Aligned Soundwave!

So. I was so honored and happy to get the job working on new character designs, that I kind of just took whatever they gave me.  But then I got a brave after a little while, and requested *Soundwave, if he hadn't been taken by someone else yet.

He is my all time favorite Transformer.  I lucked out, and got to take a pass at him.  I got the assignment, and he was to be explored as a secret government FBI/CIA type SUV, in the style of 24, or a Presidential Caravan.  I knew this was coming from his previous incarnation from Animated.

Now that's about as nondescript as you can get, right?  We did explore a little bit of a comm array that would expand when he was transmitting, but it never got fully developed before we moved on to other things.

Transformed!  As always, I try to keep as many classic cues in as possible, but there were a few things being asked from Aaron and Eric at Hasbro to try to add, like a movie style head, and there was something with the legs, though in the notes I can't seem to find any reference, probably was in an email that was deleted long ago.

And because we were kind of whipping through these, I never got to do the back versions, but I had the idea the the tires would push back from the shoulders to have some kind of speaker look, with the doors creating an amphitheater type effect on his back.  For maximum bass.

And so that's it for now.  Pre-pre-production conversation starters - and I kind of want to make that point.  This is all first look intended work, in no way meant to be the final vision of anything.  Conversations in the fan forums; that sucks, that's awsome, why didn't we get that, we should have gotten this instead....you're all right. That's the point of the whole endeavor, it's the development process.  Putting something up, that folks can discuss, take in that new information, and try again.  It's concept art, not final design.

I wasn't too excited about the truck mode, but in the growth of development, Soundwave was envisioned as a Drone - and I LOVE that.  I wish I thought of it!  The Transformers Prime Soundwave is second only to my unconditional love of G1 Soundwave.  But, honestly, if they told me to try a Soundwave with a paint can alt mode, I'll try to make it cool!

*And the micro-minions as well, but they weren't ready to deal with those guys at that point.




All right, later this week, up goes the development for the Beast Hunters #4 cover.  And of course, this is still going on:

If you're a Facebook user, I invite you to enter into the Like Drive I have going on for the next two weeks, on the Bad Flip Productions page.  Participants can win some free art from me; here's the announcement:

For two weeks, I'll be running a Like Drive on the Facebook page.  It's been up for two years, and I've done NOTHING to promote it, other than letting it exist. Give me a break, I'd much rather being drawing than marketing!

All the rules are posted in the picture, which will be the cover art on the Facebook page for the next two weeks.  Recommend the page to five friends, (or you could just share the page on your timeline!) say you did so in the comment section of the above cover photo, and you're entered!

Here's a helpful link to get you started!

Facebook Page

Jooooooiiiin uuuuuuuussssssssssssssss.... 

Charticon! August 9th-11th in Charlotte, NC!

I'm happy to announce that I'll be a guest at Charticon, later this summer.  I'll have a table, and participate in a panel during the show.  I'll have more details as the date gets closer - I'm really looking forward to it!  Who's going to take me to the Penguin?

Here's the info for the show:  Charticon!!!



And of course, there's this thing going on right now...

If you're a Facebook user, I invite you to enter into the Like Drive I have going on for the next two weeks, on the Bad Flip Productions page.  Participants can win some free art from me; here's the announcement:

For two weeks, I'll be running a Like Drive on the Facebook page.  It's been up for two years, and I've done NOTHING to promote it, other than letting it exist. Give me a break, I'd much rather being drawing than marketing!

All the rules are posted in the picture, which will be the cover art on the Facebook page for the next two weeks.  Recommend the page to five friends, (or you could just share the page on your timeline!) say you did so in the comment section of the above cover photo, and you're entered!

Here's a helpful link to get you started!

Facebook Page!

And stay tuned to the blog for the next couple of weeks, I got the green light to post a few more 'Aligned Continuity' Transformers concepts.  But be prepared for the watermarks.  It's the only way I can get these fully rendered images out on the internet...

Megatron - Tank Mode

This one got banged out really fast...

Wow, I'm making excuses already.  It's not that I don't like the direction, but it's only a good first step.  It's a tank with a little bit of character.  Megatron needs to be a tank (or whatever his alt mode would be) with A LOT of character.

The assignment was to envision a near-future tank, so I did a few quick sketches, got feedback from Siebenaler, and actually only did a colored line art pass, because of a time crunch.  After the presentation and following feedback, I was asked to render it fully, with no changes, along with the Prime truck, that was also initially done as colored line art, for the same pitch.

Of course, in all the details I managed to put in the alt mode, I was already planning on transformation logic, how to split the treads, how to recompose the barrel and turret elements into the arm cannon, and other character themed things to try to modernize the early era Megatron.  That's why there are a lot of flat panels - the vague idea I had at the time was to do blockier G1 style over armor, but a sleek under structure.  Alas, I never got the assignment to do the bot mode of Megatron, (and have never actually seen the bot counterpart to this project) and was asked to move on to other characters.

