G A C #18: Swarm Of The Century

[Aanchir]

The Mane Six Toa Mata fighting the Parasprites Bohrok. Oh, also everyone is ponies.

Click for fullsize:



Process:

Can't remember what inspired me to draw the Toa Mata in the style of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but certainly BIONICLEsector01's April Fools Day prank (in which various characters' images and quotes were replaced with ones from MLP:FiM characters) inspired me to finish this drawing and enter it in this contest.

My original concept would have been simply the black-and-white graphite lineart (too many of my drawings have been ruined by sloppy inking). When color entries started to show up and put my drawing to shame, I decided to digitally edit the lineart with a simple color filter over each of the Toa Mata and Bohrok. I decided this detracted from the drama of the image slightly and decided I'd also put a similar filter over each Toa Mata's elemental powers.

However, when this proved tedious and difficult, I realized I might as well just print out the original black-and-white lineart and do the same thing manually using watercolors. Then I couldn't find my watercolors so I created a more detailed draft in simple colored pencil. For a while I was unsure what to do with the sky, but I eventually decided on spiralling red thunderclouds inspired by Mike Rayhawk's Knights' Kingdom comics.

I worked on this for about a month, and actually had it finished before this contest's original deadline. I had hoped to try coloring it in some different media (namely the watercolors I had originally intended) to see what look I liked best, but again I couldn't find my watercolors and eventually decided my "draft" was good enough to be my final entry.

Thoughts? Comments? Criticism? If you like this entry, give it your support in GAC #18!

Edited March 26, 2014 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[Meiko]

That's cool. I like the idea of the Bohrok-Parasprites crossover. I like Kopaka's pony a lot, but Onua is so cool. :DGood job.

[Darcsyde]

Oh my gosh, YES.I love how all the toa fit so well into the different types of ponies.

[Takuma Nuva]

I'm not too much of an art person so I can only give a basic review of this. However, I will say that I really love it.The bohrok really do make perfect parasprites and the eyes work in a humorous way. They almost look like Kirbys to an extent. d= Except for the Lehvak. Looks like a Furby to me for some reason. :fear:At first, I was a bit surprised that you made Gali a Pegasus. However, if you were going for the 2, 2, and 2 like the Mane Six, then I agree that you probably chose the best arrangement. If anything, I might swap her with Tahu.Anyways, great job.

«Takuma Nuva»

[Aanchir]

I'm not too much of an art person so I can only give a basic review of this. However, I will say that I really love it.The bohrok really do make perfect parasprites and the eyes work in a humorous way. They almost look like Kirbys to an extent. d= Except for the Lehvak. Looks like a Furby to me for some reason. :fear:At first, I was a bit surprised that you made Gali a Pegasus. However, if you were going for the 2, 2, and 2 like the Mane Six, then I agree that you probably chose the best arrangement. If anything, I might swap her with Tahu.Anyways, great job. «Takuma Nuva»

I'm glad you think the Bohrok make good Parasprites! I thought it was a natural fit given their story role as destroyers-of-everything, but I wasn't sure how it would carry over in a drawing, especially when I realized how much smaller Bohrok shields are than Parasprite wings relative to the bodies. I tried to give the Bohrok more cartoony facial expressions and threw in a bit of cartoon physics, like how Lehvak is squished into an oblong shape by the force of Pohatu's kick. It does make it look a bit off-model, as does its exaggerated expression, but I think it helps put emphasis on Pohatu's lower body strength.Choosing which types of ponies corresponded to which Toa Mata was a bit tricky. I decided to make Tahu and Kopaka unicorns because of the sword motif. Onua was an obvious earth pony. That left Gali, Lewa, and Pohatu. I knew from the start I didn't want to make Gali a sea pony because I felt having her travel by wave or column of water would be a bit contrived and would make her stand out too much from the team. I decided to make Pohatu an earth pony (another natural fit) and the other two pegasi since the pegasi are concerned with weather control, which fits both water and air pretty well.This was very fun to draw, and I'm glad you like it!

[Roablin]

That's very cool, a fantastic Bionicle/MLP crossover. I especially like the poses, they seem natural and action packed. The only thing I can find to criticize is the sky; it seems a little intense and unrecognizable. Although I really like the elements around Kopaka's sword, and that takes up most of the sky. The whole thing is a real pleasure to look at.

[Aanchir]

That's very cool, a fantastic Bionicle/MLP crossover. I especially like the poses, they seem natural and action packed. The only thing I can find to criticize is the sky; it seems a little intense and unrecognizable. Although I really like the elements around Kopaka's sword, and that takes up most of the sky. The whole thing is a real pleasure to look at.

The sky was the last part I did. For the rest of the drawing I did the lineart in graphite before scanning the drawing for the first time, since I expected to color it digitally and thus figured I could just use a digital gradient for it. However, when I had printed a new copy and colored it with colored pencil I realized that I would want to do the sky in physical media as well.I don't have much experience drawing clouds, and my attempts at doing a simpler sheet of clouds ended up looking really artificial compared to the rest of the drawing's high detail. I also had trouble choosing colors-- since I had chosen to make the rocks gray already, I couldn't just do gray clouds without the mountains on the right blending in. I had thought circling red clouds like Mike Rayhawk's would work for the drawing, but I suppose I just didn't have enough sky to work with and it ended up cluttering the background more than anything else.

