ART WAR | 2D | G.A.I.A | Tck

After alot of mulling it over I'm having to settle with team Sci-fi on this one

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[feel free to skip the next bit as it is a little waffley}

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I figured that for the sake of this battle between the forces of fantasy and the forces of sci-fi, all the humans would reside on the sci-fi side (essentially an augmented reality) whilst all the magical and mythological would reside within the fantasy side.
For these two forces to actually fight each other they would have to exist within the same universe so each side is not necessarily restricted to their own technologies.
I've always seen the real human strength as being the adaptability to survive, in this case with the advances in science and technology:
Gaia is the god of creation; G.A.I.A is advanced technology that harnesses and manipulates it's power. So whilst the fantasy armies amass and pray to their god for her blessing, team sci-fi barges in and greedily takes it all.
For the battle G.A.I.A's power is insurmountable making her and her pilot the ultimate grand supreme hero of the ART WAR.
I cannot however envisage tea sci-fi lasting for too long on it's own as power struggles will bring about self consuming wars that end all humanity.

(also hopefully I'll come up with a suitable acronym for G.A.I.A as at the moment the full stops are really just to make the name look more sci-fi)

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Design wise, I want to mix in visual aspects from a large variety of religions, the bursting organic qualities of nature but most importantly the sci-fi elements; the attempts to restrict and control the force of nature.

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Anyway, here are some thumbnails and sketches

aaaand some more refined lineart
I'm not really sure how I want the pilot to be seated in this thing, the obvious idea was right in the middle however at present the little face poking out of the chest does look a little comedic...

A loosely shaded lineart so I can see what shapes are working etc...

I think I'll leave the big mech thingy alone for a while now and focus on the pilot who I guess counts as the real hero in this case

I still really like the lineart above but it wasn't transferring to tone well at all because of the shapes in it that weren't so obvious as just lineart.

As such I have essentially been redesigning alot of it so I'm much happier with the whole shape language.

I have been thinking about the backstory to the creation of G.A.I.A and how they would have discovered the god of creation (or from the sci-fi point of view, the source of it's power)

A lab has been set up in the Tanami desert, Australia, the suspected location of the core of G.A.I.A. The name Tanami is thought to be derived from the Walpiri name 'Never Die' and is speculated to be due to extraordinary feats of nature observed there. Exploration scientist are slowly mapping out the area, taking readings from the subsurface earth, with help from an accompanying drone to document the process.

Attempts to excavate have thus far been unsuccessful

Finally they find the entrance

And start to explore...