Companion

2014 still proves to be a hectic year indeed, but hopefully that's no excuse for slowing down. Here's a little engineer girl with her best friend.

Mechanical Revolt - Miroslav

February and March turned out to be a super busy time at work. Hopefully, I'll be able to show some of the stuff I've done with Magma Studios soon.

In the meantime, I'm glad I managed to sneak some time in for this new bot.

Mechanical Revolt - Zoran

Wanted to take a break from all those studies, and get back to doing some lines. Might draw more of these guys in the future.

Junkyard

First post of the new year, hoping that it'll be a good one for progress. Had these lines lying around for a while and decided to finally finish it up.

On another note, I've come to realize a few things about myself after the Bali Illustration Workshop. I hope with this better understanding, I can work on both my strengths and weaknesses. 2014 will be about finding myself.

Some progress shots below. Happy New Year everyone!

Back to Work

I've been distracted, lazy, unmotivated and discouraged. On top of that, military obligations and freelance took up a chunk of my time. I'm hoping to get back into it soon enough..

Robot 7546 - Reventlov

Tried bashing some photo-textures to create yet another robot, which I have named Reventlov after reading some of Asimov's novels. No direct relation to the real R. Giskard Reventlov however. I started this by being particularly inspired by the designs of Elysium, but got deflated halfway. As always, I obsessed over silly things.

Non-Tactical Halt

This painting has been a work-in-progress for quite a while now. Had to seek some advice from various friends as I was stuck on numerous occasions. All in all, it was a good learning experience I guess. I really have to develop a more discerning eye for values. Thanks Nana and Jan!

Also, made the stupidest mistake of saving this at 1000px and overwriting my working file. I'm gonna have to repaint this at a higher resolution one day.

Another Disposable Bot

Another one of those silly bots. Every time I work on something, I realize how much I'm lacking in so many areas. Lots to work on..

Disposable Soldiers

Some robotic soldiers based off current DARPA stuff. This went out of control and took way longer than I would have liked. The results aren't satisfactory either.

Things always look promising in the thumbnail stage.

Radio-Controlled Recon Bot

I guess this one is in the same vein as Sgt. Killbot McJoy from the previous post. While playing with thumbnails earlier today, I somehow decided to develop this little guy. I enjoyed rendering him a lot, and I thought this bot had some personality somehow.

During the process, I kicked myself for subconsciously adding parts from Kow Yokoyama's mechs. Tried my best to come up with my own solutions, albeit being a tad simplistic at it.

Sgt. Killbot McJoy

This was really supposed to be a quick sketch but I got way too carried away. I also got trapped by stupid things like the legs, which didn't get solved in the end.

Anyway, this here is Sgt. Killbot McJoy. He's a rather polite chap. Well, if you're gonna kill somebody, might as well be diplomatic about it.

Sand Patrol Drone

I got distracted from my 'training' sketchbook and did this instead. I really should stop drawing robots for a while, especially humanoid ones!

This guy is supposed to be travelling around the desert in squads, keeping an eye out for unsavoury characters. Shoulders and legs are always a problem for me, and I doubt I managed to make them convincing enough. I did enjoy making the head and neck portion though.

Decided not to render it fully, in the interest of time. I need to get back to that sketchbook..

Desert Shock Trooper Sketch

This was more like an experiment in sketching forms and making it somewhat presentable in a short time. I haven't solved all the surfaces and functionality, but it was just fun messing around.

This time round, I was channelling some Maschinen Krieger colourways.

Feudal Future- Shinobi

It's been awhile since I've worked on some personal art. 2013 turned out to be busier than I expected and I found myself unable to finish anything worth showing.

Anyhow, I thought I'd add on to my Feudal Future lineup with this cyborg. Looking at all the Last Man Standing (Danny Luvisi) art on Facebook, I wanted to force myself to render a little tighter without the help of textures.

Sadly after many painful hours, I don't think I achieved that much. On hindsight, I also realized that I must have been channelling my inner urge to play Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

Oh well, I don't own a console anymore.

Magma Crawler

Here's another one of those that started with me being full of optimism, only to be deflated halfway. I usually find myself lost the moment I start to paint something up. At first, this seemed like quite an interesting lighting situation. However, it proved to be a huge challenge.

Anyhow, I decided to wrap it up and leave the lines in. I'm moving on.

SAC2 Enforcer Class

A random silhouette doodle that turned into another mech. I really wanted to push the badass-ness of this guy with his proportions. Looking back, I've been doing quite a number of pretty cartoony stuff and I wanted to do the opposite. I guess I'm still trying to find my own skin.

Yesterday was a low point for me in terms of my progress in art. But it was a good clear reminder that the weaker you are at something, the harder you have to work at it.

See you guys at the finish line.

Utility Robot

Finally dug out and hooked up my $25 scanner to scan this guy from my sketchbook. Just felt like he could use some colour. Technically, this is pretty riddled with errors, but I find it really refreshing to throw some caution to the wind to loosen up a little.

Somehow, painting him in yellow reminds me so much of Scud: The Disposable Assassin.

Beast of Burden

I wanted to try designing something non-humanoid for a change. Studied a few camels for this one, before proceeding with a sketch and trying out a kitbashing method to flesh out the mechanical parts. I also tried to avoid over-rendering the entire thing, spending most of my time on the head and the front leg.

I keep telling myself to draw more, but I always end up painting instead. Therefore, I shall vow that the next post be purely lines.

Cybernetic Gorilla Prototype

This was definitely inspired by the works of Ben Mauro and Aaron Beck. I've always envied how they made their art so believable, as if their creations were top-secret government projects locked deep underground somewhere. I also took a quick look at how Daarken paints his fur, finally giving me the courage to use Pen Pressure for my Opacity Jitter setting.

I have to say that playing with some Lego Technics lately gave me a slightly better understanding of the construction of things. Oh, and I love drawing gorillas.

Feudal Future - Ronin

Realized I had a sketch of this guy lying around, so I decided to finish him up and complete the Feudal Future trio for now. I rather enjoyed going back to this theme, especially with this Ronin.

In case you missed the previous two, here's the lineup thus far.

Maybe I'll do more in the future!