Concept Sketch Interpretations

[F07E]

So after perusing sonic retro a while back in search of interesting and unique mod's, I came across this image here:

from what I could surmise it was some conceptualised artwork from when sonic heroes was being developed, in particular the creation of a flight type character for team rose who would be later known as cream the rabbit. In the end this led me to try my hand at drawing each of them, which inspired me to challenge myself by creating the following images ;

first up is a drawing of cream quite, heheh, "beside herself" :

(aren't I just hilarious?!) 

And the second is a sort of "what if?" combining a little bit of each design onto the finalised rabbit we've come to know:

well seems I'm the first person to post visual artwork on the site as a post rather than a reply, feedback is appreciated and I hope I'm doing this right.

[ToaArcan]

Very interesting, I must say.

 

Maybe you could take some of the concepts from the redesign images Bates posted for the FF and try to make a better New Sally and New Bunnie, etc.

[TheRedStranger]

 You are getting a sense of shape and contour quicker than most.   You might be a little heavy handed on your sketching process. Try to watch out for your hand pressure in the early sketching stage.  Don't be afraid to clean up the smears and start layering in some shading/coloring as well.

Hey, F07E, how long have you been drawing, bud? I am trying to get people to start drawing with me day by day, a sketch a day to build up their skill with each other. Would you be interested in that? You can say I got decent enough experience to help anyone starting out. It would also help me out in the long run too.

[F07E]

1 hour ago, ToaArcan said:

Very interesting, I must say.

 

Maybe you could take some of the concepts from the redesign images Bates posted for the FF and try to make a better New Sally and New Bunnie, etc.

Might be worth a shot, however I don't feel as though I could really do them any justice when compared to the original SatAM designs. (on a side note I might draw sally in elise's dress with antoine dressed as a useless soleanna guard at some point, I've always wanted to do that)

1 hour ago, TheRedStranger said:

 You are getting a sense of shape and contour quicker than most.   You might be a little heavy handed on your sketching process. Try to watch out for your hand pressure in the early sketching stage.  Don't be afraid to clean up the smears and start layering in some shading/coloring as well.

Hey, F07E, how long have you been drawing, bud? I am trying to get people to start drawing with me day by day, a sketch a day to build up their skill with each other. Would you be interested in that? You can say I got decent enough experience to help anyone starting out. It would also help me out in the long run too.

Thanks!!! Now as for the hand pressure, thats always been my biggest issue for years. I've improved a bit since, but it still creeps up on me from time to time. (it also doesn't help that my scanner is a piece of junk that only scans the darkest of colours I tell ya) I'll try to take it to heart and see what I can do!

I've been drawing on and off (way more off than I like to admit) for around seven years now. sadly I have to decline, I start a new job tomorrow and I'm gonna be too busy for the next couple of months to actually be able to keep up with something like that.

[ToaArcan]

On 13/06/2016 at 6:57 AM, F07E said:

Might be worth a shot, however I don't feel as though I could really do them any justice when compared to the original SatAM designs. (on a side note I might draw sally in elise's dress with antoine dressed as a useless soleanna guard at some point, I've always wanted to do that)

Well, it would be better than what we did get. ALternatively, "reboot-style" preboot characters.

[F07E]

On 6/14/2016 at 6:27 AM, ToaArcan said:

Well, it would be better than what we did get. ALternatively, "reboot-style" preboot characters.

I could probably try that, I felt there were a few decent designs that would mesh pretty well actually.

[ToaArcan]

Cool.

[F07E]

Well here's what was supposed to be another round of concept sketch interpretations, however after looking at the redesign concepts I found myself disillusioned with actually completing it. so instead I drew sally in a more preboot/SatAM-like design, and found it STILL looks better than what I was gonna do as that design is literally more timeless.

on that note, I DID complete a mecha-sally:

I took WAY more inspiration from SatAM when drawing her, however I find de-robotization=new outfit is still a dumb concept in practice AND theory, unless the outfit were to come about after she were to isolate herself following the mecha sally arc for about ten issues (effectively writing her out thanks to the fact she would be almost comparative to peeta mellark, that's PTSD for ya).

