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Scorpion451 — The Jackrabbit Raiders
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Published: 2012-05-27 22:52:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 1344; Favourites: 24; Downloads: 14
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Description
Traditional ink, colorized in photoshop, about 8 hrs from first brainstorming to finished product.My entry for the latest contest, this round being a vehicle round with the theme of "sand pirates"
"Sand pirates" screamed "pulp comics" to me- and I couldn't resist going whole hog induging my traditional ink addiction and trying for a sort of old-school-American-Comics-meets-stylized-realism vibe to the concept. The hard part? Avoiding territory claimed by "Borderlands" in terms of look and design.
The crew of "The Jackrabbit", a salvaged low-orbit cargo shuttle welded to a makeshift chassis, are the stuff of nightmares for the caravans of the waste.
Capable of clocking in at over 400 kph in a full-bore burn, the surprisingly competent and tech-savy crew have modified their vessel's engines to run on home-brewed alcohol. (The sand pirates came that way.) The Jackrabbit is armed with two gyroscopically-stabilized turrets, one mounted with a high-calibre anti-materiel rifle for disabling stubborn engines on the rare transport able to evade them long enough for their engines to overheat, and a rotary autocannon for dealing with any "heros" that happen to get ideas about claiming the massive bounties on their heads. Additionally, they have collected a wide variety of unusual weaponry ranging from plasma rifles to railgun artillery weapons which they take any opportunity to experiment with.
Gusto for general lechery and mayhem aside , however, the technological affinity displayed by this particular band of ruffians does not end with their jury-rigged ride. The Jackrabbit Raiders enthusiastically collect unusual gadgets, technical books, scientific journals, and study the systems of captured vehicles in a constant effort to stay on the cutting edge of technology, and keep their necks out of the Empress's gallows.
The raw scan of the inkwork:
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Comments: 6
I really like this concept and think you've done a great job on the perspective.
Its nice to see artists trying new/ different styles for their entries.
Best of luck!
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Thanks; and sorry about the slow response, been a crazy couple weeks for me.
I decided to take a flying leap on this one, and I think it really paid off.
It was rather fun combining the more polished digital realism stuff I've been learning over the past year with my semi-traditional comic art. Normally on my webcomic I use a cartoony high saturation, high contrast coloring style- works great for artsy webcomics, not so good for presenting a concept clearly.
I think if I can get a better hang on getting the contrast balance right and the shading a little cleaner, I might be onto something here. 
I'm actually faster doing lineart traditionally than on a computer, from all the practice doing my comic.
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No- though it did occur to me that some people might make that particular connection.
The name actually came from the fact that as I was sketching out designs,
it suddenly struck me that the particular cockpit design I liked most(the one you see here)
looked a lot like an angry rabbit.
Totally unintentional at first, then I played it up in the final design and came up with the rabbit skull Jolly Rodger.
(In case anyone doesn't see it, the armor plating extending off the back of the cockpit traces out the ears,
and the plating insets on the front would be the nose and buck teeth)
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