Bridge 3 – Close Encounters

Bridge 3 – Close Encounters

(Rather than a few process images, I created a timelapse of the entire drawing process.  I hope that’s good enough.)

Google Slides Images (There is also a slide with the timelapse, but you can view it above.)

You can view the full slideshow here.

Reflection:

This image of an early-design R2-D2 and C3-PO is one of Ralph McQuarrie’s most famous works.  For my replication, I wanted to attempt to re-paint the image as accurately as possible, though I fully admit my hand-drawing skills aren’t that great.  I used Autodesk Sketchbook on my tablet to do the illustration, and you can view a timelapse of the process above.

I think the biggest takeaways are that color is extremely important.  Without color, the image wasn’t as clear.  Additionally, when drawing “Threepio”‘s torso, it was interesting to see how different shades of the same color (brightness variance) have such an impact on the scene, showing where the sun is pointing.
Another big takeaway is perspective:  I always have a hard time with perspective, and this piece was no different.  It wasn’t easy for me to make it clear that “Artoo” was further back in the scene.

The main challenge was my drawing ability.  I went slow and carefully, and it still didn’t come out the way I had envisioned it, or as close to the original as I would have wanted.  That being said, I don’t plan on redoing this image by hand, and I intend on moving forward to another medium for Bridge 4.

This replication process didn’t change any plans for Bridge 4, only made me more sure on my ideas.  I plan on using SceneForge Studio to replicate 4 McQuarrie scenes in Virtual Reality.