The Art of Denis Loubet

Out of the blue, just because I wanted to do something for my patrons, comes the Avatar and Bluehair! These two pictures depict introspective studies of our favorite heroes.

The Avatar is recalling all the creatures that have fallen before him who must have had complex inner lives he was not privy to, and questioning the simplicity of the virtues he is sworn to uphold.

Bluehair is recovering from the adrenaline charged chaos of a dogfight, wondering if he made the right choice to join the navy to defend the Terran Confederation from the depredations of the Kilrathi Empire.

Or not. I’m just guessing what’s going on in their heads. You should decide for yourself what their grey matter is contemplating.

Many thanks to the Wing Commander CIC forums for their expertise regarding Bluehair’s insignia. (Note that I decided to leave Bluehair’s name plaque off his jacket because his name isn’t really Bluehair, and his name should really be whatever you gave him when you played the game.)

These are only 30% resolution versions. Consider becoming a Patron to get access to full resolution images, and even full Photoshop files with all layers intact. www.patreon.com/denisloubet

Here’s some early Shroud of the Avatar concept art that I did for Richard.

It took a surprisingly long time for me to understand the size of the towns and villages they wanted because they kept using the word city. That word meant a much bigger collection of buildings to me than it did to them, so it took me a while to arrive at the right scale of things. For these unfinished concepts I thought city meant something like New York city, and so it’s all hulking machinery and skyscrapers.

The black and white cityscape is an unabashed homage to Hugh Ferriss.http://thenonist.com/…/p…/hugh_ferriss_delineator_of_gotham/

I love his work, and if I’m forced to do architectural illustrations which I suck at, I’ll turn to him for inspiration. As you can see, I was going deep with steampunk and dieselpunk. Elevated roadways and huge Tesla Coils dominating a 1950s skyline. Even giant gears!

The color piece is a hydroelectric dam that bridges two halves of a city embedded in the cliff faces. Here you’ve got arching roadways and flying ships as well as pleasure domes and observation galleries. And since it’s steampunk, there’s a forest of detail to sort out.

This is all extremely different from how the game turned out. In my next installment, you’ll see I got a better handle on what the word city actually meant in relation to Shroud of the Avatar.

Want to see more, visit: www.denisloubet.com

Want to help me do art:

www.patreon.com/denisloubet

Here are the male shopkeepers from my early Shroud of the Avatar concept work. You can see here how clearly there was no concrete idea of the look for SotA yet. These designs are all over the place in an attempt to nail down a look that I could run with. I never really achieved that.

The Actual Victorian looks pretty good. Vest, jacket, and big-ass apron. I tried to get that old-timey “flat shoe” effect. (For some reason, shoes back then looked really flat.)

Variation 1 is a pretty bland attempt. Looks like he would be at home in Dinotopia. But as a dignified shopkeeper, it kinda works.

Variation 2 just demonstrates that the apron is ESSENTIAL for a shopkeeper to be identified as a shopkeeper. This guy is clearly an ambassador, or a naval dignitary of some sort. What he is not, is a shopkeeper.

I like the new Britannian! I like the big flashy lapels, richly colored vest, and his enormous cravat. (I use that cravat a lot.) The puffy shoulders give him some presence, and the tight knee-high boots provide a dollop of rakishness. Of course, those colors do place him somewhat in the Wizard of Oz style category, but I thought that kind of look would have been a unique spin on steampunk so I went with it.

Do you think a Wizard of Oz vibe to the outfits would have been a pretty cool and unique look for an MMO?

Want to see more, visit: www.denisloubet.com

Want to help me do art:

www.patreon.com/denisloubet

Early concepts for Shroud of the Avatar female shopkeeper characters. How is the actual Victorian shopkeeper different from the actual Victorian farmer? The Victorian farmer has a bonnet and long sleeves. Apparently dark dresses and white aprons were de rigueur for the fairer sex during the period.

Variation 1 looks like a giant Munchkin or Oompa-Loompa. Don’t ask me what inspired the plastic hairstyle. And orange is always such a great color! ;-) I can’t be hitting on all cylinders all the time.

Variation 2 is much better! I suspect a lot of people are going to like the purple. I like the casualness of the hair style. Why I didn’t go for purple gloves I don’t know.

The New Britannian works pretty well! Got a good steampunk flavor with the more traditional hairdo, and the brown leather and apron. The green turned out surprisingly nice.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your viewpoint, Portalarium asked for more skin, which you’ll see in the next installment.
So which one would you like to have greeting you as you enter the shop?

–Denis

Want to see more, visit: www.denisloubet.com

Want to help me do art:

www.patreon.com/denisloubet

Here’s another of the process pieces for Early Shroud of the Avatar character concepts. For the male farmer, I again researched what the actual Victorian farmer looked like, and went from there. And thus we have farming in a VEST! WTF!
So, having gotten past the vest issue, I think Variation one works pretty well. The hat and knee reinforcement say farmer, but the tunic, not so much. Variation 2 would be more at home as an engineer of some sort. Nothing says farmer in his getup, alas.
New Britannian on the other hand works great! The pants and boots and gloves work well with the hat. If only I hadn’t done the brass trim on the jacket this would be perfect! He’s even got a tight, low necked t-shirt to reflect the skin I was forced to show on the female farmers! ;-)
These guys are not terribly steampunk, and some of their outfits dip a toe into a Wizard of Oz sensibility, but I think Variation 1 could be at home in Britannia or Shroud with equal ease.

You can see more of my art at:
www.denisloubet.com

And I encourage you to become a Patron at:

www.patreon.com/denisloubet

Here’s some of the process I went through for the Shroud of the Avatar character concepts. For the Female Farmer, I first researched what a Victorian farmer looked like, and then started departing from that. Two of the criteria I was handed were attractiveness and more skin, so that was reflected in the designs.
The first variation is kind of a weird sun-dress-with-corset arrangement that’s not very Victorian except for the out-of-place button-up boots.
The second variation is more science-fictiony in flavor, but fails to really say “farmer”.
The “Britannian” version says farmer louder than the other two (I suspect it’s the apron) and has fewer out-of-place elements. It’s my favorite of the Female Farmers.
Not a lot of classic steampunk elements here. After all they’re farmers, not engineers. The gold or brass trim is as steampunk as it gets for these characters.

You can see more of my art at www.denisloubet.com

, and I encourage you to become a Patron at

www.patreon.com/denisloubet