Steampunk Hands 2016 – Imperial Airship

Airships have a notable, tropic place in steampunk. They are engineering dreams, romantic fantasies, and transportation marvels in our stories and artwork. Some conventions even have airship races to bring adventurous flying to life.

James Ng’s Imperial Airship is one of the airship images in our community which I consider truly iconic. It captures the feel of the Chinese steampunk aesthetic, the majesty befitting a royal transport, the power of the Imperium, and the anticipatory imaginings of actually traveling on such a ship.

Designed to be the Empress’s airship, it is big enough to block out the sun as it approaches a village. Generating mass air pollution in its path, the airship demonstrates the awesome power of the Imperial family.

James Ng, the artist, wanted to create something really iconic by combining the Forbidden City, a golden dragon, and a flying ship. Imperial Airship is the first image in his Imperial Steamworks series, and was created April 2008 using pencil, charcoal, ink, Photoshop, and Corel Painter.

This image can be seen on the inside cover of The Steampunk Bible, and inspired Simon Kocurek to render it in 3D, and German Sandoval to create a short video.

This was the first image of James’ which I can across, and was so enthralled with it that the framed poster sized version of it dominates a wall in my living room where I can see it every day.

If you like airships, and James’ interpretative style, the Imperial Airship may become one of your favorites, too.

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