So I am putting together a Lowboy style cabinet, single player, with a vertical CRT screen and am going to need to make some art decisions soon. I would truly appreciate some art advice here - I am a rookie.
Originally I was gonna do a "Lowboy" cabinet - play on Paperboy, but thats a horizontal game. I don't want a cabinet that can't play the game that inspired its art. So I looked at what my cabinet does and why I built it... Shmups and the Classics. With this I sat back and daydreamed a bit and it hit me:
KONGIKAZE!
Donkey Kong... Kamikaze Planes... the perfect mix. One thing that I love about Nintendo Cabs is the colours they used. Since most colours on Nintendo row are Blue, Orange, and others have done colours i don't wanna resuse, I figured I would try to get something with a similar colour theme and have always been a fan of old Fender guitar colours, so chose a Sea Foam green base. Granted the colour is not for everyone, and I am also torn between something quite bright like what is depicted in my photos, and a colour called Enchanted Wells, as seen here:
http://www.behr.com/consumer_ca/ColorDetailView/P430-5So below are some test graphics I have been working on. I've never built a cabinet or done art - this is all pretty new to me. I have only been interested in this hobby for about 6 or so months, and most of my experience is as a kid 25 or so years ago. The colours are still undecided - the shades of colours I will need to change, and have posted some variations of colours.
I wasn't too sure about side art, and decided to come up with something. The Cherry blossom in background is from the Ohka, a kamikaze plane from WW2 which features the flower on the fuselage. Originally it was just the flower, nothing else. A friend said "I like it, reminds me of Arizona Iced Tea" - which scared me for a minute, then realized the Arizona was lost at Pearl Harbour, which was the catalyst for the beginning of the Pacific War - which games like 1942, 1943 and such focused on.
Also, I had a little Lowboy advice and borrowed a few photos from Stuzza (craig) for some mockups, hope you don't mind mate
So without anymore ranting...