Preston's Power Suit

 A recent image I've cleaned up from 2010 (ignore the mistake of me marking it as 2011 on the image.) I give to you, Preston Stormers power suit.

I designed this power suit long ago, for an old pal of mine who's building skills are incredible. He asked me if I could design a power suit that would make his characters look stronger; I took the challenge and used Preston stormer as the model for the idea. The final results were purely concept, and I drew the armor transparent to show where the real body of the character was placed. After this main design, I shared it with Gabe, who then took the idea and built models based off of it. The design is basically a heavy loaded exo-suit.

All MOC designs shared below belong to Gabe, I was the photographer, he was the engineer. These designs belong to him.

                                 Front                                                                                   Back

First power suit design is actually my favorite. Though not exact to my concept drawing, I actually like it better. He used Duncan Bulk for this one, with added Bionicle parts, and a GI Joe bullet strand for the machine gun. I also like his usage of pistons as leg support, makes the design have a very heavy feel to it.

(Below) second power suit, Nattily Breeze in exo-armor, which resembles my concept design more accurately.

 He actually built it so the character wasn't entirely part of the armor. And, like my concept drawing, this suit has the translucent helmet vizor which lifts up when the figure doesn't need it. I might add that this design isn't as loaded with weaponry as the first, it's actually a little more light weight, if that makes sense.

(Left) suit when vizor is up. (Right) back side of exo-armor

Both designs came out great in my opinion, and it helps that we worked as a team, resulting in two cool exo-suits.

I did mention that this blog was for Bionicle and other robot related subjects, including Hero Factory, and this is officially the first Hero Factory related post. Thumbs up for a first timer. ^_~

Hope you guys enjoy, there's much more to come in the near future, so stay tuned. :D

Jungle Agori Mask Design

 Lately I've been getting into my old sketch books from 2008/9/10. This mask design was made around 2009, and was one of the first sketches I did in one my most favorite sketch books. I didn't think about whether it was Matoran or Agori, but after looking at it again, I think it has more of an Agori feel.

This is a design I would likely use in the old role play series, "Life of Lewa". Likely just a local villager Lewa knows. Nothing fancy really, just a quick design that's somehow still pleasing for being so old.

I added plant life as a background, felt it helped pull the design together, make it seem less barren. I include the design without background below, more details can be seen on a flat surface, and I'd say the flat background is more of a concept view of the mask.

I have many other Bionicle sketched from my favorite sketch book coming this way, so stay tuned. Enjoy. ^_^

Female jungle bot design

Finally, this image has taken me several days longer than I expected. I had this urge to make a female character several days ago after browsing through Bionicle related art on DA. I just started drawing, didn't know where it would lead, didn't even know what color I was going to make her till I was done sketching.

At first I thought she would be blue, but as I drew, I knew she would make a perfect female jungle type, characters that exists specifically in the old role play series of mine, "Life of Lewa"....still pending to be written.

After adding in the double scythe staff for interest, that's when I decided she would officially be a jungle type. In the story, certain female jungle types are professional scythe wielders, and at one time in their history, served as very aggressive warriors, a trait that eventually wore off among the majority. 

The added background to the image isn't mine, again an image from the internet that I tweaked for my use. I feel it aids the figure marvelously.

 (Above) Main image without background. Unfortunately the crispness of the image was depleted since it had to be shrunk for the low resolution background. This just shows you how appealing the background makes her though.

(Below) black and white base images before color and background. Please ask if you wish to use the digital inked version as a coloring sheet.

 

 I prefer inking all my images digitally, leaves room for mistakes that are easily forgiven, unlike when using an actual pen. Above is the digitally inked version, and below is the pencil image.

Interested to see my work all in one place, please visit my Deviant art http://pearllight180.deviantart.com/

Cloud Flight

 Full lit illustration of Lewa Phantoka in flight. The above image I named "Cloud Flight", and I feel it best fits the base images lighting. Both illustrations contain the same Lewa picture, the backgrounds are the only difference. The image below is what I was going to settle with at first, but then I decided Lewa needed some vapor trails, so I added those in (above). The vapor trails seem to give the image more life.


The ones above seem to give a better sense of flight, and freedom to move around, not to mention aren't quite as abstract as the one below. I didn't make the background, just used a free desktop image which you can download here http://wallpaperstate.org/wp-content/gallery/ca_abstract/wallpaper-19822.jpg . I feel the cloud image matches the Phantoka theme better.

In the image below, I was going for a whimsical jungle feel, but I question if it's too whimsical for Lewa, being that he's a smooth, aerodynamic  robot, carrying weaponry... I still like the picture personally, just can't decide if it's entirely matching. I used several cheats for the background, and I don't own any of the images used to pull it off. I compiled several digital images together, all of them found through Google images... but since I'm not selling any of this art, I guess it's all right for me to use.

The thing I was going for was overhead lighting, and to me the picture below is great as a happy flight near the forest floor. Basically the feel of exotic plant life and pollen, mixed in with sunbeams shining through the towering trees above.

Lewa Phantoka in flight, colored version

 I've finally done it, I colored the Lewa Phantoka drawing from so long ago, just like I said I would. For original pencil sketch, see here http://bionicfuzion.blogspot.com/2011/10/toa-lewa-pencil-drawing.html

I went through several stages to color it; first I went over the original sketch and made a digital outline, then I put in base colors, followed by shading, and then lighting.

