iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 20h

Big radome, suitably scanner-ish. And the stripes are self evident. I changed what was originally red to orange for a bit of a gulf callback.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 20h

Still trying to catch up with #spaceshiptember. I realise with prompts like "rebels" I never do a particularly good job :'D My colour choices are always pretty vibrant and unreserved, so I have no colourschemes that particularly shout out "rebellion" or "anarchy."

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

What do you mean "I obviously didn't understand the assignment?" This is perfectly realistic. Well, OK, but at least it's green.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Went quite literal with the interpretation of "mothership." It was a little challenging to come up with an actually motherly spaceship. But it all clicked when I fell back on one of my less freqeuntly used stock solutions; outright fish.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Compositionally, this is something of a dumpster fire :D The idea was a spacecraft that would core a giant vertical slice out of a planet and pull it into orbit, to transport somewhere else.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A spaceship/fighter with the aesthetic of "particularly unhealthy Moya." Also the weapons system is like a cross between caviar and Silent Bomber :'D I don't know what I was doing with this one at all, but at least it's blue and yellow, right?

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Brain went to angler fish. #spaceshiptember Also, I've been neglecting the biomechanoid stuff all this month, so hopefully this atones for it. The eye shoots lasers (obviously) and, to make it somewhat functional, the bits in the way, can move to not be in the way.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I need to catch up like crazy for the rest of #spaceshiptember; I'm missing so many days ':\ To avoid ambiguity I have added running lights which, in space may just add to the confusion. After all...

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Whilst I'm running behind with current shiptember stuff, here's something from last year in an eye-searingly (and therefore appropriately) gaudy colour scheme.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Only other one for tonight. Green is always such a difficult colour for me when doing vehicle colour-schemes; I always end up with either Thunderbird 2 or Planet Express Ship. Guess I ended up closer to the former with this one. should've coloured the tail/thruster red to round it out :D

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

continuing haphazardously with #spaceshiptember. Every part of this one screams background props; the kind of thing made en masse to fill out a hanger the viewer isn't really paying attention to because the lead characters are disembarking their super-cool, unique spacecraft (not pictured).

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

And this is the final #shiptember entry for today. It was originally meant to be for mining/conversion. It really didn't go the way I hoped so I just slapped it in the 'no-prompt' option for the 10th. It works simply as an image, but it's a failure in conveying clearly what it's meant to be...

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

So, the idea for this one was a 'net' in which space garbage could be held and processed. And yes, the blockout for this shiptember spacestation was indeed just the tetrahedramajigger form the 'add mesh' menu in blender.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Ok, getting back on track with #spaceshiptember, but in no particular order. This fancy, red destroyer carries four 75m long, tungsten rods which it drops from orbit on an (unfortunate) target, usually all at once, in a close cluster formation.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Dear magic monkey's paw, now that I've mastered the art of drawing objects with no discernible front or rear, can I go back to just not doing that? Last #spaceshiptember of the day and I'm up all caught up.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

#spaceshiptember 05. I promise not to overuse floating rings, but they're something that repeatedly springs to mind when I'm thinking about spacecraft. This one is a drone used by mining vessels for surveying asteroids...

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Combining shiptember prompt lists so now everything is going to be two things instead of one. My idea with this one is that the thrusters could rotate to face backwards. for emergency braking i guess.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Ah, final shiptember ship for today, and I misinterpreted the promt to make life easy on myself, which is probably the opposite of what I should be doing :D Anyway, this smuggler's spacecraft has taken a hit to one of its thrusters it has been... winged.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Got this one done too now. Big question is; which way is it flying?

