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Axilus Prime

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You may or may not have seen my hardest, coolest, and as it seems, most successful drawing ever. If not, then here it is. Or was.Because as promised, that drawing was incomplete and has now been completed. Now, to reflect the actual environment of the fight, (An ironic one, as they are both Fire characters), I have added a background and a flame effect, plus an effect demonstrating what their battle does to the environment!So, enough of my seemingly endless pontificating, here's the actual drawing!Oh wait, it's here. If you have anything to say about this or the original drawing, post it here. Comments and criticism still very much appreciated, for this drawing and the original.

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Alright, firstly, I'd suggest that in the future, when you update a drawing, just edit it in to the original topic. It keeps things clean and simple.Now then.Getting that background in there is great, although to really give your characters a sense of place, you ought to give them shadows on the ground. It may seem like a small detail, but trust me, it really anchors the character to the space they're in. It shows that they're actually there, instead of floating in front of a green-screen or what have you.While I'm on backgrounds, it's usually considered good practice to match the amount of realism in the background to the amount of realism in the drawing. People who do hyper-realistic art or who primarily work with chunks of photos can get away with using photos as backgrounds, but for what you're drawing I'd suggest shying away from it. Since landscape painting is an art in itself, I can understand if that sounds daunting. Keeping backgrounds really simple can be good though, as it keeps the focus on the characters. Also, how are you currently colouring your work? Because I might know a faster way to digitally colour things, but you might already do it the way I'm thinking of... What else... Looking at the piece and your comments, I see two related habits. While I'm not entirely sure you have either of them, I'm going to go out on a limb and talk about them anyway.First, I suspect you're getting in to detailing and finishing off parts before the whole thing is in place. In my experience drawing works best in stages, starting with figuring out where things will be on the page, then making a rough sketch, and then getting in to details once all the proportions/placements look good. Mixing them up at the same time is asking for trouble, and it's no fun redrawing something you already spent a bunch of time detailing once you step back and realize it's too small/large/whatever. Like the hands on Optimus there.Second, I'm sensing a hesitance to let parts of your characters be covered or overlap. The only part that obscures anything is Mega's left claw, and that's only barely. This is related to the previous habit, because it's about not covering up all the details you've already drawn, which puts your poses at the mercy of your details, when with real people poses are only governed by what the character is doing. And, pardon me if I'm repeating Taka Nuvia, again the solution is getting things in place before detailing. Although I suggest going a step farther than she does, and starting with just some swoopy, dynamic looking lines, which you use as a starting point for posing a stick figure, which you then start filling out etc. In the process of doing this, you will get parts that overlap, an arm will cover up this, a leg that, and you may not get to show off all of the design that you want to. It's the price one pays for interesting poses. There's little to be done about it... that I'm aware of, anyway. One final thing- The flame around Optimus's sword (I like the sword design, by the way) is cool looking, but there's some parts coming out to the side, and the other effects, that are very obviously the same brush, at the same size. If you're going to repeat a detailed brush like that, you should try for more blending and variation, try to hide that it's the same brush. This can be done by varying the size, transparency, colour, or by just using more than one kind of (fire) brush. And I mean, the other effects are blended alright, it's just some parts around the sword are quite egregious.Anyway don't let my blathering get you down. I know this is pretty criticism heavy. You can forget everything I said here if you want, and as long as you keep drawing, I'll be happy. You obviously have some great visions and ideas. I like your idea of combining Bionicle with TF, it seems like a pretty unique challenge, you seem to be handling it well. You keep at it, a'ight?

