Our Gallery: The Vision of Tim Huhn

Dieselpunk Encyclopedia is happy to present: Tim Huhn and his Art Deco Series.

On the Just Looking Gallery website there is a short info about the artist:

After graduating from the prestigious California College of Arts and Crafts with a Bachelors degree in Fine Arts and Illustration Huhn worked as a commercial illustrator for companies such as Disney, Universal Studios, Sony & Mattel. After leaving Los Angeles and the commercial world of art, Huhn began to develop a body of fine art while living on the Central Coast of California. Huhn’s experience as an illustrator has enabled him to work in a number of mediums and styles including photorealism and art deco.

Dawn of a New Age by Tim Huhn

We can add something:Tim Huhn’s artwork bears more than a passing resemblance to the famous WPA murals. It’s fun to see a modern artist who, just like his idealistic forerunners in 1930s, is not afraid of figurative art. An artist whose creations are full of positive spirit.

 

Our Gallery: The Crazy World of Sam Van Olffen

The Dieselpunk Encyclopedia is proud to present Sam Van Olffen, one of the greatest dieselpunk artists.
For starters, a short quote from his conversation with Tome Wilson (Dieselpunks.org, Aug. 27, 2009):

This will sound strange but I don’t think that anything comes directly from my brain. I’m just a vector, a kind of supra-physical translator. I’m not kidding. I just use information to make pictures, much as a computer makes pictures with binary language. My synapses translate data which comes from I don’t know where. That’s my role.

Another quote, from an interview published on jacksondeep.com (Oct. 8, 2010):

I’m more interested in the past as a way to understand the present and how in less than one century we all became “citizens of the age of the ephemera” as Alvin Toffler said pertinently. The lost civilizations, the great conflicts, men, discoveries, etc., whole those new quantic waves that were shaping the face of humanity. Needless to say it was more impressive than… Facebook!

There’s a lot to argue about but let’s put the argument aside. And proceed to the third interview, for the Gatehouse Gazette (#8, August 2009):

I have always wanted to create universes and characters, tell stories. I have always been attracted by science fiction and fantasy worlds, robots and monsters.I like big cities, pollution, oppressive atmospheres and everything connected with death. I like architecture and above all I like history. I let things happen. With all these elements combined you get dieselpunk. <…> You are right when you think dieselpunk fits my own style more. It is darker. Dieselpunk is the psychopathic son of steampunk.

Mask

You probably know that the art of Sam Van Olffen is often labeled as ‘steampunk’. Well, it’s easy, with all these top hats and balloons, Belle Epoque and Art Nouveau aesthetics. But the artist sees himself as a dieselpunk, expanding the genre’s limitations, crossing the borders, threading new paths. Let’s take a look:

 

Our Gallery: Jon Hall’s Air Power

We are proud to present the creations of Jon Hall, an outstanding dieselpunk aircraft designer who builds amazing flying machines using LEGO plastic bricks. His work is highly acclaimed by both LEGO enthusiasts and dieselheads all over the world.

Mr. Hall wrote in his Flickr profile:

“I’m a thirtysomething graphic designer ( and ex- computer game artist, and ex- film and tv animator, and all round geek ). I live in London with my girlfriend and my 2 sons. I’m currently working at book publisher Dorling Kindersley’s Licensing department where I work with companies such as Pixar, Lego, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Disney to produce books based on their films and comics etc.”

“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” Leonardo Da Vinci

Here is a small selection of his aircraft, created in 2009-2012, with some comments from the author:

Savoia S-21
A Lego model I made of Porco’s seaplane from the Studio Ghibli film ‘Porco Rosso’

 

Our Gallery: From a Parallel Universe

José García aka Cutangus is a former tank commander, Spanish Army. From early 2000s he’s building an alternative universe of his own – with hordes of scary vehicles, aircraft and, recently, mechanical soldiers. Here’s a quote from his Flickr profile:

Tired of the tyranny of the flesh, I became involved in secret experiments related to the translation of human conscience to bioelectric devices. The result is that I’m currently enclosed in Fugaco-class mechanical bodies, actually under development.

We are happy to present a selection of Cutangus’ artwork, in chronological order. Every image is linked to its Flickr page.

AVT-260-N. An imaginary war machine belonging to the German Imperial Army, has the Great War lasted four or five years more.

AERODYNE-Y II. Invented design of a three-fuselage destroyer aircraft of 1945 vintage.

 

Our Gallery: Diesel Era Giants

When we talk dieselpunk, ‘megalomania’ doesn’t sound like an obscenity or a diagnosis. The genre is inspired by the Interbellum aesthetics, and no one can argue that between two world wars size did matter, the bigger the better. In this gallery there are no abandoned projects and paper designs. Only real giants.

Let us begin with an undisputed dieselpunk icon, the airship. Not just a dirigible but a flying aircraft carrier:

Flying aircraft carrier (PopMech, May 1942)

The concept was already obsolete when this picture was published but carrier airships existed a few years before – see USS Macon and Akron.

Another nice try to increase the operating range of piston-engine aircraft: the Mayo project:

Short S20 Mayo 'Mercury' & Short Empire 'Maia' flying boat

The Short Empire Class S.21 Maia was not the largest flying boat of the period – but large and powerful enough to carry a four-engine floatplane.

 

Our Gallery: Mike Doscher

We are happy to exhibit the artwork of Mike Doscher aka Malaveldt, an artist well known and highly esteemed by the dieselpunk community.

Behind each picture there’s always a story, usually a space conquest story told from some future (or parallel) world where Mars, Venus and Jupiter are conquered and developed with the help of Diesel Era-styled machines. Artist’s DeviantArt gallery is highly recommended, as well as his blog.

Space Stuka by Malaveldt