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Ayo, Spaceshiptember! Freighter. I wanted to do soemthing odd for this one and was thinking of a jellyfish; where trails of cargo would drift haphazardously behind the ship itself. I think I half-assed the execution though. Mostly cause I'm gonna use the other half to get another one done today.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Ahh... Half Brazen Bull, half Mecha Hatsune, entirely impractical.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Looking forward to shiptember this year because I want to get back into drawing some of my ball-turret laden airships, but with bright and outrageous colourschemes this time.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Last one of this mech for now; it's getting a little bit Full Armor over here.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

As promised, round two: - A new face plate. - New legs with ball feet. - Extra ammunition. I've got a weird booster system to attempt to design/illustrate, and a claw weapon too.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Finished. Kinda spent too long on colour-schemes I didn't like and settled for one that's sorta OK. I think the parts seperation on this one is a little all over the place, so it was tougher to get a good scheme on. Also, I should redo the head to make it not-a-head.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I don't normally post WIP stuff but sometimes, when I've been slacking off, I do to make it look like I'm totally not. Check out the accidental shooting animation at the end :'D

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

I'm sure I probably said this the last time I posted this one (in a different colour, of course) but I wanted to make something very Zok-like in profile... But with a hat.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Recolour. The colour fade on the feet into the legs is something I should've included on the original scheme.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

And with this, I run out of recolours for "bean tank." So I guess I should design another. If I do, I'll lean into the tardigrade aesthetic that's sort of in the legs; it needs to be everywhere, and more obvious.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Alternate colourscheme again, just to fill in some space while I work on something else.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Recolour. Second favourite to the tennis-ball colour-scheme of the original, but I kind of like how this one (somehow) makes it look a little more mass-production than the original.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Flares are neat for when you don't want to draw legs... or arms; you can just put flares on the arms too. (but honestly, I just wanted to draw some more fabric-like materials; I feel in the mood for drawing big shapes with patterns on them).

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Reposted & recoloured. I kind of like how the joints in the legs and arms in this design don't have the usual overlapped plates (torso too); it's more streamlined and easier to draw ( ¬ᴗ¬) Not 100% sure on making it a standardised feature though.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I don't normally go off-topic (the topic being solely my weird-ass mechs), but I just watched this and it was amazing! I was genuinely surprised it was only 25 minutes; it felt so full. And so damn vibrant!

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Just set my insta to private because of their bullshittery so there's a whole load of older illustrations that aren't readily viewable. Figured it would be fun to post an old one but, boy; whilst I like some of my old ideas, I don't care for their execution. This just about stands up still though.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

I like the idea that it can stand on its hands and use its legs as weapons. Hence the chisel-feet are coloured the same as the sword (to imply similar materials/properties).

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Lets, for a moment, return to something with slightly more standard proportions and layout, courtesy of the Industrial Millinery Complex.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Whilst I seem to be on the subject of putting limbs in all the wrong places; here's some old illustrations from 2020.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

I probably should've thought more about this one :D but I quite liked the silhouette. The arm rail only running around half its body and, of all halves, the back-half, is so stupid :'D

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

Imagine if clapping your hands involved smacking together over 50% of your body mass. How thundersome.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

Bird mech/aircraft. The red vents along the back of its body are thrusters but, most of the time, it flies like a regular non-metal bird. One that has the added benefit of being able to create its own thermals via dozens of vents in the underside of its wings.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

I've posted this design, but I don't -think- I've posted it with this colourscheme on bsky before? If I was going to redesign it, that little sensor array on the manubrium would be an eyeball for sure.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Mech-wizard disguised as a zebra-crossing. The markings work quite well as a kind of dazzle paint to break up the shapes. Perhaps a little too well for an illustration.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

It's impossible to lick your own elbow but now, with the power of advanced robotics, it's possible for your own elbow to lick you.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Mass production grunt armed with an experimental weapon. Sort of still figuring out how the weapon (unconventionally) works, but in the end, I'm probably just gonna jam science words together.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Repost of a mech with thundery thighs and acute head.

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James_R_Millar @jamesrmillar.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Zone of Sidonia round 2. The direction of the refinements was obvious: Teeth, synathrodial panel lines, and turning that head ring into a totally practical arm-spinny-thing (I don't have a good name for that part yet).

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