A few extremely rough concept sketches for some post-apocalyptic vehicles ("veh-hi-culs" as they might be called in certain parts of Ireland...). I quite like them and their slapped-together feel but somewhere along the way I felt they were too far gone for the story I'm trying to tell.
Blame 'Chronicles Of Riddick'. I've always felt there's as much to be learned from watching bad movies as watching good ones. A lesson in how not to do something. 'Riddick' bothered me so much because it made me realize that if you've too much going on in your story and you haven't signposted it clearly enough and then you visually overdesign every single thing, your story's not going to work. I watch quite a bit of sci-fi but found myself bored and confused within the first ten minutes. I'd actually recommend it to anyone attempting a story of this kind of scale.
I'm really enjoying the new incarnation of 'Battlestar Galactica' but what really works for me and helps ground it is use of the recognizable technology and appliances. It means you can go as fucking buckwild as you want with your otherworldly stuff as long as you have something that a reader or viewer can work from as a base.
All artwork copyright Mick Cassidy 2007
I found myself looking at tons of images of old steam locomotives. Big and bulky...
All artwork copyright Mick Cassidy 2007
All artwork copyright Mick Cassidy 2007
I tried to make them somewhat functional as well as quirky and entertaining to look at. I assumed people wandering through nuclear wastelands are going to have to sustain themselves and the elements may not lend themselves to that so they should have some sort of hydroponics or botanical facilities on hand to grow food:
All artwork copyright Mick Cassidy 2007
These last two are like futuristic pieced together helicopter stand-ins. Once again though, they're too far ahead of what I think will work.
All artwork copyright Mick Cassidy 2007
All artwork copyright Mick Cassidy 2007
I don't usually feel particularly comfortable or adept at designing any sort of vehicles but these ones don't bother me too much. They still look a little too 'organic', I guess.