 

lastly, as I was drawing these I came across this little sketch I did from the arc with phage:

It was because I never read the arc and heard how nicole's new origin story was that she was basically created off the scan of ellidy's dead daughters brain (Halo logic amirite?), as well as the few pictures of phage and the whole "who or what is phage" moniker associated with it led me to believe that the twist was gonna be phage was actually nikki all along, or at least what was left of her. my theory was that nicole was the bulk of nikki's personality, while phage was the fragmented remains of nikki's memories and emotions given form.

[F07E]

well I said I'd make sally and antoine wearing soleanna outfits, and here they are:

princess sally of soleanna

(I didn't realise how close sally came to the other picture of sally till it was almost too lated)

And antoine, captain of the royal guard

 

[ByTor, Prince of Ro’den]

While I'm not a huge fan of the Sega "four characters" with interchangeable features, I like your take on it; especially the last 2.

[TheRedStranger]

1 hour ago, Prince By-Tor said:

While I'm not a huge fan of the Sega "four characters" with interchangeable features, I like your take on it; especially the last 2.

It's refreshing, yes. I am glad to have F07E here for that. I have faith he can really push boundaries SEGA plays to safe about when it comes to style. (I notice he is working on his pencil pressure as well.)

The Sally one is pretty interesting. 

[F07E]

4 hours ago, TheRedStranger said:

It's refreshing, yes. I am glad to have F07E here for that. I have faith he can really push boundaries SEGA plays to safe about when it comes to style. (I notice he is working on his pencil pressure as well.)

The Sally one is pretty interesting. 

Thanks for the feedback!!! 

5 hours ago, Prince By-Tor said:

While I'm not a huge fan of the Sega "four characters" with interchangeable features, I like your take on it; especially the last 2.

I find that most characters in the sonic franchise wind up following that trend, so I try to add a bit of variation between them if its possible.

[Ishapar]

I'm not an artist, but one thing that I thought should be pointed out was the smearing.  I'm not sure what the purpose of smears are for (my sister does drawing and I have seen her work with smearing), but the smears can sometimes affect the clarity of the image.  On your first Sally sketch, the right side of her face has too much smear that makes her side less clear and detailed than the left side of her face.  Could just be me, as I am not an artist.

 

I really appreciate the sketch of Sally in Elise's dress.  I kind of had a story involved where she took the place of Elise in the 2006 storyline.  Even Antoine was in it and as a guard, though not exactly Sally's.  Keep it up, mate!

[F07E]

42 minutes ago, Ishapar said:

I'm not an artist, but one thing that I thought should be pointed out was the smearing.  I'm not sure what the purpose of smears are for (my sister does drawing and I have seen her work with smearing), but the smears can sometimes affect the clarity of the image.  On your first Sally sketch, the right side of her face has too much smear that makes her side less clear and detailed than the left side of her face.  Could just be me, as I am not an artist.

 

I really appreciate the sketch of Sally in Elise's dress.  I kind of had a story involved where she took the place of Elise in the 2006 storyline.  Even Antoine was in it and as a guard, though not exactly Sally's.  Keep it up, mate!

honestly that was unintentional, it smeared thanks to a combination of things from my own dissatisfaction with portions of her features and having a garbage eraser, to my hand dragging across the page by accident when I was trying to scan it. that said, it is definitely something I need to work on not having occur in the future.

 

Thanks for the feedback!!! 

[Ishapar]

The eraser my sister uses in her drawings came from Micheals, so I doubt a good eraser would be too expansive or hard to find.  Another idea is to maybe be light on the pencil when sketching: if you don't like what you are seeing, you do not have to rub hard with the eraser to fix it, creating less smears.  My sister always starts off light, and she had to erase many times before she was content with the direction of her drawing.

