Waga na wa Sänger Zonvolt

Sanger's Grungust Sanshiki. Started this way back before it actually got busted... The Type 3 is way better than the Type 1 and 2, so I was hoping I would be given one of the two available, but nooo, they both get murdered by the plot.

I was kind of happy with how it came out, until I realised that I couldn't find good reference for the details like the shoulders and head spikes, spent ages trying to make stuff up and fixing minor issues until I got bored, spent ages more doing some pretty lazy shading, and then spent an hour or so doing some decent lighting on top. Looks a bit funky in the end...

Gundam MkII

So, I started watching Zeta Gundam ages ago. "Awesome!", I thought, "this will inspire me to do some mecha fanart practice type stuff. I'll just draw the ones I like as they turn up in the series."

So, now that I've finished watching the entire series, here's one from the first episode!

The MkII is probably my favourite Gundam design. Even though it's the oldest after the original one, the detail still stands up now, and doesn't bother with weird gimmicks (ignoring the daft G-Defenser). Plus, I'm a sucker for underdog mecha, and the MkII is outclassed by everything other than grunt mecha from the moment it starts being used, yet still survives the series (and ZZ too!). And so on.

I think I've gotten the hang of layout out mecha parts now - previously I was having trouble turning bones into individual parts, but rendering each jointed part as boxes and then sketching in the details seems to work better (although it's somewhat time consuming).

So far this took:
2 hours for the layout (could have been faster, I got caught up in the details as usual, plus i couldn't settle on a pose)
3-4 hours for the rough sketch (which looks much like the lineart here, but with piles of corrections and random line widths)
4-5 hours for the lineart (2x resolution of the rough, otherwise it would have been faster).

I'm not actually sure about the times, since I kept doing it while tired and was getting distracted, but it was way too long... still, at least it looks like a good chunk of time went into it.

Random mecha - Gaiking

Daikuu Maryuu Gaiking. I loved this, back in the day (it was the only actual mecha show I saw as a kid)... the remake is pretty awesome too, keeping the original designs and adding a lot of stuff.

I liked this picture as I was doing it, but as usual, after I finished I realised that the perspective kind of petered out suddenly. I sketched it properly, but the head was just a doodle and I went off on a tangent when I drew it... if I just sized it down and angled it back a bit it might pass, but its not worthwhile. Still, really gotta break that bad habit...

Random mecha - Gespenst

CALL GESPENST!

About time I did something from SRW. I like the head, but I made my usual mistake of a) drawing everything without sketching it and b) doing so while zoomed in too much, so... fat Gespenst. The arm is a bit lame too. I could have repaired it easily enough, but really, its not worth rescuing.

I like the design of it, but it seriously sucks ingame... it gets given to your crappy pilots, it's stats are bad anyway, it has rubbish movement, can't fly, and since it's a deathtrap you're not going to give it any good weapons. Even the specialised versions are lame compared to pretty much anything else you have... which is a pity because mass-produced units make a nice change from "everything is the ultimate robot" designs.

Random mecha - The Hatter

YES!

LET'S BURNING JUSTICE!

ROLLING STAAAAAAAAAAAAART!

FINISH!

THAAAANK YOOOOOOOOU! VERY MUCH.

Random mecha - Aestivalis

An Aestivalis. Wasn't coming out as I wanted it to, so I just did a quick + dirty colour job and left it. I'm kinda rubbish at mecha heads - much like drawing a human head, if you mess up the positioning or spacing of elements, it ends up with a kind of "inbred" feeling to it. The body's ok, perspective is kinda ok, but neither are what I was originally going for.

Heh, just as I'm typing this, "The Aestivalis March" started playing on my playlist.


I hardly draw any mecha stuff because it takes me so long, so I'm going to spend a while doing some doodle-quality stuff (but more of it).

Unfinished GM

Tired

Hot

Sick

:(


Tried doing some painty stuff in Sai, but couldn't see how to get it to do what I wanted it to without spending a month on it. Do people really paint over the whole layer a million times, even when shading block areas? Seems like too much of a pain in the ass to me... or I just don't have the patience for it. Might try it again in Photoshop though.

Alt Reisen

lol regular posting


This arose from a terrible pun someone made about "Alt Eisen" from SRW and "Reisen" from Touhou. Wasn't terribly high-effort, and looks ok for it, although it took FOREVER anyway.

This is also the first lineart I've done in PaintTool SAI - usually I can't be bothered with picking up new software, but Photoshop's lineart was bugging me for a long time, and SAI is pretty awesome (and uses shortcuts which are almost identical to Photoshop).

Black Magic MA-77

The MA-77 anti-tank marionette from Masamune Shirow's "Black Magic". I only left myself about 20 minutes to do this so its pretty rough. The fact that it has 8 limbs doesn't help...

The general idea was to have it looking as "human" as possible, despite the fact that the only human elements are the face, rough torso shape and legs, to try to capture the freaky "doll" feeling of the original. I actually prefer Shirow's old stuff, where he drew slightly weird mecha with vague (I mean imperfectly-designed) concepts, as opposed to his current stuff where he draws super-designed mecha which don't leave much room for imagination (along with increasingly ridiculous numbers of girls who are a skirt short of an outfit... just sayin'). His stories are still awesome though.

It's surprisingly hard to do something with 6 arms which don't have hands. If I take this any further, I'll probably redo all the arms (with some actual planning this time), along with the head.

GANDAMOOOO, GANDAMOO

Random mecha (if the Gundam can be considered "random" and not "default"). It was going to be a quick torso but it turned into a slightly more detailed perspective head instead.

I mirrored a few lines since I was in a hurry, but I mostly drew everything twice for line practice (it used to take me hundreds of attempts to get smooth lines, this time I got it in maybe 2-3 tries... I must be improving).

I totally can't draw its 'mouth' though...

Bugbot ver Isa

This is my take on the bugbot posted earlier. Somehow it became an anime version.

Actually, maybe it looks a bit like Cell :O

Four-eyes robo

Trying to get faster at this painting thing. This one took about an hour or so...

Started with just the idea of a robot with four red eyes, and somehow it managed to develop into this.

Why am I not sleeping? :(

Robotzz

Here is a illustration I did for a friend who writes a weekly column for IGN. He needs different poses every week. Thats going to be a lot of drawings. Well it will help me practice, especially on inking, colour theory and stuff.

She's Lost Control

Finished up the Cypher image today. Should have planned out the pose better, you can't really see it so well in that lighting... But I'm pretty happy with how the lighting plays off it's features.

Aim for the Top~

Rats, this wasn't supposed to be a filler day AGAIN, but its turned into one. Um... have a Gunbuster doodle. Good thing I have plenty of not-awful-but-never-finished stuff...

Also, Studio Nue = <3

You got heavy damage!

This time it's Cypher from Virtual-On Oratorio Trangram.

Still in progress... don't usually paint like this, so it was a lot slower than I would have liked. I'll put the finished one up another day (that's not cheating, right?)

Bri

Briareos from Appleseed, since I just got the last 2 books (Databook and ID). Shouldn't have bothered trying his weird insect-like armour since I was in a hurry, although its ok for the time spent. Pity about his weird slouch.

Also, notice how I scribbled on it a bit since that's how you draw Shirow stuff.