It's not very original or exciting, but my muse commanded me to pixel this.



Still very much WIP. Trying to make it clear that it's a machine, while still evoking some of the undead vibe.


Edited by CELS - 05 October 2011 at 3:53pm

Nice! I played with the colors a little. I don't know if it's the dark background but I feel your image is a little dull.

Maybe something like this?

Your colors are better, Cels. You should add some purple tinted webs for the wings though!
He looks very organic for being a machine right now. maybe use sharper lines?

CELS, I think if you want it to be more metal like, or more machine like, you need to really make the brights reaaaaaally bright, and the darks pretty dang dark.  For instance: Sorry, I didn't read when you said you weren't going for a metallic look.
I don't understand how you plan to go for a boney look and machine look simultaneously though.





Edited by Frost Butt - 06 October 2011 at 10:32am

if you want to make it bones, then I guess things that are not bones should have a diffrent colour, or atleast more of a shine / metal look!

not sure what you want though and its your piece!

If you want it as an machine you should work on the joints.
I'd also change the pose to a bit more action, it looks very static right now (and your weapon interferes with the wing). also changing the colors a bit to get more volume could be rather helpful.
The light pouring out of the gun dont looks really good too, maybe another way is better.

However I made you an sloppy edit of some things you could work on.

Well, I feel like a sunuvabitch right now, ignoring plenty of fabulous advice, but let me plead my case.

- The pose isn't supposed to be dynamic. Think more gargoyle perched on a building top, shooting down at stuff.
- The wings don't need full mobility, because they won't be flapping around like a bat's wings. They don't work like normal wings, as they don't really have big enough surface to create lift anyway.
- The arms don't need full mobility, because it's generally shooting down at stuff. Kind of like how a tank is generally shooting horizontally or upwards, but can't shoot downwards.
- The surface... well... let's just agree that it's not exactly like bone, but not exactly like shiny metal either. I mean, metal only looks shiny if it has a very smooth surface. That's not always the case.
- @Melee: The orb on the chest would cast light on the "ribs" if it protruded from the chest. But that's not the main light source. You're right that this should be more lit overall, I just haven't gotten around to adding more light and texture to the wings and feet. :)
- @Cyangmou: I see what you're doing with the face, but that's what I meant by not going down the Terminator route. Instead of doing a skeleton face, I went with something more like Snake Eyes from GI Joe, or the Foot Soldiers from TMNT, or the Cyborg from Rise of the Robots. I do like how you did the brow though, so I tried to copy that. In regards to the light from the gun... I was originally going to do some kind of glowing green slime dripping from the gun, but that's so unoriginal. So I thought it would be better to have sparks dripping down, as I haven't seen that before. Is it a bad idea, or do I just need to draw the sparks differently?


Edited by CELS - 08 October 2011 at 9:45am

Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5
Example 6
Example 7
Example 8
Example 9
Example 10

Some gargoyles are just lazy, I guess...


Edited by CELS - 08 October 2011 at 9:37am

These gargoyles you showed all have one thing in common: They are dynamic and their wings look like they could work.

If you are going for something artyfarty, go ahead. If you want something that appeals to the eye, I suggest going with the metallic palette Frost showed and to go for the action pose Cyang showed. Christo has some good ideas too!

CELS, your pose works great if you are just presenting your monster- Your pose reminds me heavily of a machine blueprint.  But if you are actually making it doing something, (shooting down at stuff), the pose should be tweaked, though it doesn't have to look über dynamic.  I think doing the wings like cyang showed, but your face, legs and blaster would pull of just the look you are going for.

@ Frost Butt: I'm not making it do something. It's an idle stance. He's just standing there. I appreciate the suggestion of making it spread its wings, but I don't actually want it to spread its wings. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear.

@ Hapiel: You can call it artyfarty, if that's the only alternative to realistic. Arty farty is not the term I would use to describe this image, even though the wings are absolutely useless for flying. I would guess that the six wings were inspired by six winged angels (seraphim), even though there are no further similarities to an angel except for the fact that the machine is somewhat humanoid. The robot wings don't look like angel wings at all, they probably wouldn't work in real life at all (if anything, they would probably fall off as the robot fell from the sky), but that's fine. It's a winged robot, it's not supposed to be realistic. (By the way, if anyone points out that the robot has spread its wings for a more dynamic pose, I'll kill you. And then show you this.)

@ Qemist: I noticed your comment, thanks! I was just going for the same texture anywhere - not mixing bone parts with metal parts. I notice everyone is bothered by the fact that it's neither bone nor metal, but I don't quite understand that. My other WIP is standing still at the moment. I thought I'd just knock out a simple piece while the inspiration was there, but this is turning out to be more complicated than I would have thought.


Edited by CELS - 08 October 2011 at 11:31am

So the difference is that the robot has uber cool wings, so it's not a problem, whereas you don't find the skeleton wings cool at all. That's fine by me, Hapiel. I honestly don't mind that, I'm just drawing what I want. I'll just pretend that my drawing is cool enough that I can ignore realistic concerns. In regards to dynamic poses, surely there's plenty of character portraits in the gallery without dynamic poses? Sometimes you just want to draw someone standing up and down. Like... a bunch of circus artists, standing around, doing nothing. They don't have to be doing anything.

I would also like to point out that I'm not missing the point in the examples I give. What's happening is that I'm giving examples to show one thing, and people use it as arguments for something else.
Someone: Draw your gargoyles with spread wings, because gargoyles have spread wings.
Me: But these gargoyles have folded wings.
Someone: Yes, but look at how their wings are more anatomically correct.

Someone: Draw your gargoyle with more realistic wings.
Me: But some things are cool without realistic wings.
Someone: Yes, but they have more dynamic poses.

In my eyes, those things are not really relevant to the point I'm making. I'm grateful for all the help everyone has provided, and I do think that in most of my past projects I've tried to take advice to heart and follow other people suggestions when possible.

At this point, I've pretty much lost interest in this particular piece, I'm sorry to say. I know all the feedback was made with the best intentions, but everyone seems so insistent that I should do something else than what I set out to do. I'll leave this piece for a while, maybe I'll start seeing things from a different perspective. Maybe I'll come around.

i really think u should make the wings up like in Cyangmou's edit....
as he said , it looks really static now, like a puppet/ toy or something,.. not organic

also its too symmetric and therefore also looks static... the pose needs work... make his upper body a bit tilted and his legs shuffled a bit...

also i think to achieve a more metallic look u should put some of that green reflecting in the specular highlights... also that would kill 1 or 2 colors, for extra pixelnerd-points ;D

cant. resist.... have. to. edit. cels. stuff..... ;D



its sloppy but maybe gives some pointers

Thanks for your help, guys. You've given me some ideas, but they involve drastically changing both the design and the pose, so it might be a while before I have a new version up.

The whole point of doing this was just to knock out something quick while I reload my motivation for my bigger 360 x 240 pixel piece in the Anatomy Practice thread. Well, it turns out this wasn't as quick and easy as I'd planned, but at least I've started working on the bigger piece anyway.