Foundation: Imperial Crusier

I've been reading Asimov's Foundation over the last few days and decided to do a quick fan piece of the Old Imperial Cruiser that falls into the hands of the Kingdom on Anacreon, which plays a key part in third part of the book.

So on this post I will be uploading and describing my progress, the idea of this is to see what skills I have currently toward a speed painting approach, but afterwards critically analyzing where I can go further and what I'd like to employ in terms of technique to give me a base of something to work towards over the next few months. But as stated I will painting this piece blind just to observe what I can do at the moment with commentary of how I'm approaching and pursuing the piece.

So what I usually do its start with a block out, literally throwing a sillotette onto the canvas, then start working into some values, I try to do this quickly to mainly establish a interesting shape.

After I'm comfortable with the block out, if the tones I've used are too bright or I just want to phase out some detail, while enhancing the values, I'll use the curves tool (Ctrl+M), which allows more precise value control than using levels or hue and saturation.

Now I've just created a new layer for the backgrounds base. At the moment the specific don't matter and its just to me an idea toward colour coordination and from experience stops me leaving gaps in the primary focus (The Cruiser).

Now using the a combination of the Adobe Kuler Plugin to quickly find complimentary colour scheme in regards to the background then using the Hue and Saturation (Ctrl+U) editor to alter the Cruiser, although is this case it didn't need to much alteration from here I start building base detail on the Cruiser.

Now working in some details, like the previous stage this largely trial and error, I tend use the eye (Alt key with brush selected) dropper rather than select new colours, through this I can keep a more uniform look on the material and suggest light source, also it is quicker than contentiously going back to pick out new colours, if I want a darker colour I will simply brush lightly over a darker area on the ship and eye drop that and repeat as necessary for darker or lighter colour. I Also frequently rotate (Hold R and drag) the canvas just an assist and certain angles.

For some areas where I intend to have a very static area of detail using the lasso tool to select the area and fill it quickly, this quickly allows me to establish a set shape but also due to its clarity keep me in mind of my perspective, especially if I am going to use the area symmetrically elsewhere.

I've duplicated the lassoed area here and flipped it and using perceptive option on the transform tool I've effectively made it mirror the original shape while warping it appropriately to imply perspective, although it will extra work around it, it has quickly filled in additional space on the ship.

Now that I have the overal shape I want, I've put another layer in with perceptive lines as a guide as I finish the shape before moving onto fine detail.

Using the warp tool to reshape part of the ship quickly

 Progress update. From here I can see a few perceptive issues still, but these can easily amended by cutting and rearranging and repainting the offending elements, the prow of the ship is most finished, the stern and engine stills require work.

 Trying to fix the bow, by using the skew tool to adjust the shape, I will have to paint in the gap and use the transform tool to scale the ship down slightly to get it all on the canvas.