Citrus Toa- To the Trail

"Follow the trail."

The Citrus Toa needed a background after so many years of being a quickly colored sketch in my cluster of random Bionicle sketches.

I wasn't sure what the background should be for the drawing, and went on gut instinct, randomly slapping down lines and creating an environment that made me happy. I also had to add a bit more toe to my Toa's foot so he would look right in a scene. Quite a few of my sketches involve drawn figures with part of their feet or lower leg extending out of frame. That's fine sometimes, but other times it doesn't do justice for an illustration, hence me making tweaks to an old sketch.

Obviously this Toa is based off Lewa Phantoka, quite possibly just a different rendition of him on a day the adaptive armor adjusts itself for a new mission.

I call him the citrus Toa because I colored him with a lime and orange color scheme. No doubt during the time of coloring him, I was basing him off of what my Lewa figurine looked like with temporary orange arms. I had given him those arms while waiting a long time to replace his cracked green arm pieces. 

You can see the example of that on the left. Orange and green aren't terrible together as long as the shades are right.

The beach scene itself can stand alone, and makes me feel so relaxed that I could stare at it all day. I wasn't sure which version I preferred as a background, the one with outline (left) or without outline (right). Both are pleasing in some way, but I did keep the outlines in one version to see if my Toa figure would look natural with the backdrop.

The character was after all a cut and paste object who then had a scene built around him. I sketched out an environment first, then painted within the lines, adding color, lighting, and texture where needed. Parts of the scene were only half colored wherever you wouldn't be seeing it (anything hidden behind the foreground figure).

I did set my character on both versions of the background to test which one he looked best on. Outlined version seems to imply he's part of the environment, while the painted version makes him stand out more as a focal point.

All I know is that I want to go to the beach now. :P