Out in front of the public, that is!
(Groan. I know.)
I’m going to try to be brief on the words and let the pictures do the talking, today. If this piece of concept art had taken any longer to complete, we would have seen the actual miniature on the table before I actually finished the drawing. The illustrating of Coleman Stryker’s third in-game incarnation was as epic as the story that has gotten him to this point in his fictional life. Okay, maybe not, but it turned out to be a long, laborious process for me, and ever time I sat down to work on it I wished I’d had the foresight to tell Privateer’s Creative Director, Ed Bourelle, that I wasn’t going to do it.
Once again, though, sharing the journey with those who have joined me in this blog turned out to be a rewarding experience. It was great to see all of the passionate feedback from so many people, and to find out just what this character, a pillar of the WARMACHINE universe, meant to you. Stryker is an icon and I learned that certain elements of his visual identity are in themselves, iconic. In many cases, the comments on my last update of the Stryker III concept confirmed my own reservations I was having about the direction of the design. In other cases, my eyes were opened to things I hadn’t yet considered.
If you compare the final product to that last entry, you’ll see remnants of the original drawing, but there is a significant amount of evolution that the design underwent. I think the end result is recognizably Stryker and contains the DNA of both his previous versions while still bringing some new offerings to the table.
All in all, hanging the original warcaster’s new clothes out there for public scrutiny ultimately yielded what I feel is a much better direction than where I started. I hope you’ll agree! (And if not, well, maybe you’ll want to try out the Convergence. 
wow matt very wonderful to see the sketches of strykers give me hope for the future of this faction hopefully more is planned for units and such but this looks amazing can’t wait to get one !!!!
Not bad for a semi retired concept artist :p I kid I kid. But seriously, good stuff man.
I’m so glad you really took the community’s I was not digging the original concept the armor looked all wrong and the duster being gone was a real shame. But it looks amazing I’ll be proud to field that Stryker. Thanks for all your dedication to keeping Cygnar’s icon true to himself.
Awesome action pose for the Stryker going over the wall. And a promotion to General? Very cool.
Stryker’s a general, now I see. Excited to see how he transitions from Lord Commander of the Sixth to his new post.
Is the front knee (and below) of his warhorse mechanikal? Are both knees? Does the horse have a name?
Ooo! It looks like there’s a storm chamber in the horse’s chest. Can we call him Tony?!
Call him whatever you want, just don’t call him late for dinner! He eats like a horse!!!
(Oh man, I’m on fire today.)
The front legs are armored, so not prosthetic, but mechanikal, yes. (eg. powered horse armor)
I think the horse’s name should be Thunder. Too on the nose?
Woof. I didn’t think I’d like him mounted. I was so very wrong. Very sweet work Matt.
I love it when someone else is wrong!
So glad you like it, though. Thanks for saying so, Dan!
I really like the dynamic pose of him mounted. If thats the final sculpt it will be the single best mounted caster in the game. (at least aesthetically)
Well, don’t get your hopes up. His rules are going to suck. Jason and DC totally shot down my lobby to give the model a Colossal damage grid.
LOL well we all know they are Cryx folks and conspiring against the Cygnus
Im really impressed with both the final design and how you took the feedback on board. I wish i had your artistic talents, the drawings look fantastic… also scenic base for the win!
Holy Effing smokes! Talk about breathing new life into an old character. I’m pretty sure next year will be the year of Stryker for me. I’ve been playing Stryker 1 for the last two years as my primary caster, and have had a ball. This year I chose to graduate to Nemo and his three incarnations. Next year will be back to Stryker for sure, I hope he gets released in the next book. Great job Matt, this is pretty freakin’ awesome.
I hope there’s a 3rd face that’s Stryker smiling like a mad man as charges into battle.
I’m sorry but I’m not a big fan of the “I gotta poop real bad” #2 face.
Foresight to tell the director you weren’t going to do it!
The armor on Stryker is badass, can’t wait to see some color put on it. Keep up the good work!
I am a big fan of this concept! Agreed that this might be the best looking mounted caster to date, once the model hits. I really like the added “jacket” flair. Good job!
Stryker is easily my favourite character and these concepts of his third incarnation are amazing. The drawings capture everything I love about the character and Cygnar as a faction. Thank you Matt for putting so much effort and talent into making Stryker3 look awesome.
Completely agree with this comment, bravo!
Nice. He looks 100x better now and super buff. I don’t play Cygnar but he looks awesome and truly like a 3rd incarnation!
So beautiful…
No I probably have to play him even if he is bad! Praying for Quicken though!
Strykers armor is 100x better this go around. I really felt like the last sketch made Stryker look like a journeyman and he just felt lacking. This go around he looks beefier and a true progression from his epic form. Well done Matt can’t wait to buy the model.
