Will McCammon's SFU Art

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 6:21 pm

Inspired by The Master, here's a quick and dirty photo composite I did of one of my minis:

pinecone · Post by **pinecone** » Tue Jun 09, 2009 8:11 pm

For which it stands...

I just read this thread, and I really like it. Keep it up!

The Master · Post by **The Master** » Wed Jun 10, 2009 7:41 pm

very well done

?? How did you get it to look like a poster.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 2:15 am

The Master wrote: ?? How did you get it to look like a poster.

I'm not sure what you mean by "like a poster", but I can explain what I did.

The star background I had on-file (from Mojo Lebowitz, an FX artist on Battlestar Galactica, etc.).

The nebula is a googled Hubble telescope image.

I cropped out my mini photo and composited all three elements in GIMP (as well as some color and contrast adjustments to make it look cohesive).

The Master · Post by **The Master** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 7:27 pm

it might be my computer but I look at your pic, and between your paint job and art work it looks like a poster. I realy like how it came out.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 7:58 pm

Thank you.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:16 pm

Two new ones from my sketchbook, circa 1987:

B&W ink-wash drawing of a Federation/Romulan battle:

Color artists-pen drawing of Klingon C-8 and Gorn BC:

OGOPTIMUS · Post by **OGOPTIMUS** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:46 pm

Very nice Will.

I like the "old style" Starline 2200/2300 ships.

Brigman · Post by **Brigman** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 6:53 am

Dude, I love those!

I know CGI art is all the rage for ships these days, but there's "life" to hand drawings that you just don't get in CGI. It's why Dan Carroll's one of my all-time favorite SFU artists.

Your stuff looks great.

Orion's Sword · Post by **Orion's Sword** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 10:47 am

Excellent work!!!!!!!! give me a hand rendered drawing anyday..Your heart shows through with hand drawings/paintings etc. don't take me wrong artists are artists, it's just I love hand drawings like this Thanks for sharing

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 7:25 pm

Thanks guys. I appreciate the kind words, especially from you Dale (since I've been admiring your art in ADB products for years now).

DNordeen · Post by **DNordeen** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:11 am

Awesome job on the ship page. I loved how you explained the change from rectangular to "circumferential" Very logical and beauacratic. I could almost hear the decision brief to the F4 while I was reading it.

P.S. I'm not sure circumferential (sp?) is a word

P.S.S. F4 is a play on the army/joint staff officer names. the 4 is in charge of logistics & supplies and the letter designates the officers level
S - brigade; G - Corps, J - Joint. I figured Star Fleet would use F for Fleet.

Brigman · Post by **Brigman** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:40 pm

My pleasure Will, they do look great. Would love to see more if you have 'em.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 6:44 pm

Dale -

There's more, but I was definitely learning back then. As I find the ones worth posting, I'll put them up.

Can you tell I just found boxes of "my stuff" while cleaning out my Dad's garage?

DNordeen -

Thanks.

I assume you are talking about the pitch-page of a Fed FF I did as a proposal for Leanna's Fighting Starships, years back.

Circumferential. Yup, real word (adjective form of circumference).

That term for the "round" Fed engines comes from the Franz Joseph blueprints of the U.S.S. Enterprise (it might be in the Tech Manual too, I'd have to look). It got carried forward into all the other fanion blueprints, etc. .

Once the TOS movies started coming out (with the square, "art deco" engines, with the big warp core in the engineering hull), the fanion sources referred to them as "linear" type engines to explain the completely different look.

I have first-hand experience with aviation/shipbuilding/government bureaucracy and you're correct - this kind of thing happens all the time in that food-chain.

I thought it was a convenient way to explain away the change in the Fed FF mini.

From what I have read, the square-engine version was an attempt to make it easier to mold, but it wasn't really and it's been stated since that the square-engine version "never happened" in the SFU game-universe.

Military prototypes undergo huge changes before production all the time (the delta-winged Boeing Joint Strike Fighter competitor would have gained traditional horizontal and vertical tails for production, for example) and lots of artist's renderings, etc., float around for years with the erroneous configuration.

What we were seeing was the Federation media not updating their image files and still showing the prototype U.S.S. Burke in her as-built configuration, rather than as she and her sisterships looked in-service.

It seemed like a good fit.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:10 am

PDF files of some art I did in-preparation for the master-copy of the F-5W War Destroyer miniature have been posted on the new ADB Historical Downloads page:
F-5 Technical Readout
Klingon Frigate Evolution

Enjoy!