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Nah, I don't mind criticism. It's what I like posts for.Shadows...I don't actually know how to do that. I guess I shouldn't have picked a background that detailed, but I needed a humongous one. Maybe I should have edited it with GIMP to make it looks more...sketchy.I use the fill tool and the eraser tool (by selecting a different background color and using the right click to avoid erasing outlines) to color-code it. Then, I use Select By Color and then put in a pattern and use the colorizer on it to get the right color in GIMP. I wanted the backgrounds to be different from the characters, though, so they're more...obvious. Still a valid criticism that I'll use in my next drawing.Yeah, I do have the first habit. I usually do that to check if things look right. I tend to work my way from the body, then the legs, then arms, then the head when I'm making up a drawing as I go along. For this, I went from the feet up. I'll try your suggestion, but when I make up a character as I go along, like for Megatron in this drawing and all the standalone drawings except for Megatron's upcoming one, I can try it.About the second habit, yeah, you're right on that one too. You're very skilled at finding drawing habits...No, I don't have that hesitancy due to the first habit, or at least not entirely. I just find it difficult to fit things together and it makes telling apart the body parts more difficult, especially with my drawing style.As for the poses, my drawing style also ended up causing it. (Karz!) I was also making up Optimus's legs (since his standalone drawing only showed the front of his legs) as I drew, and actually did two versions of it. The second being the one that made it into this drawing. Both suffered from Fail Leg Pose Disease. And of course, as I said, I was making up Megatron from scratch.I used about six fire brushes, but yeah, it's a bit too obvious. I'll take your advice on my next drawing with fire. And believe me, there will be one. I like explosions. (lol)Thanks for the encouragement and criticism, which I'll use the next time I make drawings. It's definitely a challenge, deciding when to use existing pieces and which, or when to make up my own or modify pieces. So, uh, yeah, thanks!

Edited by TNG Prime

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It's true, getting the shadows to look right over such a varied surface would be tough. Shadows in general take some getting used to, we take it for granted but light is quite complex. Study the objects around you and how they project shadows, getting a handle on that will make it easier to add shading to your characters down the road. For now, keep it simple. While Gimp editing backgrounds is one option, I'd recommend against it. It will be much better if you can work backgrounds in to your original drawings, rather than relying on programs to do all the work for you.Alright, I think I know how to cut out all that tedious selecting. There's a couple different ways to approach this, depending on whether you care about anti-aliasing (do I need to explain that? You seem to be running in to some trouble with anit-aliasing right now, since the aliased fill tool is running in to the anti-aliased lines, making that grain you see around the lines), and if you want your lines to be pure black or if you want to keep them the way they are now, with some variation in lightness. The basic gist of it is to add colour the way some animators do- you make a separate layer under your lineart, and then put the colour on there.For separating your lineart, I'd recommend using the "color>color to alpha" option, which will remove all the white and leaves anti-aliasing intact. If you want pure black lines, just crank up the contrast all the way beforehand, but you probably knew that. For Anti-aliased black lines, create your image very large, make the lines pure black, and then after you're completely done with everything, all the colouring and whatnot (it's easier working before adding anti-aliasing), shrink the image. I don't do this often so I'm not sure how much you'll need, let's just say 50%. So you'd want to start with an image twice as large as you want the final product to be. The shrinking will create anti-aliasing around the lines, and will in general hide imperfections and make your image look smoother, while the lines will still look nice and solid.In general it's good practice to make your images very large and have the final version be at less than full size.For colouring you have two options. If you're comfortable drawing with your mouse, or own a tablet, you can just draw in a blob of colour under the characters. This takes some care, making sure the colour goes up to but not over the lines. Whether you use the paintbrush or the pencil is up to you.The easier option, which in my experience only works well if you don't have anti-aliasing, is to start by using the magic wand tool outside your lineart. Now right-click, and go to "select>invert". Ta-da, you have a selection of the entire character up to the outside line. Now go to the blank layer beneath your lines, and use the fill tool.To make things easier for yourself if you're going to do any drawing/editing on the colour layer, after creating that silhouette, go over to the layer window, and check the little box next to "lock". That box locks the alpha channel for that layer. Or, in layman's terms, it stops you from drawing outside the silhouette you created."I wanted the backgrounds to be different from the characters, though, so they're more...obvious." Well hey, it's great you're taking that in to consideration. And that's the challenge, how do you make the background and the characters look like a single cohesive piece of art, without taking the focus away from the characters? You might take this for consideration.Wow, I was actually right about the drawing habits? Man, how did I do that... I guess I was putting those habits together because they can both be solved by altering the order you draw things in. Anyway, it isn't as important which part of the body you start drawing first, so long as the overall character is constantly at about the same level of finished... -ness.As for making things fit, I think you've hit upon one of the biggest challenges in art. Let's assume you're not going for a graphic, cartoony or abstract look. You're projecting a 3D thing on to a 2D piece of paper. Unless you have a solid 3D model in your head, you're going to trip up when making the transition. If you're creating a design as you go, then you're still just adding 3D parts to a 3D model.On the topic of the legs, hey, you're willing to experiment and try different designs out, you're obviously on the right track. I'll say it one last time, just pose the legs first, then design them. I'm not surprised you decided to focus on design over posing, I too find that often the poses I give my characters suffer when I'm creating designs for them at the same time. Not to mention there's all sorts of body language, and the personality of the character to consider. Don't worry about that stuff for now, and besides, I don't think I'm qualified to teach it.Six fire brushes? That actually sounds like about the right amount... I guess just mix them up more. Or stick to using them at larger sizes, like you did around the sword. You're obviously willing to put a lot of effort in to your creations, and you sound like you're motivated to keep going and to keep improving.

