ratcreature | fanart, Sheppard & Steampunk!Puddlejumper

Entry tags:

fanart, Sheppard & Steampunk!Puddlejumper

Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Characters/Pairings: John Sheppard & Steampunk!Puddlejumper
Media used: pencil, fine liner pen with waterproof indian ink, acrylic paint
Rating/warnings: G
Notes/comments: I did this for the prompt "Victorian steampunk AU" for the SGA fanart fest

paintedspires. Admittedly mechanical pterodactyls aren't the most efficient way for a flying machine, Steampunk or otherwise, and not a very likely or even possible path technology would take from an SF standpoint, but this way was much cooler visually than merely changing the puddlejumpers with pipes or gauges or whatever. I mean, they more or less look like flying lunch boxes. Not really realistic technology, but this is Stargate after all, and I'm pretty sure John would think that mechanical, flying dinosaurs were cool.

The original is 30x40cm, so unfortunately I had to scan it in two parts, and you can see a slight line where I merged, because I fail at digital manipulation and didn't know how to make the two parts fit completely seamless.

Preview: preview of Sheppard flying a Steampunk!Puddlejumper

preview of Sheppard flying a Steampunk!Puddlejumper

And because you can't see Sheppard that well in that size, here's a larger detail view:

detail of Sheppard flying a Steampunk!Puddlejumper

If for some reason you want the whole image in a print resolution in its original size, I uploaded that as well, however at 300dpi and 30x40cm the file is over 4652x3500 pixel / 4mb: look at it in a really huge size in high resolution

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OMG. Gorgeous!

Thank you! I'm glad you like it.

What fun! It's a great picture too and you are so right; Shep would be all over a mechanical flying dinosaur.

Thank you. I have a ridiculous fondness for mechanical animals. :)

This is so great. Dinosaurs make awesome flying machines.

Yeah, dinosaurs just look cool. I mean this would never work aerodynamically, but then I don't see the canonical puddlejumper working without Ancient ~~magic~~ science either... *g*

SGA production people? Please to be featuring a mechanical flying dinosaur in season 5? Thx.

This is great. Particular love for the engine and Shep's jacket ♥

Thank you! I'm so glad you like the engine. I spent quite some time with this steampunk drawing tutorial, looking at steam engines, and figuring out engine parts and such, trying to make it convincing (well in the framework of steampowered pterodactyls anyway *g*), so I'm happy this paid off.

Oh, how fantastic! I love it!

Thank you.

YES!!!

And hey - a pterodactyl works fine. =^.^= Rodney would be soooo jealous.

I'm glad you like it, and I suspect that Rodney is the ~~mad~~ cutting-edge scientist behind the steam contraptions in this universe. *g*

Awesome! :D

Thank you!

Too cool for words!!

Yay, I'm glad you think so! (and that you still commented *g*)

Very very cool! Steampunk!jumper looks cute. No doubt, if John saw that thing, he'd want to take it on a testflight right away.

Yeah, John would probably make it do all kinds of things steam engines weren't meant to do, while Rodney would berate him about the limits of the technology (even with his awesome improvements to the steam engine) and his impending doom via crash landing.

Absolutely gorgeous! The detail is incredible. Now did Rodney build that for him? :D

Thanks, I'm glad you like the detail, I spent quite some time figuring out steamengine parts. And yeah, I guess Rodney might have built it in the Steampunk AU, or if they found the tech somehow like in canon, he at least fiddled with it.

Excellent! Those wacky Ancients probably designed the puddlejumpers like this because pteradactyle are cool (Ancient aesthetics ftw!) I love all the mechanical bits and John in his flying rig.

Thank you, I'm glad you like it. And the Ancients probably bioengineered the pterodactyls to look like one of their designs in the first place... I mean, they did seed the galaxies and messed with evolution in the SG universe. *g*

I love it! It's clever and funny all at the same time.

Thank you. My style is better suited to steampunk gadgets that are quirky and funny rather than the more gloomy and gothic variants, so I'm glad you like the more lighthearted kind.

OMG, that's simply *gorgeous*. I love all the mechanical details!

Thank you! I'm glad the way I did the mechanics works for you. Before I tried to draw a steam engine I never realized just how little I knew about the details of the concept past the most general "water gets boiled into steam which moves a piston" part.

Wow, this is so cool!

Thank you.

Oh that is wicked.

Thanks, I'm glad you like it.

