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TomParrish — Mecha Lines
Published: 2011-08-03 09:01:04 +0000 UTC; Views: 1108; Favourites: 30; Downloads: 0
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Description
A bit of a fun one that started out as a doodle on a post-it whilst I was on the phone. I haven't drawn mecha in a looooong time, but it's the love of giant robots that pretty much got me into drawing in the first place, so I wanted to see if I could still do a decent job or not.Took a bit longer than I had intended to spend (as I'm working on sequential pages and ink samples at the moment as ever) but once I got going on detailing I couldn't stop - Pringles style!
Gonna get onto painting this up when I get chance - I ended up spending quite a while trying to clean the pencils scan and have concluded that 2H/3H lead just hates being scanned. No matter how dark and even the lines on the board are, they always seem to be a nightmare to balance in Photoshop!
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Comments: 42
He he, cheers homes! Now to work out how to paint the thing....
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Well it's either that or a pack of the old Crayolas!
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Where can I still buy poster paint??
He he, I'm torn tbh as to how to start with this one - most painting work I'd tend to do a greyscale under paint first, but with this being so panelled and tight I wonder whether it'd be best to go with the traditional comic book flats route and then render from there. Whatdya reckon?
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Traditional route. Flats then render, you'll be able to get a much sharper look. You could do a grey scale render like this, then drop colour layers down... that would work
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Seriously dude, it's about fucking time! This is incredible! So tight! Why aren't you drawing them more often anymore?
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He he, cheers Mark! I think tbh I just went off them for a while and realised I was type-casting myself a bit with the whole 'giant robots' thing for quite a while. Between my day to day work and inking I don't really have time to draw half of the things I'd like to, so it's just a case of trying to keep doing bits from time to time and keep all the balls in the air, so to speak!
*Sigh* I do LOVE the mecha though, just one more wouldn't hurt, right? *scratches nervously like a junkie*
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yup, hey bro..
do you finished this by using pencil ?
im just want to know haha
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I did dude, although normally I'd ink something like this.
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wow i think i should get more advice from you
its awesome cool
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Feel free to ask away man and I'll do my best to answer!
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ohh...thank you very much
this is cool
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Really nice lines, man. Tech is a tough thing to do as well as this.
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Cheers Doug! It's weird that I've always found it easier to visualise and design mecha and robots that I have people... I'm sure Freud would probably have something to say about this, and no doubt he would also think that it involved my mother...
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First up, that's sick. Second, if you want a nice scan friendly line, go with an HB. With mechanical pencils I use a 0.5 lead for the medium and thin stuff and a 0.7 for the bold lines. Be careful though. HB is pretty soft does tend to smudge much more easily. I tend to have to do a cleanup run with an eraser stick at the end.
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Thanks Matt! I'm always torn by pencil hardness.. I like the darker line that an H gives, but the smudging and the constant sharpening tend to really grate me. I've started using Col-Erases and the light box a lot more so very little construction goes on the actual board now (and tracing paper and the lightbox have also proved very useful for adding stuff later) so maybe I could get away with it. I've got a box of F leads so I may try them on the next one!
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SWEET...all kinds of amazing stuff going on there... if there's one thing I would suggest...and I'm nit-picking here: the back thigh is small in comparison to the front... I think if it were beefed up this piece would be beyond amazing... feel free to hate on me
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Arrrgh! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'VE SAID THAT!! FLAME FLAME *RANT RANT RANT* FLAME!!!
He he, I agree with you man, I've tried a little too hard with the foreshortening (or rather haven't made the right arm small enough to match) so it does seem a little underweight. I actually added more 'meat' to it when tightening up but, like some many times, I should have stepped back a bit more and taken it in as a whole to see the weighting was off. Ironically the post-it I scribbled the thumbnail on with a Sharpie whilst I was on the phone looked way more balanced, so something got lost in translation I think lol.
Pleased that you like though it dude
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It's seriously awesome... I couldn't begin to comprehend how to go about even thinking of trying to draw something like that... It would drive me crazy just trying to ink it much less figure out how to draw it...? Also, I like constantly being made aware that I'm the one inker in the world who can't draw... (without stacks & stacks of reference, way more time than it should take to draw something 4x4 inches, and then only about 25% of the time I can manage something decent)... I bow to your way cool artistic skills, sir...
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You are faaaar to kind sir - infact I INSIST that you take back at least a modicum of your compliments! lol, I agree though man I would not want to ink this - more often than not with techy stuff like this it's all template and micron work and there's no real 'inking' involved, just tracing. I think tbh that's what put me off inking for so many years: I drew Transformers and mecha stuff and then was loathed to trace my own images in ink. I still dislike inking my own work, but that probably stems more from not liking my own artwork lol. But then one fateful day I picked up a brush and a couple of Lan Medina pages (at least, I think they were pretty much my first pages!) and the rest is, as they say, history...
I've always found robots easier to draw that people though man, I think it's probably because you can simplify them right down to just boxes and tubes and the like, and then just detail the crap out of it - whereas with people you've got to try and capture expression and likenesses. Robots rule!
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I'll make you a deal: if you pencil a super-badass Optimus Prime (and I KNOW you can), I will ink the hell out of it-!!!
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That, my friend, sounds like an excellent plan! Been a while since I drew 'Prime (heck, any Transformers!) but definitely up for the challenge!
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Mua ha ha ha ha...excellent... email me a hirez whenever and I'll try my best to make time for it...
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Will keep you posted bud, gotta work out when to fit it in at this end too
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take your time, man, whenever is good.
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Man, I'm totally impressed right now: I've tried drawing Robots like this and it is NOT easy. You made it look VERY easy.
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Well I don't know about making it look VERY easy but... hee he! Thanks bud. In many ways they're way easier to draw than superheroes and what not, but they can also be an absolute swine as it's very noticeable when something doesn't quite add up. I think this is just technical drawing from my school days shining through tbh...sigh, I shoulda been an engineer!
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Thanks Carl! It's always a massive challenge to try and get them to look any good on the screen though - One of the things I definitely prefer about inking is that scanning is a very simple job!
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Hey heyyy freakawesome you have hide draw powers hehe amazing Tom.
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He he he, cheers Jonas! I try to draw as often as I can, but the brushes often call to me...
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Hey dot lose your draw Tom, this help much you soon with your inks.
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Hell yeah! Particularly when sometimes the pencils need a little help to look even more awesome
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