I love this, and I cannot wait to see the model in person. I’ve been playing Cygnar since the battle box first came out, and I’ve loved seeing the progression of his character.
What medium do you use for these sketches?
This is all done in Photoshop on a Cinqtiq tablet, so my medium of choice is ‘pixels’. And thank you!
The artwork is phenomenal! I have always been a fan of Stryker even though I have a real love/hate relationship with him during games.
I would ask, though, why the horse? I mean, not to be rude, but it seems like the way these casters are being remade is by simply chucking them on a horse. Vyros, Kreoss, Vlad, Stryker. I am curious why a mount makes them epic? Why not something more original? Like put Stryker in a heavy armor suit on a medium base. I just wonder why the horse appears to be the fall back solution for epic now.
Putting the warcasters on mounts is definitely not a default, but I can see how it could look that way. We’ve wanted to do it for a long time, but it changes the dynamic of the warcaster so a certain amount of parallel development was required. But at the same time, we’re doing warcasters with entourages as well as some pretty crazy alternate configuration. But it’s not practical for us to put EVERY new epic warcaster on a huge base!
The ones that are gaining horses have very specific reasons. Vladd is a Horselord — it’s about time he got a horse, wouldn’t you say? Stryker leads the Cygnar’s 6th Division — the Storm Division. He needs that horse to keep up with all those Storm Lancers. Similarly, Kreoss and Vyross are closely connected with units in their factions that utilize cavalry. The intent with the horse-mounted warcasters is to provide options on these characters that thematically support the armies they are meant to be leading.
But there will be more versions of these characters in the future, and I think some of the other epics coming up definitely have a less expected schtick. I’ve been lobbying to give Siege a tank, but so far, I keep getting shot down…
Dude, you run the place! Siege in a tank, make it so my friend!
Siege in a Tank would make me dump money into Cygnar
If Siege ever gets a tank, he had better be in a “DRIVE ME CLOSER, I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY [Weapon]” pose.
What about a armored car type thing with him leaning out using Havoc as a cricket bat on a poor Khadorian jack
Sorry meant polo.. Am I the only one who imagines Siege with a British accent?
So does this mean I can stop worrying about a mounted Goreshade and start thinking towards a Goreshade Warcaster Unit?
The real question here should be; “why isn’t EVERY warcaster on a horse?”. I mean, what self respecting commander would ever WALK into battle? Walking is for low ranking schmucks
You raise a good point!
Because they all saw Stryker in this new get up and realised they couldn’t compete?
He looks fantastic! That armor is sweet, that expression priceless.
Oh, and the General looks pretty good too.
Why does the powered pony look so angry, is Kreoss’s horse eating from his apple bag or something?
Cover yourself in a chaffing, electrified shell while lugging around four hundred pounds of pissed off warcaster, then send me a picture of your expression.
Touche’.
I like the horses expression. Reminds me of a horse I used to ride when I worked in stables…..no, an actual horse.
I am not sure about the Flag though. I could see him with a shield in that pose, bouncing the shrapnel and bullets off it as he charges in to clobber some poor non-cygnarans.
Possible to do an alternate arm with the kit? if not I guess I will pinch Constance Blaizes to do a conversion….
I really hope they sculpt him flying through the air like that. that’ll be such an imposing model if they stay true to your concepts. now we’ll have to see if he has any new spells…
Very glad to see the longcoat details back. It was definitely not Stryker without them.
I am an ex-Cygnar/Warmachine player. Stryker is one of only two models I kept to remember my time playing the game. Looking at these drawings, I’ll be tempted to pick this up as well!
As a Cygnar player, a Stryker fan and a ginger, i am so very happy how this turned out. I love the final look of the armour, and i’m glad to see you kept his duster. While i already have all five Stryker models, I’ll be ever so happy to add this to my collection.
Also, i noticed he doesn’t seem to have Magnum anywhere on him. Does this mean no more magical ranged weapon on the table? I suppose is Quicksilver MK III is part stormglaive, he’ll still have a ranged attack in his arsenal though. I love the design, and the sketch of the model looks awesome. Thanks!
This.
This is Stryker. This is Cygnar. The last iteration was missing something, it felt more like Iron Man than Warmachine (Hurr hurr.) Unfortunately, now I need to go buy another seven stormlances.
Because THEY WILL BE IN THE TIER, RIGHT?!
And Laddermore? Pretty please?
Looks bloody brilliant. I started Warmachine a gooood, 11 months ago. Frankly this looks brilliant. I only own two casters, P Stryker and E Stryker because they adhere to my playstyles so much.
Ive been excited to see this for a LONG time and recently I was considering trying Kraye but decided not to due to the fact, I wanna play a different playstyle. I can’t wait to own Stryk3r …Looks bloody awesome…Can’t wait to pour over the lore and model…