ART WAR | 2D | Mecha_samurai | Jose Arias

[josearias]

Hello!

I am quite new here and I am very happy to have found this site and this amazing art challenge. Even though I did create a character for this challenge, I unfortunately did not properly read the instructions of the challenge and I will most likely be disqualified.

I know now that I had to show my progress to you guys and that it was more of a community event than just a "Go home and work for days and then come back with your final project" kind of deal.

Nevertheless, I am still going to post my work, with progress and stuff and see what comes of it. It never harms to show your stuff to a community of fantastic artists like yourselves.

So here is my project!

I first wanted to create an individual that was enhanced in some way with cybernetics or perhaps mechanized. So I started sketching away.

[josearias]

Then I began a series of ideas where the character would be assisted by some VR type of deal, perhaps later to evolve into an integrated suit that made him or her more proficient in battle.

[josearias]

I then considered an approach of an exoskeleton that would provide extra firepower to the wearer, this with the addition of a VR aid or a targetting system of some kind.

[josearias]

Then I began adding more firepower to the whole harness idea. Why not consider a heavy artillery piece to deal with any nuisance?

A piece like that however requires of a larger exoskeleton and some aid in supporting the wearer. Therefore I began adding some legs to it.

[josearias]

After liking the idea more and more the exoskeleton obviously transformed itself into a Mech. So I began defining some features here and there and eventually this is what I came up with.

But I was missing something, some personality of the character. I did not want to just paint a generic robot...

[josearias]

Eventually I saw too many visual problems with the design, I was not happy with the ridiculous cannons and the way it grew from the back was bothering me too much.

However, I wanted to keep te imposing feature of it and the bird like pose... So bird guy was born!

[josearias]

But being a mecha bird guy with a weird flat face was not cutting it. I needed more personality to it perhaps? Maybe some uniqueness.

And then it hit me: Samurais are pretty cool. What if they had mechs? What if the most deadly, proficient and honourable warriors of an alternative historyline in Japan had developed a battlesuit that only the most badass combatants were allowed to wear?

[josearias]

Then it was just a matter of solidifying the content.

[josearias]

And this is the finalized version!

[tablar]

Very powerful how the clouds pull the viewer into the center of your piece. Nice metal details!