[wip] Crazy-Eyes Hector

[tocky]

He's a robot bounty hunter. He should be more menacing, but  I'm not sure how to do that. Also, I don't really know anything about drawing guns. Can anyone help?

[lilwing]

what kind of gun are you trying to draw? with the way he is holding it, i'd assume a pump shotgun and because of the thickness of the barrel. it looks like a rifle with the handle, but i can't distinguish.

i go hunting often, and i would never carry a gun like that. i recommend you adjust the pose.

here's something i want to point out. below is a picture. you're not doing that exact pose, but do you see how his trigger hand is around the gun? you should remake his hand to be modeled in a similar fashion.

[EyeCraft]

Indeed. The pose is definitely the thing holding back the menace of the character. With his weapon lowered like that, and his hands not clasping it in a fashion ready to be fired, he comes across as an ally, pacified.

Shoulders are too low and not pronounced enough, which is making his arms look too long (his hands would come down to the top of his boots at this point!)

The palette is a bit of a prob, imo. Well maybe not a problem but it has room for improvement. You could probably merge the highlights, and maybe even the shadows, of those two ramps, if you're willing to cut the saturation down. Either way, I think the midtones are too dark, and don't transition nicely into the highlight, especially on the red ramp.



Here's a palette edit, and I put the extra 2 colours to work in the image. Didn't touch the pose. There was also a blue colour in a couple of pixels, so I killed that. It was down near the bottom right of the trenchcoat, I believe.

I wonder if the shadow tone for the eyes (the light grey) is really necessary. I killed it in this picture, I dunno, I think it still comes across ok.

[tocky]

Thanks, both of you, that's ridiculously helpful.

Here's an update:

Still kind of on shaky ground with that gun. it's meant to be a shotgun.

...he comes across as an ally, pacified.

He's not really meant as a villain, just a sort of antihero.

[.TakaM]

This reminds me a lot of the spy vs spy comics, any inspiration from them?

[tocky]

Maybe, but I don't think so. I think he draws most from that HK-47 from Knights of the Old Republic, Jack Skellington and pumpkins. I don't usually think about it too much, I like to pretend my stuff isn't derivative.

current:

I tried to make the eyes like cameras.

[Xion]

What happened to the original mouth? The sort of tattered underjaw? It made him look much more creepy and alien and...unique.

[tocky]

He's supposed to use a pretty standard frame, just the standard off-the-shelf robot in the year he was made, like someone's butler or something gone feral over years of abuse. So I thought a 'uncanny valley' sort of freaky would be more appropriate than a manufatured horror, because there'd be a lot of benigh robots walking around with the same design, and they ought to look neutral. Anyway, that was the thinking, but you're right - the skull jaw is better. I guess he was in a grinder accident or something.

current:

[Stwelin]

Looking pretty sweet. He reminds me of the bounty hunters out of Samurai Jack. The shadow on the inside of the cape sort of bothers me. It seems like it should be more defined. It there is another fold going on causing a wavy shadow then the end of the cape should also be wavy, but it appears pretty taut.

[Xion]

Looking pretty sweet. He reminds me of the bounty hunters out of Samurai Jack.

Yeeeeaaaah.
Another thing is the way his feet are pointing the same way.
The gun is a bit too dark on such a dark bg.
And also what Stwelin said about the cape.