Category Archives: Sketchbook pages

Pages from my sketchbook.

Colony 87 Bounty Hunters

Late last year Karl from Crooked Dice asked me to draw concepts for a pair of Colony 87 Bounty Hunters that were reminiscent of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Quixote

Above are my initial sketchbook pages; the Don Quixote character would be an aging but still tough bounty hunter and the Sancho Panza equivalent would belong to the Colony 87 squat humanoid race. (Though there’s an Insectoid Alien option here which Karl felt was a bit too monstrous!)

This page is where I refine the Don Quixote look, though I wasn’t quite sure about Sancho Panza and wanted to define the alien/human variant race more.

The pages show me inventing the high-grav worlder bounty hunter and his gear. The ‘Wheel Ships’ I imagined they travel in are built around a super-dense fragment of one of their worlds. I’m adding various high-tech elements to his gear and seeing what works.

You can see more on my Facebook page of the final images – https://www.facebook.com/Will-Beck-Illustration-911094838907212

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More News From Colony 87

OK that was a long month of May! I’ve been meaning to get more of my artwork online I’ve just been a bit too busy to do it (I’ve loads more Crooked Dice Games’ Colony 87 creations and many other images as well).

Here’s a page of rough sketches of extraterrestrial animals that I drew before the full page here:

This Colony 87 concept page shows an alien menagerie that the Alien Pet Merchant could be selling to those that can afford them. The Eel-lion, Testudo-bird and Varkdog are influenced by creatures in images created by Moebius, the other creatures are my own inventions.

Looking at it again I wasn’t sure about the Eel-lion, I think it should be thinner and slippery like an eel, I shall redraw this some time as I do like the other designs.

Crooked Dice Games – Colony 87 Alien Pets

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Panzerfäuste Winter War Part 4

I didn’t post anything last month so I’ll make up for that with a few more in May. Here’s another miniatures concept that never made it into 3D.

Another Winter War troll, this time a specialist sniper for the mountain trolls. He’s a rare White Troll, slightly larger and more rotund than your average troll!

As I’ve done before you can see my original sketch on my Facebook page.

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Panzerfäuste Winter War Part 3

Here are the command units for the Soviet Dark Elves, all have an element of dark elf styling: A senior officer in winter greatcoat and papakha hat, an infantry officer, two Khôven Gralska Baba witches, an army doctor, an assassin (sniper), a remote observer witch, another witch with a sickle, a younger Dark Elf signaller and a Vodka Seller with a Cossack hat and hairstyle.

As before, my sketchbook pages can be seen on my Facebook page.

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Warhammer Gothic Horror Quest

Combining my liking for classic British Horror films (such as The Devil Rides Out (1968), The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), Witchfinder General that sort of thing) with Warhammer Age of Sigmar seemed a natural choice, especially near Hallowe’en when I had this idea.

I sketched these as there hasn’t been a new zombie kit from Games Workshop for over twenty years! They’ve got ghosts (The Nighthaunt, Ghouls (Flesh-eater Courts) and so on. The technology has moved on from the old characterful Zombies kit so this would be a great way to re-introduce zombies into Warhammer. I’ve sketched a battered Stormcast Relictor, a Lizardman (Seraphon if you like) hero sent on a holy quest by the Slann, a wandering Wood (A)elf Grove Warden (a druidic type wizard with some sprite helpers), a human Vampire hunter at the top and a Kharadron Dwarf lady. On the right side of the page there are some ideas for a Flesh Golem, a mad Vampire bad-guy (on his way to becoming a Varghulf) and a few zombies!

As with all of my Games Workshop related posts this is entirely fan art.

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Panzerfäuste Winter War – Part 1

These are concepts for miniatures that have never been turned into 3D form, which is a shame as I enjoyed creating these with Rob and Steve from the now-discorporated Hysterical Games.

This was a going to be the first supplement; the Panzerfäuste Winter War between the Vuoritroll Mountain Trolls (with equipment and culture based on early WW2 Finnish) and the Dark Elves (based on early WW2 Soviets).

For these drawings my influences were in no particular order, the Trollhunter film (2010), illustrating genius Paul Bonner’s trolls, pictures of trolls by the Swedish painter John Bauer and amazing illustrations by Ivar Rødningen.

Troll Hunter (2010)

Paul Bonner’s art on Facebook

John Bauer on Wikipedia

Ivar Rødningen’s art website

My sketchbook work for this can be seen on my Facebook page.

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The Rise of Colony 87

I realised I haven’t shared all my Colony 87 designs with people who look at my website so now I shall remedy that!

Here we have a pair of socialites. My client Jon Boyce (former owner of Colony 87) after looking at my initial sketchbook pages (which can be seen on my Facebook page) decided he didn’t want the retro 1930’s Blade Runner look and wanted more of a looser, layered look with one of the characters wearing the kind of hat you could see in a Moebius (Jean Giraud) drawing.

When Crooked Dice took over from Jon we resurrected an idea of Jon’s for a Alien Pet merchant. My first sketches were heavily influenced by the sleazy snake-seller in Blade Runner. Returning to this idea I thought he could be wearinge a frame (similar to that on by the Colony 87 water carrier) in which the merchant could carry his creatures. Here’s the final concept:

Crooked Dice Games’ range of Colony 87 miniatures can be found here:

Colony 87 characters and creatures from Crooked Dice Games

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The Revenge of Colony 87

Some more of my miniatures concepts have been release by the talented people at Crooked Dice Games. These were turned into 3D creations by sculpting-ace Mike Anderson.

The chap on the left is a rather aged, slightly poor-looking Tech Merchant, displaying a variety of Star Wars themed data devices and assorted technological odds and ends. He has a crude bionic lower leg which he probably built himself!

On the right we have a data courier, a bit like Johnny Mnemonic but he physically carries the data. He’s got more of a cycle-courier build, a Moebius-style Sci-fi snood with built in communicator and a data slate attached to a memory-wipe device (if stolen by anyone it wipes everything in his shoulder bag). A link to Crooked Dice Games where you can purchase these two characters for yourself or just admire the miniature painting:

Colony 87 Tech Merchant and Messenger on Crooked Dice Games

On my Facebook page you can see some of my sketchbook pages where I’m figuring out what these characters should look like (with the assistance of Jon Boyce, who commissioned me!).

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Penitent Engine

Here’s a thing, Games Workshop has sculpted something I’ve sketched (the iron maiden Pentitent Engine). It’s just a coincidence of course, they were thinking on the same lines as I was! Here’s the link to Games Workshop’s Warhammer Community:

Sisters of Battle – Penitent Engines

The original post is here for lazy people:

All GW Intellectual Property, like this, is of course copyright Games Workshop. It’s simply fan art and not meant to upset Games Workshop’s legal team!

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