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Tahu Nuva by Takhamavahu - Flash Fire


Takhamavahu

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AT HIS MIGHTIESTWith the addition of Artahka's new Adptive Armour, no terrain, no climate, no wind or wave will ever be his master.Tahu Nuva emerges to complete his greatest mission and fufil his destiny.For the art contest, FLASH FIRE - CHARACTER DESIGN CONTESTThis version of Tahu has been written of and featured in prose story, but it's never been seen in an official image, so I had to fill in the creative gaps myself.While the comics make it look like he just wanders around in swamp form all day, we've been assured time and again that this is a limitation of the business behind BIONICLE comics. The Toa's Adaptive Armour, in default forme, is said to actually resemble their original Nuva armour and masks, but (I'm afraid I don't have the Greg quote handy) in the colour scheme of their 2008 sets. We don't have an official image of that, and we will probably never get one, but its pretty simple. 2002 Tahu Nuva in 2008 Mistika colours. All that's really ambiguous is the arrangement of those colours.My first instinct of what that would look like would be to replace the red on Tahu Nuva with the darker "metru" red, and the orange with silver. But when I drew it, it was so... bland and dull. So instead I compared the construct of the Mistika set with the 2002 set. The mistika set had silver for the main parts of the arms and legs and a silver body, red feet and mask, black ankles, hands and every other of that particular piece, and red throughout on pieces which didnt seem to have an equivalent in the 2002 set. So, imagining the exact build of the 2002 set I applied the colours. Red feet, red mask, silver body, arms and legs, black hands and every other of that piece (hips, shoulders). and that wasn't quite enough red. The chest armour on the 2002 set didn't seem to have an equivalent on the Mistika set, so I made that red because it looked good and, for a fire guy, there wasn't alot of red on him so far. although the upper-arm armour on the mistika set is silver, silver didnt look any good on the nuva shoulders, and there still wasn't enough red, so I made those red too. when i looked at it (just a rough doodle at this point, it looked awesome. For the record, though you cant really see them in this drawing, I imagine the gears in the shoulders and on the back are black, the neck is black, the stoppers around the gear akles are black, the eyes are lime, like the mistika set, and the face under the mask is dark grey, like the metru head on the mistika set. The hands and those pieces are the 2008 redesign of the part (even though i hated that redesign, this makes is consistent; makes it look like this model could be a set that came out in 2008) and the 3x and 5x length plus rods are light grey instead of black, as is consistent with sets at the time.This entire thought process actually took place a long time ago, and I drew up designs for tahu, as well as unique equivalents for each of the other toa nuva. This drawing in particular, however, was done just for this contest.In this drawing, I made the hand pieces into actual hands, and filled in some of the lego-y holes in his arms and such, but other than that, left it pretty set-looking, which is how I like it, rather than stylized or movieish.Also new, is the fact that the flame in his hand is blue. I don't mean to imply that all his fire is blue now. Hes the toa of fire, he can make it whatever colour he wants, I'm sure. But Where as the old Tahu was bright red and orange, conveying an elemental, primal relationship to his fire powers, the adaptive armour in a darker red, and conservative silver instead of a secondary colour, to me looks more controlled, proffesional, and disciplined. It's a more mature Tahu than he once was. The blue fire looks better with this, I think, because it looks more artificial. Slick and man-made like an indoor grill. something the iron chef would use, to contrast the old tahu, who was hot-tempered and lived on a tropical island where wood burns red and orange and yellow. It shows a matured controll over his power, that in the palm of his hand he can make a cleaner burning flame.Even if I had access to the kinds of digital art programs and things to make a clean professional looking portrait, I don't think I'd use it. I like it when it's all done by hand. Its more real and honest. The spirit of the contest was "quick and dirty" and I did it just so."Tahu himself may be slick and clean, but his world and his mission is not, and the style of the art reflects that. Quick, dirty and scanned at Staples.Artistic justifications and long explainations side, Here he is, a mature Tahu Nuva, facing his greatest task more powerful and in control than ever before.img003small.jpgFull Size mageBecause scanners are weird and confusing, a drawing which was 6 inches tall on paper came out huge in the scan.Your comments are appreciated.If you'd like to support this piece in the contest, you can try out this swell banner:img003_-_copy.jpgYo can also vote for it. That'd be nice too.And if you're interested, here is the Brickshelf Gallery here is the Brickshelf Gallery where I put the image, along with the old drawings I did, back when I came up with the colour arrangements.

Edited by Takhamavahu
Please do not directly display images over 500 KB in filesize; image linkified. -bones
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