[ToaArcan]

Props for a Mecha Sally that has external armour rather than being basically rebuilt via body-horror. The former is what I went for with my design for her (And once again I bemoan my lack of scanner), and I think it works a lot better than the whole vivisection plot, which I felt was a bit too gruesome. The lighting of the scene and the dialogue Ian gave to Eggman made the whole thing unnecessarily uncomfortable too.

 

The Phage idea sounds really good too. I think one thing that was missing from Spark of Life was that Nicole and Nikki didn't feel connected. Right down to Nikki looking completely different to Nicole for no real reason. Having Phage be part of Nikki would be very interesting, much better than her being Generic Egg Minion #45438;

[F07E]

46 minutes ago, Ishapar said:

The eraser my sister uses in her drawings came from Micheals, so I doubt a good eraser would be too expansive or hard to find.  Another idea is to maybe be light on the pencil when sketching: if you don't like what you are seeing, you do not have to rub hard with the eraser to fix it, creating less smears.  My sister always starts off light, and she had to erase many times before she was content with the direction of her drawing.

you hit it right on the head with pressure as that's the main killer for me when it comes to drawing as I'm always adding more when I shouldn't be, though I am trying to improve on that its taking a bit more time then I'd like. as for the eraser however, I've found that my old 'mechanical' statedelter one was the best thanks to its non-invasive size, but at present I've been using a much bulkier one which erases and smudges the spots I'm trying to avoid and frustrates me as its very "all or nothing".

56 minutes ago, ToaArcan said:

Props for a Mecha Sally that has external armour rather than being basically rebuilt via body-horror. The former is what I went for with my design for her (And once again I bemoan my lack of scanner), and I think it works a lot better than the whole vivisection plot, which I felt was a bit too gruesome. The lighting of the scene and the dialogue Ian gave to Eggman made the whole thing unnecessarily uncomfortable too.

 

The Phage idea sounds really good too. I think one thing that was missing from Spark of Life was that Nicole and Nikki didn't feel connected. Right down to Nikki looking completely different to Nicole for no real reason. Having Phage be part of Nikki would be very interesting, much better than her being Generic Egg Minion #45438;

to me the power armour over robot is good for two reasons; the first being it doesn't require the complete replacement of most of her innate abilities for things like headlasers, rather it accentuates and improves them making her much more of a tough opponent (think more like power armour in halo and fallout). the second is that even then its still an over-glorified bomb collar, meaning that the heroes have reason to be cautious as they could harm/kill her trying to help her, to which eggman would abuse for every last vile drop (and probably lead to his downfall by gloating).

 

the greatest tragedy of spark of life is how much more character would have been shown if that had been the way things had gone,with  the reveal being heart-wrenching as we find out how and why phage came in to being. but sadly old spaghetti legs somehow needed another minion rather than the comic having any form of established rogues gallery of different characters NOT AFFILIATED with eggman.

[Ishapar]

The next time I see my sister, I will try to take a mental note on what eraser she uses...

As for the pressure, some of the issue could be the way you hold your pencil.  I have the habit of holding my pencils almost at the tip and I can feel my hand forcing the pencil to write/draw on the paper.  It's a great way to get writer's cramp.  When I tried drawing a little, I tried holding the pencil farther up the pencil and almost let the pencil be light in my hand.  It takes some practice, but it does change both the lightness of the writing/drawing and the pressure in my hand.  How about experimenting with your pencil and see what is both comfortable and light for you to use in both writing and drawing.

[Wulfsbane]

@F07E Keep these coming man these are excellent.

[F07E]

On June 21, 2016 at 3:40 PM, Ishapar said:

The next time I see my sister, I will try to take a mental note on what eraser she uses...

As for the pressure, some of the issue could be the way you hold your pencil.  I have the habit of holding my pencils almost at the tip and I can feel my hand forcing the pencil to write/draw on the paper.  It's a great way to get writer's cramp.  When I tried drawing a little, I tried holding the pencil farther up the pencil and almost let the pencil be light in my hand.  It takes some practice, but it does change both the lightness of the writing/drawing and the pressure in my hand.  How about experimenting with your pencil and see what is both comfortable and light for you to use in both writing and drawing.

