WotW 2016 Early Art
This is, as far as I can tell, my earliest concept art for the first iteration of the project, War of the Worlds 2016. Although a lot of concepts changed between the two projects - as I will specify appropriately on the rest of the 2016 concept art - much of the central imagery, biology, etc. of the Martians was retained.
WotW 2016 Early Martian Concept
This was my earliest coherent concept sheet for the 2016 Martians. Later revisions would include a larger upper-body as opposed to a larger belly-foot (i.e. a lower separation between the body and gastropodal belly-foot) and the brain sac on the Martian's back, but the overall design was there from the beginning.
The Martians were based largely on deep-sea creatures and land molluscs, specifically slugs. Their overall body plan resembles a beached Blobfish, with some gastropod features. When designing them I tried to pull away from the popular concept of them as squids or octopuses while still retaining a "look" that identified them as descendants of Wells's original idea and visual descendants of prior depictions.
WotW 2016 Early Martian Concept 2
Specifications of the Martian biology. All the concepts on this sheet carried over to the 2017 iteration. The Martians' flat, disc-like eyes are inspired by deep sea cephalopods such as the Nautilus, as well as the Planarian's cross-eyed look. I wanted to avoid giving them the familiar eyes of an octopus which are, depending on the kind of person you are, sometimes considered cute. The original Wells description described the Martians as having "beak-like" mouths, but I wanted to give them as few hard parts as possible, so I opted for a visually similar flabby flap that extends over their true mouth - a kind of nose.
WotW 2016 Early Tripod Concept
Wells's tripods have been depicted a million different ways, and I wasn't sure whether I wanted mine to stand out or blend in. My absolute favorite tripods (and really, favorite War of the Worlds depictions in general) are Henrique Alvim Correa's illustrations for the 1906 Belgian edition of the novel. My tripods ended up being a kind of Apple Store version of Correa's, a modern take that (ideally) preserved what made his designs great.
For one, the tripods' eyes. There is a goofy quality to them that appears nonthreatening, but also impenetrable. I played around with some more traditional horror depictions, with more deep sea-inspired imagery, but none of them really stuck. My concept of the tripods has always been "Martians but simplified and larger" so I wanted to follow the general body plan of the creatures, in the same way that our humanoid robots follow a human body plan but look simplified and nonhuman.
I decided to make the eyes oval, mostly because it made them look more like a Planarian's eyespots. The Planarian is one of my favorite animals and both the Martian and tripod eyes take a lot from their silly, cross-eyed, unblinking gaze.
WotW 2016 Tripod Early Concept 2
More tripod concepts from 2016. These show off the crest on top of the tripod's head, which is meant to parallel the hearing organ on the Martian creatures' heads. It acts as both a sound input and output device for the Martian within (shout out to Jeff Wayne and his wonderful musical). This particular feature was inspired by Goble's initial tripod depictions for the first publication of the novel, which Wells hated so much that the next published edition contained an in-character condemnation of them.
WotW 2016 Early Tripod Concept 3
The Martian control mechanism for the tripod machines. A neural helmet connects the Martian to both the sensory inputs and motor outputs of the tripod. Wells's novel describes the Martians themselves as sort-of full-bodied brains that pilot larger mechanical bodies for whatever purpose they need at the time, and this cyberpunk-ish technology immerses them fully in that role, with the exception of a few buttons and touch controls for the more precise or unusual functions of the machine.
WotW 2016 Early Martian Flag Concept
When designing the Martian emblem I wanted to make sure it evoked a Fascist aesthetic without using real-world Fascist designs. Simple, striking imagery is central to Fascist aesthetics, so I opted for the instantly-recognizable image of a tripod, posed in dominion over some hapless star system. At this stage I knew the Martian flag was going to be red and white - colors that immediately evoke Mars, blood, and some of the most brutal Fascist regimes in history.
My Martians (and Wells's, I think) are Fascists, and pride in the "superiority" of their culture, or what they feel their culture represents, is important to their characterization. So despite not really having an opportunity to use the flag in physical space in the story I wanted to make sure their emblem was visually represented somewhere. It feels right for the particular kind of evil they represent, especially in this iteration of the story.
WotW 2017 Finalized Martian Flag Concept
A solidification of the Martian emblem concept created for the 2016 iteration; it would undergo one more change, a horizontal flip, but this otherwise represents the culmination of the thought that went into it.
WotW 2017 Final Tripod Concept (Interior)
The finalized concept for the tripod interior and Martian-machine interaction.
WotW 2017 Final Tripod Concept (Exterior)
Finalization of all the ideas represented by the 2016 tripod concept art.
