All posts by Will Beck

Mutant Gang sketches


One of my first attempts at digital painting (in 2002!) was a fight scene in a hive world setting between slightly medieval-garbed fanatical mutant-hating humans (a Venator gang) fighting a mutant slave gang. Hive World Warhammer 40,000

I still like it, despite it being done ages ago and in Painter Classic (maybe having only one layer helped the image to be more coherent.)

Well a few years later, back in 2006 I wanted to revisit the image and began doodling and sketching these muties again. They’re not ‘Chaos mutants’, just unfortunate souls mutated by all the toxic pollution affecting generations of humans living in the Underhive.

Some of my mutant character’s are evolving on these pages; the gangly, goofy berserker and the guy with the blade on the end of his arm.

Here’s a very quick doodle on some lined paper of the mutant gang, the large mutant waving his trusty hitting pole in a threatening manner at the back! More of these sketches later.

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Sunken World tavern scene pencils and watercolour

At the end of a sketchbook I usually draw an full page sketch and colour it, even if it’s only a light wash. My last sketchbook I decided to create the Sunken World tavern scene I’d been planning for a while. On my facebook page I’ve enhanced it with some digital painting layers which you can see by clicking on the link to the right

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Happy New Year!


Here’s a new page (page 7) of my 10-page Christmas comic I hadn’t had time to finish from a while back. This page I pencilled, then inked on paper and painted the art in Clip/Manga Studio.

As I’d drawn and scanned all pages in pencils, written the story with all it’s amusing (to me anyway!) festive references myself I felt it needed finishing off. It’s less painterly than the first few pages, but they took longer to create (in Painter).

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My 2018 Christmas Card

This is my Christmas card for 2018, along with the model sheet I often do for comic strips. The card was all digitally drawn and inked in Clip (Manga) Studio.

I based the scene of the snowman (who I’ve called Snowpocalypse) on Jack Kirby’s cover for The Mighty Thor Marvel Treasury Edition from 1976.

The fonts are by Blambot. http://www.blambot.com/index.shtml

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Sunken World tavern sketches continued


When I’m reaching the end of a sketchbook (not my work ones, I have separate sketchbooks for them) I like to have a full page image to finish it off. I’ll add things to it over time if the idea isn’t fully formed or there are a load of characters. Here, getting near to the end of this on I was thinking about the tavern idea are some more possible patrons.
One the right side I’m refining my ideas for a smaller race for the Sunken World. I haven’t named them as yet, but here’s a bit of background: They used to spend their lives in forests, with dwellings built on platforms between the trees or hanging on the side of larger trees but after the destruction of the larger forests caused by the Tempest Storm (when the Thulhids invaded from another dimension a century or so ago) they’ve had to adapt to a more nomadic life, often ending up working onboard ships. As smaller creatures they have to band together so I imagine one would hire a whole extended family group. As smaller, arboreal mammalian creatures they probably had to use poisons to hunt in forests, maybe they’ve still got the reputation for using such things.
More soon!

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Sunken World Ichthyss Elite and tavern scene sketches


Here I’m refining the design of the Icthyss elite guard and the crustaceans their armour is made from.


I’d been thinking about drawing a Sunken World Tavern scene for ages, it’s a Fantasy cliché but that’s fine, I liked the idea. Alongside a sneak peak at some special weapons for the Icthyss Shore Raiders there’s a cast of characters I’ve inked in.

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Sunken World sketchbook pages Icthyss Elite and Sea Ranger


Here are a few sketches from my A6 sketchbook which I use when travelling by train or bus. The first are ideas I had for my Icthyss (fish-man) elite body guards and executioners. Their armour
is made from crustaceans that have been thaumaturgically-modified to be tougher (by their Thulhid masters). I realise they are literally lobster-tailed pot helmets but I like that!
Lobster-tailed pot helmet on Wikipedia
The weapons are fearsome two handed bladed weapons (similarly created from mutant sea creatures) vaguely like the one the Ottoman executioner wields in Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988).
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen on Wikipedia
More on these creatures soon!

Next I’ve got an idea for a scarecrow miniature to lead a unit of zombies or skeletons, doodles of a wizard’s familiar (sort of a gecko/newt creature) and on the opposite page are some sketches of a Sunken World character, my Sea Ranger character I was working on. (Sea ranger sketches)

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Space Pirate concept 03 – The Captain

And my last of the three Space Pirates, the Captain himself. He’s possibly a former Imperial Space Navy Captain or maybe he’s taken the gear from one he’s slain. I drew a head without a helmet and an alternative rifle for him (a laser volley-gun which I thought was suitably piratical!).

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Space Pirate – Bo’sun

Earlier this year I was contacted by a Russian fellow who wanted to commission some images of Space Pirates to turn into miniatures. As I had already sketched a few (previous posts) he picked three so this is the first one, a fat bo’sun who has to boss the unruly pirates about. I gave him some alternative weapons and a different head design.
I started with a rough pencil sketch, scanned the sketch in and worked it up in Painter and Manga(Clip) Studio.

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