The Pinkerton and the Princess: Final

Well, here's the completed image. I had a lot of fun with this painting as it brought out a number of interesting ideas.  One such fun detail is that the rifle is actually a rocket launcher using traditional oriental black powder rockets.
I've included a few detail images so you can see the sculpted face of her sky-train as well as some of the fun detail of the rifle.
Cheers:

The Pinkerton and the Princess

Sky Train

Rocket launcher

The Pinkerton and the Princess

sometimes when I'm developing a story, other stories come to mind that would work in the same world.  I'm doing a quick illustration to capture one of those stories that will happen in the world of Frahnknshtyne called "The Pinkerton and the Princess." Here's a sneak peek of part of the image underway.

Steampunk, The Art of Victorian Futurism

Today, I'm very excited! Korero's book "Steampunk, the Art of Victorian Futurism" has been released and I have received my advance copy! Jay Strongman did a fantastic job authoring the book and has collected quite a compendium of Steampunk art and creations.  I am honored that my Frahnknshtyne art is featured in some very high quality prints in the book in quite a few places. Thanks Jay and everyone else who worked putting the book together and thanks for adding to Steampunk's momentum!

Amazing real pistols

 A friend sent me the link to these amazing real pistols.  Just had to repost the link and share them.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fd3_1310419871&jwp_version=5

Frahnknshtyne's weaponized arm

It's been a bit since the last post as I have been writing the book.  I'm well into it and decided to take a break to add some more development art to the site to share with you.  This image shows Frahnknshtyne's arm after he decides to build a weapon into it.  It's exploding out of his woolen cape sleeve and the mechanical mounts (they look like small metal animal hands) have just thrown it forward to be caught by Wyctor in his gloved hand. There's a big surprise in this gun (beyond the fact that it's up his sleeve and it assembles as it ejects) that I'll hold off sharing for the book.
I'll be posting the "making of" video over the next week or so as well.
Cheers, Kevin

And a closer shot of the gun

The Aether Bullet come to life

A few months ago I was contacted by a very talented model builder named Arno Erol.  Arno enjoys model making and some of what he makes are steampunk things.  He asked if he could model the Aether Rifle in 3D and I gave my blessings to go ahead.  I've just received some images showing the realization of the concept of the Aether bullet I originally designed for Lacette's assassin rifle.  Arno has taken some poetic license and it looks like some beautiful work by a talented model maker!  Nicely done Arno.  I'm also including a link to Arno's flickr page showing some of his other cool work.
Arno's other models

Original Aether bullet design

Arno's Aether bullet model view #1

Aether Bullet design view #2

Aether bullet design view #3

Steampunk Frahnknshtyne's hand final

Well, I decided that adding another emotive object into the shot would take away from the singular narrative moment of seeing through Wyctor's eyes the raised hand that isn't your own.  I completed the victorian etching on the metal and pivots and knuckle joints and I think this one is ready for its place in the story.

Steampunk Frahnknsthyne's hand

And here is the "making of" video that briefly covers the steps and thinking to make this painting.

Untitled from kevin mowrer on Vimeo.

Steampunk Frahnknshtyne's hand

I have been busy structuring and writing the story but wanted to post a new image of one of the moments in the narrative.  The first thing our hero sees when he wakes up with his consciousness inside of his own clockwork creation.
I wanted the hand to be a mechanically sophisticated and beautiful object made of steel, brass, bronze and copper with tendons of leather. I also wanted the moment to have a strange church-like victorian operating theater quality to it (with the horror of the moment as well). I'm considering adding a piece of broken mirror or perhaps the locket with his love's image in it  being held between the thumb and fingers  so this may evolve over the next week. I've already reposted the hand itself with changes to the hand mechanism and finger joints.  I will be posting the "making of" video in the next few days so check back for it.

Steampunk Frahnknshtyne hand

Frahnknshtyne, the next phase

Hello friends and visitors.  It has been a number of weeks since the last post on this blog and I apologize for the protracted period of time.  The story work on Frahnknshtyne has entered it's second phase.  The exploration and structuring of the ideas in the story are ready to fully write and fully illustrate the narrative. Up to this point I have been sharing the exploration and discovery with you.  I will continue to post some of the art and story insights as I continue from here so bear with me if the posting happens a bit less frequently.

Perhaps the most exciting news is that the first publishing format has been set.  I have become involved with an exciting new company doing work on the frontier of digital publishing but in a way that truly launches the Meta-story in the best possible fashion.  I am thrilled to be directly contributing to the development of this new digital publishing format and to be wrestling with the combination of both linear and non-linear story telling combined in this single new format.  Because I am a Meta-story expert working on emerging new formats, this opportunity for me, is priceless.  My hope is to have this book to market by end of this year/beginning of next year. As I'm sure most of you can appreciate, balancing the work that pays the bills with the writing and illustrating of something new is always a challenge to manage.

 As visitors to my site you will get to see parts of the Frahnknshtyne book before it comes out but...it is also important to me that everyone gets to experience the unexpected and unknown when the book is published.  For that reason, I'm holding back lots of goodies to share with you in the book itself.  (Wink and a wry smile).

Stay tuned and cheers for now, Kevin

PS - here's a sketchy concept for the dragon ship that I rejected because it was too futuristic.  I can't stand to post without including some kind of sketch for eye-candy.

Dragon ship rejected concept sketch

Steampunk Writers and Artists Guild interview

Recently, Lia Keyes, the founder and creator of the Steampunk Writers and Artists Guild, sent me some questions for an interview for her site.  Click the title of this post to go to that interview and to her wonderful and deeply interesting site.  Check out some of the activities and discussions going on there.  Very exciting to see the story-crafters exchanging ideas and knowledge.
Cheers, Kevin

http://steampunkwriters.ning.com/profiles/blogs/interview-kevin-mowrer-on