Earlier this year I developed some cyberpunk characters to submit to a magazine competition. The theme was to create an illustration focusing on Neo-Tokyo and cyberpunk inspired. I developed a couple of characters and illustrations to submit. They didn't make it in, but I had so much fun putting these together.
Final illustrations
The Process:
Inspiration Board:
The theme for the illustrations was "Cyberpunk". I did some research and watched a few movies of the genre such as Akira, Blade Runner (and the sequel), Ghost in the Shell and few others. I also re-watched some other films, shows and video games that reminded me of the genre (at least in parts).
I also looked at other illustrators's work that were very inspiring for me. My main inspirations were Josan Gonzalez, Max Prentis and Robert Shields.
Sketchbook:
After a lot of research I began sketching ideas, characters, scenes, and taking a lot of notes. From my very rough sketches, doodles and scribbles I followed through and developed some characters further.
A photo from my sketchbook. I liked the dystopian future where people relied on scavenging parts to construct weapons and armor in order to survive. I liked the idea of hover boards, hovering bikes, cars, and jet packs.
Early Concepts:
The Mad Max movie franchise was an inspiration for some elements of this character, such as their knee and shoulder pads. For my first illustration I wanted to focus on creating a character, so there wasn't much for a scenery with this illustration.
Final ink illustration for the jet pack character.
I developed another character which would ride on a hover board. I wanted the drawing to capture the speed of riding on a hover board and focused on exaggerating angles and proportions to emphasise this. This gave me the chance to include a scene to this illustration to help tell more of a story.
Final ink illustration.