WotW 2017 Final Martian Concept
For the 2017 iteration, the Martians got a design upgrade. This was done for a few reasons, the main one being to get them to resemble the "Mars Goblin" conspiracy photo used in the story. I saw that photo circulating on some conspiracy websites and was shocked at the resemblance of this Martian rock to my Martians, with a few noticeable differences - including what looked to me like a brain on the creature's back. Within the canon of WotW2017 this is a dead Martian photographed by our rovers, passed over as a rock due to centuries of petrification. I'm not sure why it's so well-preserved, perhaps there was some kind of chemical accident - although I suppose the lack of bacteria would keep it in decent condition.
In any case, the design of the Martians was updated to reflect my fascination with the image's similarity to my first concepts. They were given a brain sac, which evolved into something a little less bulbous than the one seen here.
Martian Clay Model
This sloppy clay model represents the final conceptual iteration of the Martian species' appearance. I used it both as a reference to solidify the design and as a prop in a few of my chapter titles (filtered through Deep Dream, obscuring the model's many imperfections).
Martian Clay Model
This sloppy clay model represents the final conceptual iteration of the Martian species' appearance. I used it both as a reference to solidify the design and as a prop in a few of my chapter titles (filtered through Deep Dream, obscuring the model's many imperfections).
Martian Clay Model
This sloppy clay model represents the final conceptual iteration of the Martian species' appearance. I used it both as a reference to solidify the design and as a prop in a few of my chapter titles (filtered through Deep Dream, obscuring the model's many imperfections).
Martian Clay Model
This sloppy clay model represents the final conceptual iteration of the Martian species' appearance. I used it both as a reference to solidify the design and as a prop in a few of my chapter titles (filtered through Deep Dream, obscuring the model's many imperfections).
Bloodbag Clay Model
A sloppy clay model of the Martian Bloodbag subspecies. These creatures are genetically engineered blood slaves used by the Martians, themselves genetically engineered, as a source of nourishment. This is a representation of a typical Bloodbag with a Martian blood harvesting tool stuck in one of its veins (well, a sewing needle, but that's basically my concept for their syringes anyway, so if the shoe fits).
There may or may not be cat hair on this clay model, because my cat may or may not have pawed it onto the floor at least once.
Bloodbag Clay Model
A sloppy clay model of the Martian Bloodbag subspecies. These creatures are genetically engineered blood slaves used by the Martians, themselves genetically engineered, as a source of nourishment. This is a representation of a typical Bloodbag with a Martian blood harvesting tool stuck in one of its veins (well, a sewing needle, but that's basically my concept for their syringes anyway, so if the shoe fits).
There may or may not be cat hair on this clay model, because my cat may or may not have pawed it onto the floor at least once.
Bloodbag Clay Model
A sloppy clay model of the Martian Bloodbag subspecies. These creatures are genetically engineered blood slaves used by the Martians, themselves genetically engineered, as a source of nourishment. This is a representation of a typical Bloodbag with a Martian blood harvesting tool stuck in one of its veins (well, a sewing needle, but that's basically my concept for their syringes anyway, so if the shoe fits).
There may or may not be cat hair on this clay model, because my cat may or may not have pawed it onto the floor at least once.
Bloodbag Clay Model
A sloppy clay model of the Martian Bloodbag subspecies. These creatures are genetically engineered blood slaves used by the Martians, themselves genetically engineered, as a source of nourishment. This is a representation of a typical Bloodbag with a Martian blood harvesting tool stuck in one of its veins (well, a sewing needle, but that's basically my concept for their syringes anyway, so if the shoe fits).
There may or may not be cat hair on this clay model, because my cat may or may not have pawed it onto the floor at least once.
Tripod Clay & Wire Model
By far the most work that went into a miniature reference piece for WotW2017 was this tripod model. Made from clay and foam and attached to a foam base with wires, this model represents the final design of the war machines that terrorized Earth in the story. It was used as a reference and in some of the chapter icons.
Tripod Clay & Wire Model
By far the most work that went into a miniature reference piece for WotW2017 was this tripod model. Made from clay and foam and attached to a foam base with wires, this model represents the final design of the war machines that terrorized Earth in the story. It was used as a reference and in some of the chapter icons.
Tripod Clay & Wire Model
By far the most work that went into a miniature reference piece for WotW2017 was this tripod model. Made from clay and foam and attached to a foam base with wires, this model represents the final design of the war machines that terrorized Earth in the story. It was used as a reference and in some of the chapter icons.
Tripod Clay & Wire Model
By far the most work that went into a miniature reference piece for WotW2017 was this tripod model. Made from clay and foam and attached to a foam base with wires, this model represents the final design of the war machines that terrorized Earth in the story. It was used as a reference and in some of the chapter icons.