I'll have to give it a shot!

5 hours ago, Wulfsbane said:

@F07E Keep these coming man these are excellent.

Thanks! Up next is probably gonna be bunnie and rotor, I'm really worried about drawing rotor.

[F07E]

well here's the next one as promised:

first up is one of the best characters from SatAM, bunnie rabbot

on a side note I found out its my scanner on top of all things that's picking up smudges, so i thickened the lines up a bit and made her features cleaner to hopefully offset it.

[TheRedStranger]

15 minutes ago, F07E said:

well here's the next one as promised:

first up is one of the best characters from SatAM, bunnie rabbot

on a side note I found out its my scanner on top of all things that's picking up smudges, so i thickened the lines up a bit and made her features cleaner to hopefully offset it.

You know what would help you out a lot? Painting SAI. I ink my pencils that way to make the look real clean. You could also start coloring by setting up layers under the line work. 

Very good starting expression. I would lengthen her hair and add some wave to it, give her some lash-lines on her upper eye lid, and add a bit and more curve to the waist and hip. So far your rendition of characters are more feminine looking than many of the adrogenous looking characters in SEGA-style and lot less...well exaggerated...than the dramatic exception, Rouge. I would push the feminine features a tad more. Also, start innovating on the cybernetics and get creative. We want to see more and more your vision of these characters. Keep up the wonderful work, F07E

[F07E]

27 minutes ago, TheRedStranger said:

You know what would help you out a lot? Painting SAI. I ink my pencils that way to make the look real clean. You could also start coloring by setting up layers under the line work. 

Very good starting expression. I would lengthen her hair and add some wave to it, give her some lash-lines on her upper eye lid, and add a bit and more curve to the waist and hip. So far your rendition of characters are more feminine looking than many of the adrogenous looking characters in SEGA-style and lot less...well exaggerated...than the dramatic exception, Rouge. I would push the feminine features a tad more. Also, start innovating on the cybernetics and get creative. We want to see more and more your vision of these characters. Keep up the wonderful work, F07E

you know that would be a great idea actually, the few times that I've actually tried lining and colouring I've used a combination of gimp and paint which really doesn't work that well.

thanks for the feedback! I based a lot of this drawing off of the reboot sketches for bunnie as well as the original SatAM design, which is the main reason I kept her hair short (I've never liked long hair bunnie) and cybernetics simple. As for the body, there is no excuse as to why bunnie isn't more feminine as I've drawn characters more feminine before, I honestly have no Idea why I toned her back so much.

[Mike Arcade]

Great going F07E, you're doing really well with these designs, speaking of which...

http://www.sonicretro.org/2016/06/never-before-seen-concept-art/

There you go, work your magic!

[F07E]

2 hours ago, Mike Arcade said:

Great going F07E, you're doing really well with these designs, speaking of which...

http://www.sonicretro.org/2016/06/never-before-seen-concept-art/

There you go, work your magic!

magic worked.

humour aside this one was really fun to do actually, thanks for the find!!! I tried to take into consideration a bit of what everyone's been saying and this was the result, hope its good.

(as for why marines there dressed like that, its what I couldn't fit on blaze and also because i just felt like it)

Edited June 26, 2016 by F07E
accidentally added the picture thrice

[Mr Nemesis]

I am a really big fan of this one.

[Wulfsbane]

Blaze was done really well. Excellent job as usual F07E

[ByTor, Prince of Ro’den]

On 6/26/2016 at 2:38 PM, F07E said:

magic worked.

humour aside this one was really fun to do actually, thanks for the find!!! I tried to take into consideration a bit of what everyone's been saying and this was the result, hope its good.

(as for why marines there dressed like that, its what I couldn't fit on blaze and also because i just felt like it)

 

While I overall like this one, I personally would say that Blaze could use more feminine proportions in the legs and a more cat-like muzzle (less like a copy/paste of the Sega one-size-fits-all one), but it's still a world better that the official artwork!

