*snip*
There must be others out there who can post their work?
I've lost the ability to draw like that, when I was a child. Too much science you see, the neurons were needed for maths and other things. I still have a good artistic sense, just not good enough to draw people. Would love to have illustrations of my tentative novel The Valkyrie and the Eagle. Certainly there will be schematics for the airships (which I will design from real-world flight principles).
And because my novel will be heavily based on real history, I've determined that all but people who are very well learned in geopolitical and scientific history of the 1860s-70s will probably have a hard time determining what is real and what is not. Hence, there will be a need to have side by side illustrations comparing real-life history to the alternate time line as laid out in the book (e.g. a real late 1800s airship, vs. an 1870's fictionalised stratospheric airship, with a brief explanation of what technology was required decades in advance to make that possible), and portraits of famous personalities with real history explanations versus the fictionalised versions (e.g American President Abraham Lincoln, Austrian Prince/Mexican Emperor Maximilian I, Mexican President Benito Juarez, French Emperor Napoleon III and Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph,plus a myriad of other people who will be supporting characters).
The airship technology of the era was almost trivial, and the understanding of the upper atmosphere non-existent. But to sustain a global war, I propose inventing a stratospheric jetstream-cruising airship, and decades in advance scientific research on the upper atmosphere. An unexpected alliance between Maximilian I and Napoleon III with the Confederate States of America, will force Abraham Lincoln to ally with Prussia. Predicting cotton markets will be lost to France, Great Britain will have to stop support for the Confederates and ally with the Union as well.
Because of that I don't have hand illustrations, I'm afraid, but can show you some examples about the things I'd certainly like to illustrate...
Confederate States Ironclad Ship CSS Texas built in Bordeaux, France, sails to America to join the war effort
United States (Union) General Tecumseh Sherman and staff
French forces in Mexico
Emperor of Mexico Maximilian I (formerly Prince Maximilian of Austria (Hapsburg))
Mexican Republican Troops fighting against the French and Maximilian's Imperial forces
Mexican President Benito Juarez leading the exiled Republican government, hiding in Northern Mexico
On the other hand, I don't think they''ll have too much of a hard time determining that my elvish third-gender Austrian Airship mechanics are a figment of my imagination. But naturally I would have to illustrate the characters, of which General Bahlmann (shown below - one of my two personas) is one of the two main characters
Original Steampunk character. Lt. Gen. Julin Wodinaz Bahlmann, US Corps of Engineers, originally an Austro-Hungarian refugee, a member of the 3rd. Gender Elf-like group of people known as the Engelfolk and a Luftschiffengel (Airship Angel).
Rear Admiral George H. Wadleigh, USN (1842-1927). This chap looks like he could be Admiral Johannes Wilhelm in his later years. Wilhelm was the Bavarian-born captain of the United States Airship
Orca, formerly the Confederate ship
Alamo, and formerly the Austrian KuK
Die Walküre, which he captured/commandeered during the Franco American Aerial Battle over the Desert of Sonora. He's responsible for rescuing the Luftschiffengel from imprisonment in Union camps, under the condition they be pressed into service for the Union operating the captured ships (an idea he had to sell to President Lincoln himself).
I hope that the juxtaposition of real history with fiction will turn out to be a highly educational experience for the reader, and further the understanding of the novel, and real history, in light of the educational shortcomings of my compatriots (educational systems very seldom bother to teach what was happening on the other side of the world while "this or that" important domestic national event was happening. A global war requires a global scope, which I don't expect the reader to have.
Since it was required for my college studies, technical data, drawings and schematics will be trivial to provide. But people, I'm afraid I can't draw too well.
