taylorlwrites

[taylorlwrites]

Rolling in the deep

[taylorlwrites]

Been feeling pretty drained creatively recently but forced myself to try, even if it was just a little speed paint. I've wanted to paint Vessel for a long time, and with the release of the new album, felt like a good time. Maybe one day I'll do a proper painting for him.

[taylorlwrites]

Ernest Goes on Tour

My art for AE3. 

Very silly art that I’ve had in my head for a while and finally got scribbled out. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize the little guy wasn’t feeling well and isn’t on this tour (get well, Ernie!) 

I wanted something chaotic in the style of the Ernest Goes movie series, and also the muppets (because I’m crazy??) So I ended up with this, using all of the non-canon critters and bots that are featured in the visuals including: ECHO Unit, Toksik trolls and lizard space men, Wormstin, robot from “Back to the Earth”, as well as other STARSET elements like PROX, hidden star logos, “S” logos, and some other little gags. 

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“Don’t be surprised what the night brings, when you search the dark you get dark things…”

Better late than never??

Couldn’t get this knocked out when the single released but here’s a little something for Dark Things.

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“We don’t need your education, we just need more simulation”

New Single New Art

Wasn’t quite sure what to do with this one and wanted to knock something out quick, so this is what I came up with. 

Not surprised that I’ve loved every single they’ve released so far, but this one is just so cinematic and really hits those unique sounds that make this band different from others. And I LOVE that the rest of the band got to be part of the chorus.

[taylorlwrites]

Happy Halloween!

Def had to rush this silly art but I wanted something to celebrate my fav. holiday.

Main reference was from a young Dustin back in his Downplay days at a “Nightmare After Christmas” concert, where he was dressed as Jack Skellington. Other references are all the “spooky” Starset visuals I could think of, mainly drawing from Monster for D’s costume, Bringing It Down for the ghosts (wanted to include the other members of the band but ran out of time), Something Wicked This Way Comes and Toksik’s troll, with a broken sky to show it’s all just a digital nightmare anyway. 

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New Demo, new Art!

Made this art for the St. Louis Demonstration on 09/24. UNFORTUNATELY the venue would not let me bring it inside, so it couldn't get signed. So I'll shamelessly tag all those lovely individuals here. (Sadly, I don't know the name of the actors to credit them).

Wanted to make a movie style poster to celebrate this series of Demonstrations and the end of an era of storytelling. Band members are portrayed as CAs and positioned where they would be on stage. Dustin wears the new uniform from the second half of the act since I've already illustrated his suit. The symbols for the songs played (as well as a plethora of star and ‘s’ logos), are hidden throughout. The characters, technology, and different plotlines of the story are also included. 

I really enjoyed this over the top “book tour”, which was created specifically for the fans. Excited for whatever comes next, but it's definitely bittersweet to say goodbye to this story. 

[taylorlwrites]

Happy 10th Anniversary to STARSET Transmissions

Happy anniversary! Thanks for all the inspiration.

[taylorlwrites]

STARSET: DEGENERATE

Down, down, down, down, down,

It's a race to the bottom 

DEGENERATE 

Art for STARSET's new single.

Had to make something for the new song and thankfully knew what I wanted to do with this the moment I heard the teaser/saw the symbol. Don't know much lore wise, but this album sounds like it's going full apocalypse mode so that's what I went with.

And about the whole visual AI “controversy”, if you're mad you missed the whole point.

[taylorlwrites]

Starset: Brave New World

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[taylorlwrites]

What a weekend!

Still trying to wrap my head around seeing my first demonstration, and what a demonstration it was!

Here is the artwork I made for the event: a map of the planet PROX. I wanted something heavy in the lore that wasn’t obviously Starset at first glance and have been fascinated by old maps, as well as Joel Daniel Phillip’s beautiful planetary maps for the Red Rising series, so I used that as my inspiration with a heavy Order of Teslonia feel to it. Latin versions of the Order’s phrase “With Purpose”, hidden Starset star and Order logos (a LOT  D: ), 3 bar logos, TSS logos and ISKF are also hidden to lesser degrees. Without much to go on, I added what “landmarks” I could, starting with hints from the visuals, vinyl comic and novel, and then added a few more to add in all 7 members of the band (plus Ernie). I had the art printed as a glicee and then embossed it with copics and some glittery gelpens to highlight the band member’s names. Thankfully no one seemed too offended to be labelled a salt flat or mountain range. Incredibly flattering to have them all sign it after seeing them in such an incredible performance.

(I’ll be an ass and tag who I can so that I can so they’re a little easier to see.) As always check out my deviantart: TALeigh if you want to see any full Starset image since insta is not great.

[taylorlwrites]

Happy First Demo/Celestial Event/A Brief History of the Future release weekend!

I wanted to make something to celebrate, and this is what I landed on. Of course it wasn’t till after I started that I remembered how weird eclipse shadows are, but it turned out to be fun trying to figure out how to pull it off. Hopefully I did.

Now it’s time to start reading. Been a long wait and I am excited to finally have some questions answered (or probably just have more questions).  

[taylorlwrites]

So...a new Alien movie...

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New suit study!

I told myself I wasn’t going to even turn on my computer this weekend because I had too much to do, but then Starset had to go and tease their new look and I ended up dropping everything else I had planned to sketch something out.

Didn’t have a lot of information to go on, but I went with the Rebel (I think) version of the (Mach III??) space suit. Also included the very cool (new) New East symbol. Really pleased to see some of those familiar elements, but getting back to the more space-y theme that’s been strayed from.

Definitely getting some Red Rising vibes from both the suit and symbol, but that’s fine with me. Hope this look debuts at the upcoming demos!

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Starset Everything Machine with and without rebel graffiti.

[taylorlwrites]

My belated holiday piece for the Messengers; hard to believe we've made it to the end of the year. I didn't get this finished, but it's after Christmas and time to move on. So here's DB from the Downplay era, at the Nightmare After Christmas show (proof Dustin has been rocking the raccoon eyes since 2012)