Monday Morning Monster; Industrial Steam Zombie

This evolved out of a more traditional zombie when I started to build a back story for zombies in Edwardian England.

The dehumanization of the industrial revolution hits a new low...

Not the most polished monster I've sent out on a Monday morning, but not the worst either.  A concept sketch rather than an illustration, but mostly a learning experience.  Machinery is always good to practice.

The steam zombie here is one of my homework projects for a digital painting class I'm taking.  The focus is in digital painting in Photoshop for the digital game industry, and one of its particular charms is that I can reach it two nights a week without flying across country or camping on a friend's couch.  It is instruction.  The fact that I do not plan a career focused on digital game illustration is extraneous. 
I do my homework and try to learn what the teacher tries to teach.  I figured out a while back not to ignore material that does not seem relevant to my current interests, that material will always be needed later, when I can't remember it.
The class offers basic instruction in digital painting in Photoshop, and also in what the game industry expects the basics to be.  In return, I offer the class experience dealing with humans who are old and female like their mother, and yet aren't.  We both cope.