I'm hoping this becomes a new series of illustrations exploring the classic ship match-ups and great 1v1 fights that happen all across New Eden. This illustration took about 30 hours of work to complete from start to finish, but a bunch of those hours were spent creating the basic layout. This time I sketched everything directly in Illustrator. In fact, this illustration was created entirely in Illustrator with only the final color corrections being done in Photoshop. I can't explain it, but this one made me extremely happy while I was working on it. Sometimes these illustrations can often become a bit of a drag, especially when the hours turn into more hours of endless details - but for some reason this one never did that.
I hope that exuberance comes through in the final piece. I probably tried thirty different backgrounds before I started to find something that made sense to me. I had started out to make this piece dark and in space, but it just wouldn't come alive in that environment. I know that is how we normally see Eve spaceships but I learned a long time ago that when I created a piece of art I'm often fighting with how gorgeous the in-game art already is. This isn't a hard and fast rule, my recent Hookbill and Rorqual illustrations are good examples of how space can work - but sometimes certain pieces just demand something else. This was one of those.
I was inspired by certain styles of racing poster art when I was creating this one. I'm not sure that inspiration actually made it through into the final, but that is where I started. I'm also a huge art fan and lots of different styles and techniques inspire me.
Anyway, this will probably be the last release for awhile, unless I find some extra time to finish up a few of the projects already in the works.
I hope someone out there likes it. :)