Luna & Nova Original Character and Art Reveal - 2 Times Artist Grant 2020
In April 2020 I applied for an Artist Grant that was part of the Relief for Corona affected artists in Germany. The Grant was exclusive to resident artists of Rhineland Palatinate and I was fortunate enough to receive it.
Thanks at this point to Stiftung Rheinland Pfalz für Kultur!
My idea was to build something new and original but still have the options to play with my previously explored concept of tributes to artists and pop culture.
Creating my own original Characters & their Story
I searched for an idea that allowed me to combine all that I did until now, like monsters in landscapes, rusty machines, portraits of girls and sometimes androids and the occasional nod to anime or games... with still the most creative flexibility possible, to create everything I want, in the future.
It actually took a day to come up with Luna & Nova.
The conceptual phase took a bit longer, to find out what the story is about. But the main idea was to create a character: Luna.
I like to draw girls with horns, so she has horns and is cute;)
Meet Luna & Nova
Luna is a mysterious girl with horns, often wearing a star-cape.
There is not much known about her origin other than she might be older than she seems, has a dark past and rumors have it, that she was born and raised on the moon. She is neither a demon nor human.
Schrödinger
The Scythe is inhabited by 2 demons so strong, they can still turn into anything that has molecules. In the hands of Luna, they become a dangerous weapon. However, when unstable, it can happen that Schrödinger transforms into an umbrella, the name is a of course a nod to the physicist who is known for the experiment with a cat, better known as "Schroedingers cat".
Then there is Nova; a flying cat which has scaling abilities. Even the AT-AT painting could be a Luna & Nova piece, because Schrödinger can turn into that machine and Nova scales it up.
The Characters
Here you see all characters roughly outlined in conceptual sketches
Artwork Gallery (so far)
Below are some of the works that include Luna & Nova. Their appearance has become recognizable, but it is still fun to find them in a certain painting.
Feeding time at the Highlands
The piece below is a nod to the recent installment of Ikoria from Magic the Gathering, just with a more gritty Behemoth ;) The landscape background is based on a painting from Wilhelm Leu from 1869.
Airship Valley
This one is inspired by Ian McQue’s flying ships. I like to play with various settings and this flying ship setting may come more often as it is less Sci-Fi or Fantasy, somewhere in between.
Riding with the Whales
The background is based on a landscape painting by Edward Harrison Compton
Buster-Luna and Super-Nova
This piece is obviously inspired by Final Fantasy VII, as the Buster-Sword of Cloud Strife might confuse those in the know. But fear not, since Schroedinger is capable of shapeshifting into anything, the intention must came from Luna - which in turn reveals about her, that she might actually be a gamer-girl with a seriously good taste ;)
Second Artist Grant
A second grant to push things further
Meanwhile, after finishing my documentation for the first artist grant in August, I received a second grant from the same foundation, to push the Project with Luna even further.
In terms of quality I wanted to add more depth to the characters by creating a 3d figure and even print them on my own, as I have never did that before.
This piece on the right was an overpainted version of the result of the 3d-designed model.
The title is exaggerated "Garden of the Galaxy", born from a misheard sentence but I found it fitting and maybe good for Luna's backstory.
For the second Artist Grant, one main requirement to receive it, was to add to the quality of the existing project. I believe I did so by creating a 3d-model of all three characters, rendered it, created a 2D image/painting out of that and also did a 3D-Print of the figure later on. All-in-all it helped me to get a better understanding of the characters, what they are and what not.
New meaning to “living behind the moon”
An interesting aspect to Luna might be, that she was born on the moon and found herself with memory loss on planet earth.
She remembers some fragments.
A big part of her first journey could be how she can get back to the moon. To sneak into NASA and steal a rocket perhaps?
Concept Art
Luna & Nova is a great project to develop visual styles and concepts. Be it the machines in which Schroedinger can transform, the appearance of Luna or the backstory of each character. Every aspect is a challenge in its own.
Contact me
Are you screenwriter for Netflix or need a story for a PS5 game? Lets get in touch, nothing would be more perfect than a game of Luna and Nova or a series.
The Artist Grant allowed me to create 90% of the artwork seen on these pages, a big thank at this point!
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