All posts by Will Beck

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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Space Pirate sketches

Boy do I not use this website enough, it needs a right old tidy-up. Anywaaaayy… here’s a page of some sketches from a year or two ago. They’re some ideas I had for that classic SF trope: Space Pirates! I was considering whether to design them as costumes for a film or miniatures for a game.

I incorporated some of the feel of late 1980’s/early 1990’s Citadel Space Pirates by Bob Olley and Bob Naismith (Bob Olley’s Space Pirates Bob Naismith’s Space Pirates) with some traditional piratical gear and other influences like the mercenaries from Riddick (2013), and the Ravagers from Guardians Of The Galaxy(2014) and Vol. 2 (2017). More of these tomorrow!

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More Retro 1990’s cartoon characters

This is my final batch of 1990’s nostalgia, starting with this lively coloured page of daftness. First we’ve got more tubby jumper wearing middle-aged dude shooting fireballs from his eyes, Odin getting his credit card refused by the smug-faced character, a blue dog with a trumpet and some dip pen ink/Quink experiments on the next page. Vertigo’s House of Secrets’ Rain Harper can be seen at the top right. Rain Harper

More of a scene here though still a sketchy one, a policeman character and a possible scene with onion-head. Dip pen and rapidograph inks, though I think the dip pen is better here.

The next pages are me sketching some deliberately crummy mafia gangsters and some scrappy storyboarding.

More storyboarding on the next page also the debut of Shitefighter 7XA3D.

And the last pages of this sketchbook feature a full colour cartoon in dip pen, coloured inks, Quink and bleach; it’s a fight between Masonic Cop Ninja vs Onion-headed guy.

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