Maybe someone else got to do the second pass, and really punch up the character of the tank, a little more than what you see here.  Looking at it now, I would want to redesign the top of the turret, widen the overall tread stance, and break up the rectangle top view, by pulling in the front center, and maybe making the back end a little more robust, and this, and that, and tweak those...

But that's the thing with concept art, it's a long road of redesigns to find the right look.  Especially in this series of assignments, try a bunch of different stuff, and throw it all into a pot and see what comes out.  The current incarnation of Megatron is a Cybertronian Jet, if that's any indication!

Ok, I have one more character to post next week, and it's actually both bot and alt modes, stay tuned!



In the meantime, the Facebook Like Drive continues:

If you're a Facebook user, I invite you to enter into the Like Drive I have going on for the next two weeks, on the Bad Flip Productions page.  Participants can win some free art from me; here's the announcement:

For two weeks, I'll be running a Like Drive on the Facebook page.  It's been up for two years, and I've done NOTHING to promote it, other than letting it exist. Give me a break, I'd much rather being drawing than marketing!

All the rules are posted in the picture, which will be the cover art on the Facebook page for the next two weeks.  Recommend the page to five friends, (or you could just share the page on your timeline!) say you did so in the comment section of the above cover photo, and you're entered!

Here's a helpful link to get you started!

Facebook Page!

And stay tuned to the blog for the next couple of weeks, I got the green light to post a few more 'Aligned Continuity' Transformers concepts.  But be prepared for the watermarks.  It's the only way I can get these fully rendered images out on the internet...

Optimus Prime - Truck Mode

I'll start off slow here.  This image was published a couple of years back in the Transformers Vault, so it's kind of old news, but I just recently got the greenlight to post the image, and talk about it a little bit.

Now this job was so much fun, it was in the middle of my first assignment from Hasbro, Inc. directly, doing inspiration art for a new direction for the brand overall.  They used a bunch of artists, under the guidance of Aaron Archer and the lovely Eric Siebenaler, to really just try a little of everything.

By that I mean I did a one shot render at each assigned character, then moved on to something else.  Sometimes I did a 'from scratch' character, like Ironhide, or I did a second look, rendering in my style a character pass by someone else.  (Generally the great Emiliano Santalucia, or ideas from Siebenaler or Archer themselves.)

Or I just did the vehicle/alt version of a character.  In this case, the truck mode for Optimus Prime.  The request was to keep him a long nose, as he now appears in the film series, and if I remember right, that was just about it.  Of course I ventured the question. "I don't have to put those flames on him, do I?"  But I did keep in line with the movie logic of the long nose, giving him more mass to work with in robot mode, and we added in a roof fairing over the extended cab to build it out even more.

And that's about it for this one, I ended my work on Optimus with just the vehicle mode, and you can find the bot mode printed in the Transformers Vault book.





If you're a Facebook user, I invite you to enter into the Like Drive I have going on for the next two weeks, on the Bad Flip Productions page.  Participants can win some free art from me; here's the announcement:

For two weeks, I'll be running a Like Drive on the Facebook page.  It's been up for two years, and I've done NOTHING to promote it, other than letting it exist. Give me a break, I'd much rather being drawing than marketing!

All the rules are posted in the picture, which will be the cover art on the Facebook page for the next two weeks.  Recommend the page to five friends, (or you could just share the page on your timeline!) say you did so in the comment section of the above cover photo, and you're entered!

Here's a helpful link to get you started!

Facebook Page!

And stay tuned to the blog for the next couple of weeks, I got the green light to post a few more 'Aligned Continuity' Transformers concepts.  But be prepared for the watermarks.  It's the only way I can get these fully rendered images out on the internet...

Facebook Like Drive!

For two weeks, I'll be running a Like Drive on the Facebook page.  It's been up for two years, and I've done NOTHING to promote it, other than letting it exist. Give me a break, I'd much rather being drawing than marketing!

All the rules are posted in the picture, which will be the cover art on the Facebook page for the next two weeks.  Recommend the page to five friends, say you did so in the comment section of the above cover photo, and you're entered!

Here's a helpful link to get you started!

Facebook Page!

And stay tuned to the blog for the next couple of weeks, I got the green light to post a few more 'Aligned Continuity' Transformers concepts.  But be prepared for the watermarks.  It's the only way I can get these fully rendered images out on the internet...

Arts I made yesterday.

Just some stuff for fun, work ideas, and getting started way early on next years Transformers sketchbook...

Avengers Black Widow.

Artsy Stormtrooper.

Autobot Springer bust.

Transformers Prime : Beast Hunters #3

"Grimlock, Snarl, and Sludge, back to back to back, in a cave surrounded by Insecticons."  That was the cover synopsis, all I had to do was figure out an angle to include those elements, and leave room for the IDW text and logos.

Where are the other two Dinobots?  I guess you have to read it to find out?

Here's the layout drawing...

...and the final line art, inks and pencils.

The original art  is now posted for sale in the Facebook Original Art Gallery page!