First Ride of the Gyrostator

Hello Friends
Just completed the illustration of Vyctor's first explosive ride on the Gyrostator he invents. To keep things away from prying eyes, he's located this project in the long abandoned carriage house of the L'cole he is attending. Upon firing it up, its power was more than he anticipated and he bursts from the doors into the night roaring down into the sleeping town of Travaille.

First Ride of the Gyrostator painting

I also wanted to play a lot with glow, mist and wet brick and rock. Here's a closer shot of those elements.

Detail of mist and gyrostator

I had a lot of fun painting this on many levels. It involved some pre-modeling of some of the elements in 3D as a quick underlay guide and then lots and lots of layered painting into it. I've always been a huge fan of the work of john Atkinson Grimshaw and his ability to paint those haunted night skies and wanted to have that kind of atmosphere in this painting.

John Atkinson Grimshaw (inspiration)

Cheers, Kevin

Steampunk Pistol 3D printed Prototype parts: It's alive!

Hello friends
The first test parts for one of the steampunk pistols you can make on Vyctor's lab at maykrlab.com have come in for inspection. I chose one of the more difficult designs to print because of all the working parts. It's a steampunk hand cannon (the likes of Hellboys pistol) with a wild huge barrel, a transparent chamber (lights to be installed shortly) and high detail grips (soon to come). I am thrilled at the result! Even unpainted, the pistol is exciting.

Steampunk Pistol 3D printed from Vyctor's lab

These parts are engineered to snap together and these first parts did just that. In addition, the main frame of the gun has a pivot lock at the top that also assembled first time and soundly locked and unlocked the frame.

Steampunk Pistol 3D printed parts from Vyctor's lab

Steampunk Pistol with frame lock from Vyctor's lab

There's still a few parts to come in such as the handle grips and the final bit of the rotating chamber (yes it really rotates).

Steampunk Pistol partially assembled from Vyctor's lab

I'll be posting the update once those are in and the prototype moves to painting and final decoration.
cheers, Kevin

Vyctor's lab at maykrlab.com

Hello friends
Over the past year, I've become involved with a very interesting startup called maykrlab. It is a company working on the forefront of consumer created goods. Specifically, maykrlab is a web based site (soon to go live) where maykrs can imagine, design and then make amazing objects using bits and parts from their favorite fantasy worlds.

It works like this. If you are into steampunk (and if you're reading my blog you likely are), you go to maykrlab, sign up as a user, open the steampunk toolkit of parts and mechanisms to create with, and simply begin making choices and putting together your own design using the parts available from guest creators on the site.

I am the first guest creator and the first toolkit will be to create steampunk pistols for collecting, cosplay, larping, display or whatever tickles your fancy. The design elements are pulled from the Aesthetic and world of Frahnknshtyne, the story I've been writing and illustrating on this blog. The toolkit within maykrlab is called Vyctor's lab (named after Vyctor Frahnknshtyne, the inventor hero of my story and world).

Steampunk pistol made from parts in Vyctor's lab

I chose pistols first because most of us into steampunk have had to make due with kit bashing nerf guns and the like to achieve something worthy of good cosplay.

Steampunk double flintlock from Vyctor's lab

maykrlab is definitely next level stuff using a fully engineered system where any choice you make fits with any other choice and many of the bits and bobs actually work! Triggers pull, hammers cock and chambers spin!

Custom steampunk pistol from Vyctor's lab

It's all free to show up and play, save and share and that, in and of itself, is great fantasy grist for illustrations, screen savers and the like.

But that's just the beginning. If you want to hold and use the steam pistol you've created, the system lets you choose materials and the design is 3D printed, one-of-a-kind, to show up at your front door in just a few days!

I'm super excited to be part of this big step in enabling all makers and hope you'll drop in and sign up to stay tuned in to the progress as the maykrlab's first entry into the market, Vyctor's lab, marches towards beta and then full launch.

As always, I'd very much like to hear from all of you to tell me what you're interested in. This is being done for you so help us make it really great.

I'll be posting very regular updates on this blog to keep you up to the minute.

Cheers, Kevin Mowrer

Steampunk Darth Vader

So, My sons and I enjoy watching Star Wars a great deal. I was taking in episode #4 (the first movie) and had this idea for another take on Darth Vader. I've already done one sketch of him on the blog earlier but this time I wanted to spend time on the leather work and make the eyes much more watchworks and important. There's something so very prussian about his design anyway so leaning into that was fun. I didn't want to do the typical spike on the helmet and opted for a central metal spine instead. I've always enjoyed seeing the various takes on a Steampunk Darth Vader so what's one more...
Cheers, Kevin

PS - I've just added an additional shot with more dramatic colored lighting...just cause it makes him more ominous!

Steampunk Darth Vader

Steampunk Darth Vader

Steampunk Darth Vader

Steampunk Darth Vader

Steampunk Darth Vader

Steampunk Darth Vader