Allright, there are quite some problems here.
I don't think you're currently at the level where you should try stuff this big. Though I can understand you want a challenge, I really recommend working on a smaller scale first.

When you get the scale out of the way (I think half the size would be good) there are some aditional problems. First of, let's start with the Mech design itsself. It rather boring, and misses the detail you'd want on what seems to be a large robot. I can understand the big bulky thing could be a direction you want to take. Here's a quick sketch of whitch you might be able to pick some ideas.


I scaled the canvas down, and I still tried to keep that bulky feeling you seem to be wanting. By giving it a relativly small and flat head, it really empathizes the rest of the body. I tried to not make the legs too bulky, to make the torso look bigger, and I gave him very large and wide shoulders. Also some extra gear behind his head, like the rocket launchers, the spikes, once again adds to that bulky idea. And a skull on the chest to make him look extra menacing. Also, the posture of your robot seems to be leaning forward. However, to make him look big and mighty, race his chest. As you can see in my sketch his chest even slightly overlaps his head, which creates a very powerful pressence.

The lineart is not your only problem however. There's also the shading. Although you seem to have a faint understanding of lighting and form as shown on the shoulders, there's a huge lack of any definition or form on the chest and the arms. This is as a big problem. You seem to be putting texture before form. And you must understand that texture can help making something look good, but it is NOT needed. But definition of form IS. And it's infact one of the most important things you need to grasp. I suggest you look at real life. How does light influence a large rusted metal form? You should never focus on secondary business like texture and anti aliasing before drawing the basic shapes and shadows. There's a fitting quote for that I heard Adam Atomic say once: "A rough diamond is worth alot more than polished garbage." Which goes for this as well. Work rough first, start defining shapes, THEN concern yourself with polishing. I can't stress this enough.

There's a few more minor problems in here. 24 colours for example is completely unnessecary. Then there's the heavy banding on the lines. On the big black lines you seem to stack several dark colours. Never do this. Not even if the colours go from light to dark, you should never stack lines of 1 pixel thickness. This results in a very fuzzy and ugly look.

I'm gonna leave it at that for now. Good luck!





Edited by Opacus - 15 July 2009 at 5:19am