Steampunk: Myths and Legends Contest

While wandering across the plains of the internet recently, I came across a website for the CG Society: Society of Digital Artists. Last year (from November 2008 to February 2009) they had a contest for Steampunk Digital artwork called Steampunk: Myths and Legends. If you follow the link to their website all of the contest entries are there, and they are most definitely worth checking out, a LOT of it is really really good with some incredibly interesting themes and ideas.

Now, while most of the entries are straight out traditional Steampunk, a few Weird Western works have slipped in as well, and it will be on two of those that I want to focus.

The first one is a piece called Samuel Colt by Renan Lima. He describes his work as such:

Samuel Colt, the inventor of the Colt Revolver.

In the end of his life, he built his greatest creation. However, it was such a massive weapon that no ordinary man could wield it. So he had to build an artificial arm that was strong enough.

I love the strength of the image, and the detail on the Arm and the Pistol. Also, though an action shot would have been fun, I like that it is more of a simple posed shoot with Samuel Colt and his creations. It really hearkens to classic Western images with the deep shadows across Colts eyes and the open outdoors behind him.....Great Job!



The second image concerns Billy The Kid (who seems to be a theme this week) its called The Kids Last Heist by Bobby Chiu. His artist pages have an almost step by step on how he created the image, which depicts the tail end of Billy the Kids last heist, as he tries to get away on a mechanical steed.

I love the whimsy of the picture, the exaggerated features on Billy (his overly tall hat and somewhat malformed head) to the overall dusty feeling. Also, if you click on the image, you can see some of the details that Chiu put in that aren't as obvious in the smaller version....such as the ashes coming out of his mount's nostrils and the gauge showing that its running a little too hot! I love it!

I'm always on the look out for good Weird West/Steampunk artwork (and will be showcasing some more in future posts (such as the work of Brom) So if anyone knows of good artists out there doing this stuff, a heads up would be much appreciated!