[zerack: the rogue]

This is pretty awesome. You pulled off the Bionicle Pony look very well I love how you incorporated their weapons into the pony forms, and the Bohrok really look like parasprites. I have to say though, the first thing I looked for was a cutie mark, and all the Toa Mata are blank flanks. I had a nice laugh about that one. Do you plan on doing any other toa teams as ponies? Cause I think that'd be an awesome little side project if you had the free time.

[Aanchir]

This is pretty awesome. You pulled off the Bionicle Pony look very well I love how you incorporated their weapons into the pony forms, and the Bohrok really look like parasprites. I have to say though, the first thing I looked for was a cutie mark, and all the Toa Mata are blank flanks. I had a nice laugh about that one. Do you plan on doing any other toa teams as ponies? Cause I think that'd be an awesome little side project if you had the free time.

Hey! Sorry it wasn't evident in this pic, but I did give each of the Toa Mata a cutie mark (the element symbols from the MNOG). Kopaka's, Pohatu's, and Tahu's are all visible on their black "hip joints". Gali's doesn't show up because her wing covers it up, and Onua's and Lewa's don't show up because we only see each one's inner flank, not their outer flank. A picture of regular ponies in those poses might show at least a partial cutie mark because their flanks are curved, but since the hip joints here have flat, blocky sides just like the real pieces, that effect was lost.Other Toa teams as ponies would be a fun experiment, but part of the reason I chose the Toa Mata in particular (besides the BS01 April Fools Day prank) is because there are so many Toa Mata parts that are just the right shapes to work as pony parts. On one of my shelves I even have a MOC of a Tahu pony based on this drawing, with slight modifications. The rear leg designs here can't be built without modifying pieces, though to be honest I think the rear legs on my MOC look better and I would have used that design if I had finished the MOC before I finished the drawing.That doesn't necessarily mean I won't try imagining other BIONICLE ponies in the future! Makuta changelings, anyone?

[Kaleidoscope Tekulo]

My little toaMy little toaaaa-Aaa-AAA-AAAAMy little toa. I used to wonder what were kanohiMy little toaUntil you all joined in unityBig adventureLewa's funRetrieving masksOnua's strongMoving mountainsis an easy featAnd duty makes it all completeMy little toaDid you know Makuta is a bad FRIEEEEEEND?-cough-Nice designs. I'm glad to see the toa themselves are less of a pony design. They're actually some of the better Bionicle/Pony crossovers I've seen. The background itself is nicely done, and the detail in the rocks looks especially nice. There's a lot going on in this one, but it's actually pretty nice to look at the different scenes one at a time. The coloring could be filled in a little more for darker, fuller colors in some areas, though it's really not too pale (something I struggle with when scanning colored pencil works). Anyway, this is a pretty interesting work. Good luck in the contest!

[MrSciFiGuy]

My gosh...ponies. It gotta admit, any time I see pony bionicle art, its very well done. Great use of Tahu's horn XD and the bohrok are just plain awesome

[Aanchir]

Nice designs. I'm glad to see the toa themselves are less of a pony design. They're actually some of the better Bionicle/Pony crossovers I've seen. The background itself is nicely done, and the detail in the rocks looks especially nice. There's a lot going on in this one, but it's actually pretty nice to look at the different scenes one at a time.

Glad to hear you think that. I don't have much experience with backgrounds so I was worried the rocks would look too "artificial".

The coloring could be filled in a little more for darker, fuller colors in some areas, though it's really not too pale (something I struggle with when scanning colored pencil works).

Part of the reason the colors are like this, I realized after posting it, is probably because I was adding the colors using the tip of the pencils rather than the side. I'm afraid it'll be a long time before I break the habit of holding pencils like I'm writing when I go to draw and/or color something.Also, since this was originally just a draft, I sort of scribbled over the lineart rather than coloring inside the lines, so I was reluctant to make the colors too dark and risk obscuring the lineart. Bad Aanchir! Bad!In the future I will try to color darker on things I plan to post online.

Anyway, this is a pretty interesting work. Good luck in the contest!

Thank you!

My gosh...ponies. It gotta admit, any time I see pony bionicle art, its very well done. Great use of Tahu's horn XD and the bohrok are just plain awesome

I'm flattered to hear that both of you think this crossover worked out well! I definitely don't have nearly the creative talent as some of the artists who have done MLP-style BIONICLE/pony crossovers, but it's nice to hear that my higher-detail, more BIONICLE-style character designs worked out well. Edited May 16, 2012 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[Lyichir]

I voted for this in Preliminary Poll A! I may have been biased, having seen this piece progress from concept to execution, but I liked this piece the most out of all the entries. I love the way you worked in all six Toa as well as six corresponding Bohrok, yet made sure they were all interacting in some meaningful way. And of course, the combined awesomeness of BIONICLE and ponies factored into my decision. It looks from the current results that it might be a long shot, but here's hoping you make it to the next round!