Manuel Carrasco - Concept Art & Illustrations ´23

Year 2115. City of Lilianovichgrad. Last remnant of the failed second Bolshevik revolution. Forty years have passed since the defeat of the second Bolshevik revolution. Lilianovichgrad is the last refuge from this. The discovery of the Gagarin substance at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean allows the neo-Bolsheviks to colonise the seabed. This substance absorbs the pressure exerted by the ocean at high depths. In the final years of the war, Lilianovich, leader of the new Bolshevik union, used all the resources of the nearly defeated new Soviet republics to defend the territories while the last refuge of the revolution was being built. If their enemies controlled the skies, they would take refuge in the depths of the ocean.

In this map of the year 2115, we see that after the rise in temperatures due to climate change, the arctic ocean has become navigable, making it the busiest trade route on planet earth. Because of this, and due to the wars of dissolution of the last century, this region has become a new golden age for piracy.

LERA "THE AMAZON"

Against this backdrop, we have Lera, our protagonist and the colonel of the submarine X. She is a pirate for the benefit of the city of Lilianovichgrad and carries out the missions assigned to her by the Bolshevik military council to destabilise their enemies. Seeking to destabilise and bring the Communist International to the rest of the countries.

Lera has suffered several wounds, which she wears with pride, during years of battles. The deepest wounds are the loss of her father (owner of her coat) and one of her partners, Alexei (owner of her Gauss gun).

The salvage equipment is a recent invention which has saved the lives of our protagonist and her crew in several battles where their submarine was destroyed. The Healing and Stasis Device or H.S.D. 3.0, is a device that heals minor and serious injuries. It is a variation of the Gagarin material taken to a higher level: a level where this material acquires even a certain intelligence to heal the wounds of its wearer.It is a device invented and used by the remnants of the Second Bolshevik Revolution, increasing the survival of their soldiers by 60%.

The device uses its smart gel to close and heal injuries, and prevent the user from bleeding to death during emergencies. This device scans the user who carries it and gives a complete summary of their state of health. It generates enough gel to wrap one person and a half.

It is an obligatory tool for submarine crews to use during combat, since in the event of a sinking, the gel makes the user hibernate and sends a signal to nearby crews so that they can be rescued, giving the rescuers between 20 to 36 hours, depending on the water conditions, temperature, gel state, and pressure.

Lera, as a good pirate of the future, uses her tattoos to mark milestones of her military career. On her missing arm she has decided to decorate these milestones with stickers.

The Magnum pistol, model Gauss, belonged to her deceased partner. This weapon uses atomic batteries to charge energy. Normally this weapon can only be used at full power with servo assistance in the arm to withstand its recoil. Lera can handle it without any problems thanks to her new prosthesis. Losing her arm gave her more firepower. Still, she keeps her old trusty light pistol on her leg. It always comes in handy in emergencies.

For the work of this character, everything has been drawn from scratch (line art, values, render), except for the "Magnum Gauss" gun which I used the photobasing technique and drew over it. The tattoos are photo montages, drawing over them, or line art and variations of existing tattoos. 

With this character I'm looking for a retrofuturistic aesthetic. Where you can recognize elements of the present and the recent past mixed with elements of the future.

                                                        Environments

I've always been obsessed with characters, but this past year I've realized how natural it is for me to draw Enviroments and how you can tell more than one universe with this. Below you can see how I work with Environments, perspective lines with their vanishing points, lineart, gray shapes, grayscale, color and finally render. I hope to keep improving this discipline, maybe with 3D, I'm loving it.

Backgrounds

These backgrounds are studies of photographs, one of them night photography, to understand how artificial light works in that environment. After making the study I try to use it as a base to develop them more and see if they are interesting for some story or improve the reality of the photograph by dramatizing the perspective or adding characters, buildings, elements that improve the original image. 

Portraits

With these portraits, they have served me as a study, to understand how to simplify reality. Especially the constant studies of fast lineart to understand the minor axis, facial schemes and simplify shapes. Here we can see some endings and the evolution of these studies. Thanks to these studies I have been able to take this style to Environments and Characters.

Fan Art

Last year when Creative Assembly announced the delay of the Chaos Dwarves, I decided to make the wait more enjoyable by imagining what the Hobgoblins would look like in Warhammer Total War 3 and practicing their art style in the process. For this I mixed the little art and fan art that there is of this and the lore of old editions. Mixing it with the great design of the Hobgrot in Age of Sigmar, which have very short legs, disproportionate, which makes sense for a race that uses mounts on a regular basis.

Below we can see how I normally work on my projects, thumbnails, lineart, grayscale, color and render. Although much of the work I do in a mental way I like to bring to paper in a very fast way, looking especially to see if the shapes that are in my head work.

The beast is a mix between Wolf and Bear, the hobgoblin steppes have mutated and transformed these creatures due to their proximity to the deserts of Chaos in the north. Which has been of great benefit to the hobgoblins since their tradition is nomadic, these creatures serve as transportation and heavy cavalry. These creatures do not exist in the Warhammer universe, it is an exercise in augmenting this rich universe. Above all I did not want to make the typical Warg of LOTR or the Dire wolf of Warhammer. Of which there are already many variations and art of these. 

SPECIAL THANKS

Special thanks to my life partner - my wife, and my artist friends. Thanks to their advice and point of view, I improve everyday. 

Thank you for seeing my work! :)

Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/mr-carras

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manuel-carrasco-mr-carras/

Mail: [email protected]