#relay tower

[vaultdwellerdiary]

Day 38: Relay Tower EM-B1-27, just southwest of the lookout. It’s another solid concrete structure much like the earlier radio tower we came across, but I decided to draw this one while Turtle hacks away inside at their computer. It apparently needed some light repairs before she could use it. The place had some security, a few automated turrets, but they weren’t that hard to take out. I’m mostly keeping an eye out while she tinkers.

[destroyed-and-abandoned]

Old AT&T Microwave Relay Tower, Santa Monica Mountains

Source: markeees (reddit)

[iguessitspencilsforsuppertonight]

Facilities

My friend Stephanie Chan lent me a couple of great books. The first one was The Art of Mass Effect. I've never played mass effect, and if I do, it likely won't be for a while yet, as I'm off video games for the duration of the semester. However, the book has some great material in it; eye candy for sci-fi lovers like myself. Spaceship, alien, and weapon designs galore. The second book was Mechanika, by Doug Chiang. I was introduced to Chiang's work fairly early on through the Art of Star Wars: Episode One, which features a hell of a pile of his designs. The great thing about his new book (Mechanica), is that while it discusses the design aspects of creating vehicles and aliens, it also provides step-by-step instructions on how he lays down his media to arrive at his finished piece. It's like those Draw 100 Sea Creatures or Movie Monsters books they used to have, but matured. I'd recommend both of these books to anyone who wants to get some inspiration, and some directions, respectively. I tried out Chiang's marker and pen technique the other day, and I think the results are pretty neat looking. I did these on the cardboard backing of a pad of paper, which gave them a nice texture and a middle tone to work into. I first used a set of gray markers, 0.5, 2, and 4, then inked the linework, and added some darker shadows with a 6 and 7. Highlights are white pencil. Then I dicked around in Photoshop. Tadaaaaa! Also, while I'm here, Sam Neilson, whose Deviantart account I've linked before, wrote a great article about Abstraction. His whole blog is worth looking at, he's got great work posted there.