Random stuff I did this weekend.

Hotline Miami 2.

Lt Snake, drawn in the style of Yoji Shinkawa.

Donkey Kong, Donkey in a lab coat is to funny to pass up on.

Here is the progression gif I made to sort of prove that it was painted. But you might find it interesting. 

The Mech

Done.

After some more advice I ended up removing the pink rabbit as a whole from the picture and expanded the canvas. Reasons for this is that the pink one grabbed almost to much attention, this is a typical kill your darling situation but fear not. I can reuse that one in a image that would benefit that one much more and try making that one the centerpiece instead. The main reason why I had the extra mech in the first place was because I needed something to give more weight on right side of the image, it was to narrow without it there. However expanding the canvas more on the right actually ended up balancing the image out and helped out a lot, so thanks for the help whoever you are, it really helped.

I am going to touch up some really small areas, and then, finally. I will be done.

And as for the pink mech.

This is the current idea. I will probably revisit it in the future.

Placement problems, the Pink one looks like it is in front of the blue. I got some tips on how to fix it and ended up moving it down a bit, blurring it a little and then I painted some seagulls flying between them. However I suspect that there is a "problem" zone located between the head of the pink one and shoulder of the E-type.

Fixed some colours and shapes. I know I am saying this a lot, but I am probably going to leave this for now. And take a look at it with fresh eyes.

Not that much work done, celebrating Easter here in Sweden at the moment. But a kind fellow pointed out that you could mistake the  pink mech for standing in front of the blue one. So I fixed the placement a bit. I am going to soften up the edges and make a quick pass over the colours.

Well, I am happy with most things. I'll make a pass tomorrow fixing up the background and the other mech.

Feels like I've been bug fixing and rewriting code. After retouching the pilots I notice that the girl is way smaller than the boy and have to fix that. Other than that I am nearing my limit for this one.

All right, I feel most things are sorted out now, Time for polishing!

Short about the mechs. I love to make up a narrative if it would be its own stand alone product (in this case, an anime). Sadly this also adds to the time I put into the works I do. However I do believe that well thought out concepts, and being precises about stuff and details adds another layer of quality, and I feel like it is a balancing issue whether to tell about it or not. On one hand, it would make it more interesting to see the some of my thoughts and the other hand it would just be me going "please understand" and "I swear I am smart!" and I really dislike that.

I don't want to spell it out loud, but the scenery is not earth and the mechs are based on hand me downs from a certain faction. I have a buttload of sketches laying around which I will scan in.

Sorted out some stuff that was bothering me perspective wise with the ground and sea, might look over that again during then polish. Also sorted out the Gunlance, dolled it up in a Karasawa MK II fashion. Just cramming references left and right!

Stuff left to do:

• Fix the Legs and Hips on Kaguyabot
• Fix the Arms on Kaguyabot
• Polish

All right, we are getting there, I've made a list of small goals that I need to fulfill and then I am done for once.

Tonights jingle that is playing is this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8GS0DndzQI

Still hammering.

Well, this is turning out to be the biggest project I've done yet. Anyway, the main shapes for the rabbit mech feels good, so it's over to hammering and fine tuning it. I am trying to keep the value range fairly limited so It can "disappear" into the background.

Ok, we are back again. basically what happened was that I ran into a wall with the design of the second mech. And the way I solved it was by trying to sketch it up on paper in different perspective to find out what I felt was wrong. After a few pages I came to the conclusion that it is the head that is putting me off balance which I initially thought was the backpacks fault. I always got stuck when I got to sketching the head. So since I already have a animal + samurai theme and that I wanted to make some really subtle face-slapping pointers towards a Moon Rabbit. I decided to look up some female samurais, namely Onna bugeisha (thanks Shogun 2), and draw some inspiration from that and then lift some ideas from the story of princess Kaguya. 

So with that in mind I when back to the drawing board, made the neck area smaller, and reworked the main "gimmick". If I get the time I can post some of the sketches.

Moved the other mech a bit and dampening the colours of it since it's supposed to be farther away.

Ok, the design problem I had with the mech picture is actually that I started to design another one to weigh up the picture. This mech is more round in it's shapes and is more inspired by a rabbit. I also wanted it to feel more female and I did that by giving it a female shaped hip joints. I plan on finishing this up this weekend. I can post sketches of the other one tomorrow.

For the update process, I will not update the previous post until I am done, instead I will update in this one.

You can find that here: http://joakimduell.blogspot.se/2015/01/mech.html

Boobplate

Another update. I am trying to bring forth the attributes of the dress by incorporating shapes and accessories that put an emphasis of the gravity and how it will look in motion. I am still not sure about the helmet, but I feel a roman type mixed with a sallet would be very fitting.

I've had this design in my head after seeing a friend of mine getting a comment about boobplates. I have nothing against it honestly, I think it's fair game to use anything in your designs as long as it is in good taste. And taste is entirely subjective. So I wanted to combine two things really, a summer dress and a boobplate. And see if I could get something out of it.