It's a Steampunk Thing: The Duty Handler


Still working on improving my craft, this time with a lesson in wrinkles and draperies from master illustrator Burne Hogarth. It's funny how a lot of times, I see figures that look like they don't have knees or elbows. It's easy to forget that these parts leave an impression on your clothes even when you're not wearing them.

It's also easy to forget with so many Captains and mechanics around that lots of other people were required to make an airship behave. In this sketch, a member of the ground crew called a duty handler prepares to be hauled aloft after freeing the airship above him from one of its anchor screws. No one ever considers the fact that there might not be a ground crew wherever you're going, so you have to take yours with you. But how to do that from an airship already launched? Easy - just have them climb the mooring ropes and crawl inside. Now that's nerves of steel.

#steampunk #airships #art #fantasy #penandink #characterdesign #sketching #drawing

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