Art Blog - Robots - Part 3

 
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For this image I tried to channel some of my main influences, and some of my favorite robots. I'm a big fan of the bot designs from Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky" and "Nausicaa", as well as the clunky "The Iron Giant" look. I like how they're fantastical, yet somewhat grounded in reality.

I wanted to create the sense that the robot is broken down, and whoever is in that hut has been there for a long time. I've heard a couple of different interpretations on what people think is happening in the image, but my original idea was for the pilot of the bot to have become marooned on an alien planet, powering his life support from the robot's energy.

This piece came together fairly quickly, but I had to work through some other more unsucessful ideas first.  A lot of the time when I'm starting an illustration I'll start with a few quick thumbnail sketches and choose one. From that point I'll work up a black and white rough, and then begin to lay down color washes on top. However, this time I just started drawing, and edited the piece as I went along. There were variations where he was in a more desert environment, and one where instead of a hut there was a city on a hill, making him look HUGE. As I worked on it I changed it to a jungle planet, added the hut, and changed the face design a number of times.

Anyways, thanks for looking, and hope you guys dig it!