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I guess I could try a different pencil type for the backgrounds, and that'll allow shadows to some degree.The selecting isn't tedious. I just use the Select By Color, like I said before. I know how to use select-invert as well. Thanks for the advice, I'll use this post for future reference.

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Ah, awesome. It would seem I underestimated you a bit, frankly. It took me forever to realize there was an invert-selection option. But yeah, glad to be of help, if indeed any of it was helpful.Also, woops, of course the selecting wouldn't be tedious if you do it that way, geez me. I was thinking about the colour filling, since individually filling in each section seems like it would take a while for a piece like this one. But hey, you're the creator, the one doing the work, you'd know better than I would.

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I like it! I must wonder how hard it is draw these from scratch, or do you Moc them first and use the MOC as the key when drawing? Anyways, a great drawing overall, but a little shading would give it more realism, and a different stance, would be better, but that was already discussed on the previous fourm so I'm sure you know already. But still a pretty successful portait!

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"And where does the newborn go from here? The net is vast and infinite."

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I like it! I must wonder how hard it is draw these from scratch, or do you Moc them first and use the MOC as the key when drawing? Anyways, a great drawing overall, but a little shading would give it more realism, and a different stance, would be better, but that was already discussed on the previous fourm so I'm sure you know already. But still a pretty successful portait!
Thanks! Yes, I draw them from scratch. However, I use Transformers as the base for the design. I simply translate it. Just like tossing a Transformer into a machine, and having it come out the other end as a Bionicle.

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I like it! I must wonder how hard it is draw these from scratch, or do you Moc them first and use the MOC as the key when drawing? Anyways, a great drawing overall, but a little shading would give it more realism, and a different stance, would be better, but that was already discussed on the previous fourm so I'm sure you know already. But still a pretty successful portait!
Thanks! Yes, I draw them from scratch. However, I use Transformers as the base for the design. I simply translate it. Just like tossing a Transformer into a machine, and having it come out the other end as a Bionicle.
Oh I see, I'm personally not familiar with individual bionicle parts if I tried this it would most likely turn out sloppy lol. I also don't MOC or combine my sets now, since I like my sets as their originals, but you seem to MOC alot so that's probably why your more experienced with individual parts.Edit 1:
I rarely MOC, actually. Not enough pieces. However, I do enjoy building and sometimes read building instructions just to get a feel for it, so the pieces just come to me.
Oh I see, well still it's pretty amazing drawing MOC's from scratch though. Edited by Kv195

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"And where does the newborn go from here? The net is vast and infinite."

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