I had originally posted this in the general board because I was looking for reference, but I'm just going to start putting updates here. Anyway, here's my dilemma. A rough sketch started becoming tighter and I like the way it's turning out, except for the fact that I can't fit in Soundwave's right leg without making it look odd. I wanted to have SW straddling Blaster but didn't realize my error in judgement - their legs and arms are so big, a pose like this is hard to make believable. If anyone has any advice that'd be great. I hope to add in Lazerbeak and the other Blaster casettes all kind of attacking Soundwave as he's about to deck Blaster. I wanted it to look a little more like the cartoon, rather than have the more stylized anime look (where their legs are longer, with bigger limbs). I kind of like it when they look like they could actually turn into whatever it is they turn into (I feel the bigger limbs sometimes just doesn't make any sense...relatively speaking).
Can you have Soundwave pinning Blaster down with a knee as opposed to straddling? Just a thought. Cool idea though hope it turns out.
Lol I'm afraid that might be more awkward. Like, if Soundwave has both of his knees down, his torso is going to be very low to the tround unless i stretch the legs (which I'd rather not do). So his legs would probably pretty close together. If Blaster is to be in a position where Soundwave can punch him, I think that his shoulders/Soundwaves legs would be practically occupying the same space, which is kind of what's happening now. I'm thinking about shifting Blaster somehow so that his head is popping between Soundwave's legs but his torso is shifting to the side or something...lol should've thought this through. Well, I'm off to find better references of Blaster's casettes. I think I misspoke and said lazerbeak was going to be there but I probably meant Steeljaw (and Ramhorn, Eject, and Rewind...ah I think I'm finally getting the hang of this).
Why not have the ground in the left of the picture dropping away (like a crater or something) so there is enough space for soundwaves right leg to stretch out more? Nice work by the way.
Ugh, you know, it just looks so lifeless. I'm just going to draw two dudes fighting and fight the transformers around them, instead of trying to stay so true to the toys/cartoons. I was against making their limbs and stuff so stylized but the picture needs more oomph. Will update later.
Redid the pose...it was just too confusing and this will be more dynamic anyway...does anything look odd/out of place? I'm struggling a bit with his little play buton area (though it's so much easier after I started sticking to my reference more, aka, me acting like an idiot in front of a mirror).
Ok, so, I changed Blaster's pose and I think it looks more dynamic. Some composition critiques caused me to tilt the composition, which I really liked, though I might have tilted it a little tooo much (which is easily fixable until I do the final penwork). A friend showed me that it might add some depth by adding more foreground/background elements so I threw Ravage up front, and added in some of the other cassette robots (Blaster's Eject, and soundwave's Rumble, Frenzy, and Laserbeak). The only thing that's kind of bothering me is that Soundwave kind of looks like he's falling over but I think it's just because I tilted the picture too much. How is it looking from a hardcore Transformer fans' perspective? I pretty much taught myself everything I could about TF in the past week. Before this assignment I knew little about Soundwave, Optimus Prime, the Matrix of Leadership, what the hell energon is, Unicron, Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime...but now I feel like I've known these characters forever and I've instantly fallen in love with them! I wish I was a little older so I could've enjoyed this as a child!
update: I'm a little disappointed with how it's looking at smaller sizes but oh well. That's what it looked like last night and I know it might look way too dark...trying to fix that. Oh well. No sleep for me tonight! So much to do. I'm fairly happy with how it's coming out so far though. My sometimes inconsistent shapes don't seem to be as noticeable as I first thought.
You'll see at the very latest by 8:30 this morning, haha...man I'm freaking out. I just realized how little thought I put into the background. I'm trying to make it kind of like the cartoon where it looks more painterly but I'll be damned if Ravage looks like he's floating. And here I am, some-odd hours later, still awake. It's still not finished in the sense that I want it to be...lacking some details on Soundwave's shoulders, background is a little questionable, especially around Rumble and where the plain starts changing into the mountains. Still some linework that I didn't get to clean up as much as I'd hoped...anyway I'll be on later to expalin everything that I think is wrong with it . Could just use some more time in the oven is all. In the meantime, try to get past any technical crap and enjoy robots fighting each other in a wasteland.
Bump (in case no one thought it had been updated) Anyway, yeah. I have a laundry list of complaints about it...I didn't really capture that metal Transformers feel because the colors weren't flat enough...the lighting feels a little inconsistent in terms of temperature. Blaster's left 'knee' looks pretty bad. The background is questionable. The mountainy things should be cooler (bluer). I'm missing a few details on Soundwave's arms and stuff. Ravage could be popped out a little more. I want to set Eject back a bit color wise so him and Laserbeak aren't directly across from each other in space. Eject's arms aren't drawn horribly well. Other than that I'm pretty happy with it, haha. It looks a lot better than I thought it was going to look like! I think I might take a stab at recoloring it and do more of a flatshading technique. Hope you guys like it.
I think ravage and the foreground are pretty spot on - maybe a bit of shadowing under ravage needed? There definately needs to be a stronger line between the foreground plain and the mountains - maybe a treeline?
Dude the foreground of this picture up to soundwave and blaster are great like the details and everything else are unbelievable except for Blaster's knee that you mentioned. Also, i think soundwaves head looks a bit too curvy, almost looks like a helmet. Anyways, as far as the background, i think it needs some green and the sky a bit darker. Now, if you add green Rumble will seem out of proportion since he will be too big to be far, but too undetailed to be close. Also, just add a little splash of darker brown throughout the mountains for extra touching up and a Decepticon symbol on lazerbeak. Well this picture is awesome but blaster is outnumbered.. thats not kool! haha
