Katie Conard

CONCEPT ARTIST & ILLUSTRATOR

TEMOC
KNOCKOUT CITY
TRANSFORMERS
CHARACTERS
ILLUSTRATIONS
LOMBAX GAME

CHOOSE A PROJECT TO GET STARTED

I LOVED the WebWeaver Spidey outfit from the comics, so I wanted to paint it in the style of the PS5 Spiderman games!
Wanted to try a more 'Arcane-esque' style
Transformers Prime is one of my favorite TV series. I did a small project recently where I tried my hand at redesigning Jack Darby with a more 'grunge' twist.
She's DEFINITELY on Team Decepticon! (badum-tsss)
A Transformers character I painted for a client.
Color iterations I did for another member of Temoc's species.
Lemonefarious!
Tried my hand at a more 'cinematic' feel.

Project: Lombax

A RATCHET & CLANK FAN-GAME

RATCHET

I knew I wanted Ratchet to look just slightly older. Rustled fur. Eyebags. Maybe a little unkempt.

Very early ideas of what Ratchet's icon could look like. None of them quite hit the mark...

Eventually I settled upon a more graphical art style, which seemed to work best for the story and gameplay.

Show Me More Lombaxes!

Keyshot - Ratchet taking a bath.
Keyshot - Ratchet after finding a secret hatch.

I let my mental illness win with this one, fellas...

I decided to use Ratchet, the Autobot Chief Medical Officer, for part of this series.
It's easier to work with a character that already exists rather than design a whole new one first thing.
That way I could concentrate on gathering material and detail references.

He may be old, but he's still got game. And drip.

After that exploration - and after rewatching House of the Dragon for the 10th time - I got inspired to try my hand at designing a full character based on this whole baroque-rococo fancy Transformers theme.

In the Transformers Prime tv series, some of the bots have these little "elf ear" audials. I wanted to integrate that here.

Part of this project was to figure out "clothing" design and how Transformers would wear them.

And the answer was: Accessories.
Things that humans wear to complement a larger outfit. For example: a cape or a jewelry.
Fabric accessories would be worn in coordination to their armor...which now feels pretty obvious because a Transformer wearing a t-shirt would look goofy as hell.
Anyway -

FINALLY...

More Bots!

The final result of my ~~hyperfixation~~ silly little project!

WHERE IT BEGAN...

As all concepts do, Temoc started out as a bunch of messy sketches in my free time back in late 2019. I was planning a cosmic horror novel that takes place on a tropical jungle planet.
I wanted the creature that the protagonist interacts with to be unnerving in appearance but also have some aspects that could make him feel approachable - sort of like how big lizards such as tegus and iguanas tend to feel.
I was going off the idea of a lionfish, which is probably why I held on so tightly to the hair at first.
But after exploring it in a more rendered look later in 2020, I made the decision to try something else.

...In 2021, I still seemed hellbent on giving him some kind of long hair-like feature, which wound up being tentacles for a while...
...which I ultimately cut shorter.
By 2022, I thickened parts of his jaw segments. Deepened his eyes to bring him one step closer to that reptile alien look. I thought the work was done, that this was Temoc's final shape.

ANOTHER TWO YEARS LATER...

"...May your bones open to the sun for your heart to fly on wicked wings..."

I returned to Temoc's design in 2024. My skill had developed significantly since I last saw him. My life and tastes in general had changed a lot, too. The idea of Temoc changed as well...