Fresh Posts To Come Soon

Kinda busy over the last 3-4 weeks and didn't have time to get stuff done. Posts will come soon.

Singapore's National Day

Uh, yeah. Just thought I'd note it in case I forgot - alright thats all, nothing to see, move along.

Historical Military Units - Polish Winged Hussars

Cavalrymen are some of the most feared units on the medieval battlefield - all the way up to the 19th century where cavalry still charged against lines of enemy outfitted with firearms. One of the units I find extremely interesting are the Polish Winged Hussars. Known as Husaria where they are from, the Polish Hussars, like most hussar type units across Europe, were first conceived as light cavalry slowly evolving over the centuries into heavy cavalry. Hussars as light cavalry were particularly useful mopping up loose infantry units that were seperated and routed, as well as charging field artillery pieces to render them useless. The Polish-Lithuanian hussar units were reorganised in the 16th century and equipped with long lances and heavy plated armour. This evolutionary path was what made the Winged Hussars stand out over the rest of the Hussar units in Europe. The wings on their backs were a nod to their roots - the hussars originally have painted wings on their shields.

The wings on the hussars backs were either attached to a frame that goes over the cuirass, attached directly to the cuirass or fixed onto the saddle. There are several theories about the wings, like its used in battle to make them seem more intimidating, or it makes a whipping and whooping sound during a charge so it scares the bejeezus out of the enemy's horses, or it prevents lasso attacks and so on - it was even theorised that the wings were only bolted on during parades. So far none of the theories were proven conclusive, but it doesn't take away the fact they are DAAAAMNED COOOOOOL.

So here are the Winged Hussars...








If you want to read up more on the Polish Winged Hussars, check these links out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Hussars
http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_hussars.html

More Concept Work for Smokinbuns

Some sketches of ships - head on over to the Smokinbuns Developer Weblog for more information.

Linework For Ongoing Project

Some line art of the proposed units for the flash based strategy game I'm working on with a friend of mine. Here's a link to the Smokinbuns Developer Weblog if anyone is interested to take a look. Anyway the concept part of the units are more or less confirmed so we went ahead to the linework stage. Here are the 9.








A brief introduction to the project - its a flash based strategy game where you're supposed to occupy bases on the map and slowly strangle the opponent before finishing it off. We've based it off an old Genesis game and hopefully it works out to how we planned it. So far it seems the coding part is gonna be the headache - glad I don't have to deal with that :P

That's all for this post. Will be up again tomorrow or Thursday to put up sketches of another historical unit.

Historical Military Units - Landsknecht

Landsknechts are German mercenary pike units reknowned for their colourful costumes. I'm particularly drawn to them because they're mercs but they're considered professional mercs and they fight wars for feudal lords in Europe in the medieval periods. They are primarily pike and spear units - drawing their tactics from Swiss pikemen who were some of the best in Europe during their heyday.

The most amusing units in a Landsknecht formation are the Doppelsoldner, or Double Soldier. These are more experienced soldiers who take the frontlines, hence the riskier jobs. For that they are paid double - hence the name Double Soldier. Their primary armament is the extremely large, 5 to 8 feet long Zweihander - or Two Handers. The romanticized version recounting the use of the doppelsoldners were that they charge in with the zweihanders breaking spearheads of enemy pike formations so the rest of the Landsknechts can break through. Truthfully zweihanders were probably a pain to handle on the battlefield - tossed away after the initial contact and drawing their common use sword - the Katzbalger - for close combat when the enemy lines are broken.

Find out more about the Landsknechts here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landsknecht

For now, here are the sketches.

HOLY! Been a week!!

I SERIOUSLY thought I'd be updating a lot more since there's a few stuff I already uploaded onto the server. Anyway. Here's the development of the Gray Wolf I was working on. It usually takes about 3-5 hours to finish a dog profile but I got sidetracked by some freelance stuff and a job application.

Here's something else I was working on for fun. I hardly, if ever, do fan art. But this is my version of Motoko Kusanagi from GITS - work in progress. So what does it prove? It just proves that I can still draw girls...I used to be pretty good at that.

That's all for this post. Should have something up again tomorrow.

Works in Progress

A couple pieces of work in progress. Just laying down the linework and lighting tests for now. Actually I've got a few unfinished pieces lying around and just have to get around to finish them up.



I'll post the WIP stages bit by bit when I get them done.

Forgot to add this WIP piece. Canis Lupus - or Grey Wolf. Its part of the "dogs" collection of illustrations.


What can I say, I love canids - dogs, wolves, foxes - so expect to see more. Wolves are fascinating to me because of the way the pack works. Anyway there are a few things to fix on this piece. The muzzle needs to be longer and more tapered at the nose but otherwise the proportions of others seem fairly accurate with the reference pictures I got.

More Sketches

Its basically the same batch of sketches, just going thru them bit by bit.

Some Sketches

Some sketches here about the modern infantryman.

There's no specific unit referenced in this, its mostly a jumble of British and Canadian gear. Hope its adequate for a first post.


Hope y'all liked it.

First!!!

Whooo here before everyone....