1d6 per point of Constitution. Which means the “average” person has 35 hit points, only three more than the Sep’s average damage. If one roll is higher on the bell curve, or the other lower, the bite can be immediately lethal. Brutal.

Note that I didn’t draw my Sep as having an especially brain-y head; I’m too enamored of a shark’s patina of scars and cuts to not draw them. That and brains are hard to draw. I’ll cross that bridge on Day 13.

As was the case on Badder day, a couple very talented artists have done Seps -- Larry Elmore and Mike Faille:

My drawing today has two bonus mutated plants with the

and

mutations.

What kind of berries?

The Orange-yellow kind. Not bad, especially if you have that Constitution 10 I was talking about.

Sharks rule.

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Gammatober, Day 5: Bulette

(Obviously on Gamma Terra “wizards” and “experimental breeding” are the Ancients and their nuclear weapons.)

Thanks go to Jim Holloway for teaching my years ago that the easiest way to handle limbs and body-parts in the background is just to make them silhouettes. Seriously, look at any of his drawings.

Peruse my bulette tag, including this post explaining the Bulette’s origin as a cheap Chinese plastic toy.

Finally, of alternate note:

Gamma World actually has one of those already: the Sep:

Illustrations by Mike Faille and Larry Elmore

Anticipating this post, I did a super-quick sketch of a Sep at dinner tonight -- between courses -- at my favorite local Italian restaurant:

He’s fat, I’m just noticing.

Oh, and one more thing: read this thread about how to pronounce ‘bulette’. For what it’s worth, I’ve always said bull-ET.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Forest Goblins by Mike Faille

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Mike Faille