Oh, that is so cool! I love the design of the machine, the coloring is really fitting too, and Sheppard looks really gleeful :D

Thank you! I imagined that in a Steampunk universe flying is even more of a novelty and special activity, so he'd be thrilled by the opportunity. (If Rodney did the designs for the first flying machines he'd probably gloat a lot at John...)

How *fun*.

Thanks! With my style it was easier to go for quirky rather than gothic steampunk.

Oh man, I love it! His face especially is just so happy-making.

It's great to hear that it works for you. I imagined that in this kind of AU Sheppard would be really thrilled that finally tech was far along enough to make flying possible.

Really cool. I love most that you did this in traditional media. Watercolors(?). All the details look really good, and I especially like how you painted the pterodactyl. John definitely looks like he's enjoying himself.

And the place where you blended the two pieces together isn't that noticeable really.

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. I guess the visible break between the halves stands out to me because I tried for something like half an hour to figure out whether I could make it go away withouth distorting the colors...

I didn't use watercolors but acrylic paint, just not as thick impasto but as glazes with lots of water in them. Actual watercolors never worked for me, because I don't really know how to handle that they dissolve again in water rather than permanently drying, like when you paint layers over each other, also you don't have a white to use but have to do the highlights with the paper and water, which I find hard too. While I'm also actually still new to acrylic paint (this is only the fifth piece I used them to color, I started because my pet rats destroyed my tablet cable), they seem fairly easy to use, because once a glaze is dry you can just paint over it, and it either shines through or is covered depending on how opaque the next layer is.

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renisanz.livejournal.com - 2008-05-16 05:37 (UTC) - Expand

Wow! This is great!!

Thank you.

Hee! I love it, and so would John. Flying pterodactyls totally work for me.

I'm glad you like it. When I first had the idea to make the AU puddlejumper a mechanical animal that thought was immediately followed by "but that would never fly for real" but then by "it's not like SGA is hard SF in canon", so I just went with what looked cool and was fun to draw. Though I did look at lots of reference pictures of historical machines and their parts, and steampunk tutorials to make it look like it could exist.

Ooh, that's neat! I love all the cogs and gauges and gadgets! And as for doing it in acrylic--wow! I completely fail at acrylic, no matter what I try. Nice work!

Thank you, it's great to hear the machine details work for you, I spent quite some time looking at engine explanations and historical machine photos so I'm happy that effort paid off. (Yay for children's lexicons on the history of technology, that was the book I found with the best close-up photos of many old engines and mechanical part rather than just showing tiny pictures of complete old machines where you couldn't make out the details, and it explained how everything worked too! *g*)

I'm still fairly new to acrylics, as this is only the fifth piece I used them to color (I started because my pet rats destroyed my tablet cable...) but I found them much easier than water colors, which I can never make work right. I mean, I use the acrylic paint mostly in thin glazes so that they give kind of a water color effect and only to color inked lineart so far rather than true painting, but I tend to think of the acrylic paint as "water color for dummies" because they won't dissolve again and you can just paint layers over each other until you have a color and shades you like, plus you have a white for highlights.

Oh, a pterajumper! (puddledactyl?) What a clever re-imagining of jumpers in steampunk mode! I really like the jointed tail and the gears and springs in the landing gear; the level of detail in this is fantastic. And John's little grin--he looks absolutely thrilled with his awesome toy (as well he should!).

Thank you. When I tried to imagine how a steampunk puddlejumper could look, I thought about all the steampunk walkers and arrived at "okay, what if it could could really jump, like with *legs*, a mechanical animal," but then I wanted Sheppard to be able to fly them, so I got to the idea of making it a mechanical pterodactyl.

that is really really awesome. Steampunk machines FTW!

The steampunk machine turned out to be a lot of fun to draw, though at times I despaired, once I realized how little I actually knew about mechanical and engine stuff (when claiming the prompt I hadn't thought much past "gears and goggles look cool" *g*). Thankfully I found a steampunk drawing tutorial for the basics, and a children's picture lexicon on the history of technology with lots of close-up photos of old engines, machines and mechanical parts, that showed the working bits large rather than just tiny pictures of complete old machines where you can't really see anything, and it explained how everything worked in simple terms too. I'm glad you like how it turned out.

That's awesome! I love its feet. :)

Thanks. When I tried to reimagine the puddlejumper I thought about all the steampunk walkers I've seen and that a jumper could be able to literally jump on legs, but then I also wanted to make it fly for Sheppard rather than just a walker, thus the pterodactyl. But really the feet came first. *g*

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