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Inkthinker — Machina Cutaway - Full Color
Published: 2003-10-23 22:24:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 25873; Favourites: 425; Downloads: 1845
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-EDIT-112206-Pouring through the old bottom Layer of my DA Gallery, and was a little bothered by how small a version this is... I've been used to 1280 for so long that 500px wide is pretty itty-bitty to me, now. So I went and hunted up the old workfile for this and saved a version at 1000 wide. Other than that, and the addition of the chop, I didn't change a thing.
Though I must admit, the temptation to make a tweak here and there is pretty strong... her anatomy is kinda embaressingly off, the composition is boring, and I was still quavering in mortal fear of backgrounds... but what the hell, it's still mine, warts and all. I can't go trying to edit all my old stuff, pretending I didn't make mistakes and so forth, and I take a little comfort in remembering that it IS old work, now, and basically out of the "official portfolio".
If nothing else, this also represents when I first fell in love with the power of the digital environment. Old bastard that I am (at 30), I'm still always a little starstruck by the simple "Undo" function. You kids *geezer voice*... you kids don't know what it was like when messing up meant REAL trouble.
It's only been 4 years since I started working with tablets, but now I can't hardly imagine doing it any other way.
-END EDIT-
Well... there it is. This is the first finished version of the image I've been painting all week. I say the 'first' version because I can still continue to make a number of changes at any time to the PSD and make a version which would look very different, even down to the line art, simply by turning off and on Layers or making Hue/Saturation Adjustments to various Layers. This, more than anything, is why I love Photoshop. You don't like her pink hair (thanks to Ozzyopolis)? Nooo problem, I can make it any color you can think of, and a few more besides. Black armor not working for you? I can change that in a matter of seconds. I've got a variant sword tip (you can see the orginal in the inks), a series of glows in the spine of the machine, and even several of the shadows are all on Layers that can be adjusted or removed.
Man, that's pretty freaking cool. Welcome to the new era of illustration (well, okay, none of this is really THAT new, Photoshop has been around for a decade). A mere 20 years ago no illustrator would even dream of having the levels of control that we can achieve so easily now. Imagine what we'll be able to do in another 20 years! Boggles the mind...
Yeah, all you longtime PS painters are yawning. This is old news to you, I'm sure. For that matter it's old news to me, since I've been puttering around with PS since v.4, but I never stop being pleased about it...
Anyhow, a few specifics:
Illustration time- est. 4 hours
Total coloring time- est. 15 hours
File dimensions, full size- 20x30 at 300dpi
Document size, closed- 287113 Kb (287 Megs)
Document size, open- 206M/935.9M
Number of Layers- 31
I'm sure I'm being clunky about my use of Photoshop, so any suggestions on what I can do to keep these big files from getting even bigger are always welcome. If you have any suggestions regarding color, texture or FX, feel free to add 'em in. I might even try 'em out.
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Comments: 66
Uhm....*cough*
It uh.....it's making me think....Big Daddies from Bioshock....are really Tiny Mommies.....
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Well, there was a Big Daddy named Rosie. And another one named Bertha, if I'm not mistaken.
*shrug*
Who am I to judge?
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Heh. I probably use too many, but once you get used to 'em it can be addictive.
Layers are bascially bits of a drawing that you can manipulate individually. It helps me to visualize them as layers of clear plastic, like old traditional animation cels. They sit above and below each other, and you can combine 'em or duplicate 'em or group 'em, all kinds of stuff.
I use them whenever I need to sketch something out. Anytime I want to add something, but I don't want to mess up the lines I've already drawn. Anytime I need an exact copy of something I've done already. Necessity invents reasons for you to use Layers, but they're definitely one of the things I love best about digital illustration. They don't really have a real-world equivalent.
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THAT is one great suit of armor! Must get hot in there- hope she brought some Secret (ph balanced for a Woman In Fantasy Power Armor)
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the lineart and the texture are awesome!! fantastic!!
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Thanks! Shirow's mecha are iconic enough that I think it's a noted subgenre of mecha design, espescially the "slave-arm" drive, which is so damn clever that I've avoided using it entirely. I am more-or-less pulling from his saddle and leg drive designs, though.
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Good work, very good use of shading for contours and everything else is just perfect, from line work to proportion.
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I like it...sort of an enhanced exoskeleton turned BattleMech/Macross idea. Well drawn and coloured.
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Mhm Power Armor that looks like a middle aged Armor I really like it (chick is cute as well :-D) Well it's strange but I like the armor more than chick O_o
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S'okay, I like the armor here more than the girl myself.
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Excellent! I was hoping for a bigger, colorful version of this image. I still find this fantasy/steampunkish design nine tones of inspiring.
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I think I remember when you first posted the line art for this.. in fact it might even be the very picture I discovered your gallery through.
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I liked the Escaflowne designs quite a bit, espescially the "sleeve" control scheme. The design I created for the Machina Knights places the pilot into more of a "crucifixtion" position, in which the arms extend into the shoulders of the mech and control the arms through a series of pressure sensors and such, with a fairly standard Shiroweque saddle-seat and leg control mechanism.
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Yeah, that's about the only part I still like... and I can't quite remember how I did it, either. >_<
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It would just be so awesome to have one of those in real life
Great work
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That never hurts, I think.
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Love the little gouges in the armor, very nice touch. Been wondering how to paint those myself, too, so thanks for the example! 
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The gouges are actually a neat trick I worked out... it's a line of dark color against a line of lighter color, with the lighter color opposite the light source. Makes a nice groove effect.
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Yeah, it really does! The texture on the metal is a really neat effect too.
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Deviolicious.
And I do like its black armour, and even her pink hair.
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this is simply awesome!!! the shading and colors are perfect and well... ehehe... the chick is quite hot
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