A few weeks ago I saw this political cartoon online, shared by one of my LDS friends. It was drawn by well-known artist Thomas Nast in 1870 as political propaganda against Catholics and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
It gave me an idea for a new version of the same thing, so I’ve been picking at it in between other gigs. Here are some progress shots for what I’ve got now, I’ll update this post as I finish other phases of it so you can see it come together.
The underlining phase is mostly for blocking, helping me to figure out poses and stuff. I knew I wanted mechs in the shapes of the original reptiles, with flags, standing in front of the Capitol.
Started with hard ink lines on the Turtle Mech, added some broadside guns and forward rockets above the cockpit.
Hard ink on the Gator Mech, with SAM rockets on the back. After drawing the armor scales on the flank I decided it needed more guns, so I’ll add those later.
Also changed the shape of the mouth on the Turtle Mech, I didn’t like the old one.
Flat colors in place, fiddling with color scheme for Turtle mech. Went through a few different getups before settling on blue and gray, with a dark red for the missiles. Gator will be mostly green.
Gator has the flag of Vatican City, Turtle has the flag for the State of Deseret.
Added flat colors to the CathMech.
Final round of colors on the mechs, added doves and seagulls up top, and details on the Capitol.
Might mess around with the birds some other time, but for now it’s done.
DreadPennies: The Mind of Graham Bradley 