This is a painting I did for concept art class. I spent about 2 hours on thumbnails, 2 hours on research, 6 hours on a failed attempt to model several ships and paint over the turn arounds, about 10 hours for 3 colored compositions.
The project lasted 5 weeks and the total time spent on the above image was about 15 hours. The final image was based on two classes of feedback, and the engine was a photo that I modified and paint-over to save time (something we were encouraged to do).
Above are just a couple images of the process. I end up going with the purple color scheme, but changed the composition to highlight the details of the ship.
Big sword dude.
These are little armor designs I crafted with Zbrush and Photoshop. Used Anroid Jones' process for abstract thumbnailing. 