Longque Chen is Drafting Dramatic Mechs and Mobile Villages
Combining Familiar Shapes and Forms to Create Something New and Exciting
Something I love the most about art is the potential to create something that does not or simply cannot exist in the world. Whether it’s an issue of physics or practicality, those things can be transcended in the mind and then projected onto the canvas. It’s one of the things that makes art so compelling to share.
Longque Chen is a concept art and design artist whose portfolio covers a wide variety of mechs and monsters; creations of fantastical machinery inspired by forms from the animal kingdom, alongside monsters that modify or defy the natural forms they reference. Chen designs a lot of monsters and mechs, as well as futuristic buildings and vehicles, from war machines to construction equipment. He has also put his skills to work on concept art for the Callisto Protocol.
In an interview earlier this year, Chen elaborated on his art process, and discussed how he visualizes things in a very “2d” way when he starts ideating on a concept. He works in traditional mediums a lot, mapping out general shapes with marker and using a smaller lining pen to define the more detailed parts of his pieces. The alligator village above is a great example of the kid of detail that Chen adds to his images, and I highly recommend browsing that post and others like it. I didn’t know I needed to see a village on the back of a whale, or a rhino, or a bonsai tree, but now that I have, I regret nothing.
This week, I was reminded that it’s very important to be careful when entering or exiting a bathtub. I didn’t fall, but the person who did is still feeling it. I know that’s not art related, but it’s right on the top of my mind. Sometimes it’s the mundane things that can be the most dangerous in the right context.
Check out Chen’s Artstation here!
Or browse his Instagram!
Tweet at me about bathtub-related accidents here!
