Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Finding inspiration in vessels from Pre-Columbian cultures

These neat shadow boxes showcasing miniature replicas of Pre-Columbian artifacts reminded me of how some Anime shows (like RahXephon's Dolems) can successfully draw inspiration for some mecha designs and story ideas straight from the archaeological sites (particularly Aztec and Mayan in the case of RahXephon) and relics. The sample above focuses on the striking multicolor Nazca pottery and some reproductions of the famous dessert geoglyphs: the Nazca Lines.
Chancay Culture shadow box featuring miniature replicas of typical pottery figurine vessels. According to some lore, similar figurines called Cuchimilcos were hung at home entrances to ward off evil spirits.
Using some photo references of Nazca pottery vessels to give an original twist to a Manga robot sketch conceived as a shell-form transforming robot.
Mecha early concept based on the Nazca "Killer Whale" motif and colored with some Faber Castell Pitt Artist brush pens.

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