Lewa-Photo Drawings

Cocky Lewa

 Quite some time ago (about 2011) I strived for perfection, flawless detail down to the very last notch of a Bionicle figure in drawn form. I was tired of skewed, imperfect angles that constantly warped and changed as I tried to copy what I saw from a 3D object onto a flat surface.

Then I thought, if people trace over human forms and faces to obtain perfection in art; why not apply the same technique to one of my favorite Bionicle characters, Lewa. My goal was to make a few perfect drawings for the sake of using in a sketch book cover project; then came the photo shoot.

 I posed the figure in multiple stances, trying to figure out which pose I liked most as a book cover I planned on using for a notebook holding Life of Lewa art work. The photo of my first drawing "Cocky Lewa" (left), pleased me because I could hear in my head Lewa saying to his future sweet heart Venimbus, "Hey Venimbus, look what I can do. I can hard-fight and look good at the same time." Basically in this pose he's trying to show off and be attractive to Venimbus.

Once I had my photo's, I worked with an over layer (like tracing paper in the digital world), and worked many long hours on tracing over every detail, and every curve. The longer I worked, the more I wondered why I started the project, questioning my sanity and patients as I went; but in the end, after making the outline, I already started feeling great about the project. Then when I went on to coloring, the feeling returned, but I didn't let it stop me, I was determined to make this picture into something great. Finally I ended up with the full colored image, and was satisfied, absolutely tickled and warm about all the detail in this image (though it was technically cheating). :P

Lewa's Battle Stance

Several years later (as of today) I finally finished coloring the second image made for a book cover, "Lewa's Battle Stance". It took so much energy to draw both these images, and color the first back in 2011, that I put off finishing the coloring for second till many years later (better late than never).

I really like this stance actually, makes Lewa look very heroic in my opinion, a stance I'd be almost thrilled to see if he were protecting me. >_<

The coloring process for this was a tad bit different from the first image, but the drawing process was done the same as first (being that I made both in one sitting during 2011).

Original photo (below), and traced drawing (above). I can say it's still a ton of work to trace over an image with so much detail, especially when the lines get blurry, and the lighting is minimal in showing maximum details on every inch of the figurine.

 There you have it, perfect drawings made with patience and persistence, now complete and ready for use. (That's another thing, I never did use these final images as book covers, changed my mind over the years, and came up with better ideas). ^.~