I felt a bit unsatisfied with the lighting results, mostly because I felt there was too much lighting... but I worked around that factor rather than trying to redo it. I kept both the shaded version, and overly lit version, feeling that both are good, they just belong in separate scenes. The shaded version is easier to look at, but the lit one, when put onto a proper background, looks pretty cool.
The way I worked around my dissatisfaction, was by thinking, if the character is brightly lit, put him on a background that fits his lighting; and I did just that. I made two pictures with added backgrounds that compliment the lighting, rather than work against it. Since I want to keep this post purely for the base image, I'm going to post the illustrated versions in a second post.

 (Above) shaded version.

(Below) digital outline.. please ask if you'd like to use it as a coloring page.

Bio-lock

 I've been going through my old sketchbook again, and scanned some old sketches from 2009. The very first sketch I made in my old purse sketch book is of a sci-fi lock. I do believe I made it as a lock you might find in the Bionicle world for certain doors. So I took this old sketch and finally made it into a main piece.... four main pieces to be precise; two different doors, with the option of electric sealed or not. I'm terrible at making decisions, which is why I made all four.

 I feel that the electric one is more interesting, but that's my personal choice. I do feel there could be a way around this decision; perhaps when active the door is sealed with electricity, and when deactivated looks like a simple lock, as shown below.

 (above) lock inactive

 The second door has more of a...... door feel to it. For both the images,of the previous and this one, I used machinery stock pictures to achieve the backgrounds. With a few adjustments in Photoshop, I think it helped make the pieces more appealing.

 The original sketch and paint process

                  (original sketch)                    
                                                                                                           
     The original sketch has gotten quite dusted from the pencil. You can barely make out the original lock designs I spent so much time on. Originally I think I was aiming for a lock that was similar in appearance to a Skrall shield.

I went through several stages of improving on this design, and at first gave it a plain gray backdrop before it was shaded (upper right corner). I then went on to lighting, settled with blue on the outer ring, and added simplistic lighting to the metal parts (bottom right image). This was my base design, used in the main images.

Honestly, I feel that in a story sense, this lock would belong to a door that leads to an entirely chrome plated room with LED floor lights. In the center I think that maybe it would contain a staff of dimensions, a device that can allow any being to warp through other worlds, even visit the same world several times at any hour without disrupting time itself. In the right hands the weapon could be used for good purposes, fixing a mistake that threatened the lives of others for instance. But in the wrong hands, it could lead to a whole bunch of trouble, where villains rule, all are enslaved, and any hero is killed.

Granted that idea sounds relatively cliche', but if I wanted to, I could probably make a mini episode of Pearllight on a quest for the staff, in hopes that it could restore her broken portal windows. Unfortunately the results are devastating, the staff isn't capable of restoring an already lost dimension. This would likely lead to Pearllight being chased by Makuta who want the staff to change the world of Mata Nui, and she's forced to destroy the staff to prevent chaos; even though that staff may have been able to help her find answers to the way things are, and why they turned out the way they did.

Erozion's medical nightmare

One of Erozion's worst fears are needles. One night while he lay in bed, he had a terrible nightmare where he couldn't move, and three giant needles are stuck into his back. This nightmare was a result of him having a medical appointment the next day, one that required the assistance of three medical guys: Atonius, Orpheus, and Kakadeus.

I was inspired to make this picture from an already existing desktop background (see below). The very minute I found this image, I saw a pitiful Erozion in place of the white blob figurine, and knew I could make a perfect picture out of it. 

     Another interesting thing is that the desktop image just happened to have three needles; which to me was perfect, because I feel that in Erozion's nightmare the three needles represent the three medical experts who commonly do the check ups; those three being Kakadeus, Orpheus, and Atonius.

When completing this picture, I felt pity for poor Ero. I feel that I did a pretty good job at expressing pain. With the additional tears and gaping mouth, my picture seems to express the pain of Erozion perfectly; so much in fact, I felt like giving my character a hug. ^.^

The process

http://wallpaperstate.org/wp-content/gallery/ca_3d/3d_wallpapers_collection_33.jpg 

(link to desktop image)

The way I did this picture is by drawing over top of the original form (above), adding more body and detail, then slapping in some color and shading. The part that took longest to draw was Erozion's mask, as for the rest, it went fairly quickly.

The original figure expressed a face of pain, but not quite as pitiful in appearance as the one I added over it. I was aiming for that face that says tears and whimpering, with heavy sobbing and a pitiful plea of wanting it to stop.

After completing the basic image, I played around with the lighting to see if there was a way to change the feel of it, and make it more nightmarish. Indeed, darkening the image did the trick, but since I like having

several options,I changed the lighting several times before settling with the main one at the top of this post.

 I feel that both the images above and below, add a different emotional impact to the picture. The one above makes you feel less intimidated, but does portray the feel of a medical appointment with it's different shades of blue. As for the one below, it has a slightly darker feel, almost like being in a surgery room with its darkened background and concentrated lighting.

But out of these two choices, I chose the darkest one as the main picture (shown at the top of this blog post), since it has a gloominess to it; and it's darkened tones gives the picture that heavy, nightmarish feeling that helps you feel Erozion's pain and fear.