Thumbs up.

[F07E]

36 minutes ago, Prince By-Tor said:

While I overall like this one, I personally would say that Blaze could use more feminine proportions in the legs and a more cat-like muzzle (less like a copy/paste of the Sega one-size-fits-all one), but it's still a world better that the official artwork!

Thumbs up.

It's actually kind of funny, her legs started out more feminine until I had to add both the loincloth and pants. As for her muzzle, I wasn't really feline like changing it as most of the concepts and the final product looked like this. I could try that some other time though.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Ishapar]

For some reason, I think of Sahara from Sonic and the Secret Rings when I see this picture of Blaze.

[F07E]

On July 2, 2016 at 7:49 AM, Ishapar said:

For some reason, I think of Sahara from Sonic and the Secret Rings when I see this picture of Blaze.

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if blazes concept art inspired her on some level, just like how one of creams may have inspired marine. It's interesting to see how ideas may persist even after they've been scrapped, like how honey the cat was resurrected from junk data, or how fallout VB/3 would become fallout NV in a multitude of small ways.

[TheRedStranger]

Hey F073 - just wanted to congratulate you at breaking the 200 view Mark.  Keep on keeping on. 

[F07E]

1 hour ago, TheRedStranger said:

Hey F073 - just wanted to congratulate you at breaking the 200 view Mark.  Keep on keeping on. 

Thanks!

[F07E]

well this may be a little late, I had cold that just wouldn't stop making me hack up a lung every 5 seconds, but here is what I managed to get accomplished between that, work, and my own easily distracted mind!

first up is lord nuisance of the world of tomorrow, silver (and gemerl, just sayin he would have made way more sense than blaze in 06. before anyone asks, yes I gave him a gun, why? because I was thinking of metal arms: glitch in the system when I drew him for some reason, and I thought "why not, the egg pawns use 'em"). 

next up is one I'm actually not 100% sure is my best. I tried drawing it more than once, but each was no different than the last:

and yes, I did make make it look like that one miyazaki anime, of which I was reminded of thanks to my brother, and know nothing about.

And lastly just a little doodle I did in relation to the discussions on previous archie artists, in particular my take on the infamous slap.

Edited July 8, 2016 by F07E
forgot to explain the last picture

[Ishapar]

Man, what is it with all this slapping...Big looks kinda creepy.

[Wulfsbane]

The slap is no longer disproportionate. All is right in the world

[F07E]

56 minutes ago, Wulfsbane said:

The slap is no longer disproportionate. All is right in the world

I'm actually kinda planing on re-doing that entire page to see if the scene does better without the over use of cartoon physics, i'm not stellar so it might not be the best, but it might be fun.

2 hours ago, Ishapar said:

Man, what is it with all this slapping...Big looks kinda creepy.

Coincidence of the highest caliber; I did one because I challenged myself to do better than the original artist that penned the most infamous scene, and the other because I was playing sonic riders 2 around the 25'th anniversery and found that abis was the first death-god boss sonic curbstomped without the emeralds.

Big IS creepy though...

[ToaArcan]

Slightly off-topic, but I'm one of those weird people that finds the slap a completely understandable reaction on Sally's part. Seeing it rendered well only helps that.

[F07E]

13 hours ago, ToaArcan said:

Slightly off-topic, but I'm one of those weird people that finds the slap a completely understandable reaction on Sally's part. Seeing it rendered well only helps that.

Eh it was already a bit of an off topic post on my part, That aside, I agree completely.

[F07E]

well I'm a little bit late with this one, I blame my pc's inexplicable need to update to windows 10 without my consent.

so anyway here's Jet the not-so-hawk rogue

glad they went with bird, bird was legit original not original do-not-steal. (and yes I know my wrist dragged across his face and smudged his goggles, that was my bad.)

and because I felt like this was something I should post (as she was technically an unused concept character) a poorly doodled honey the cat I did at work:

 

not the best, but given that I did it on the fly before my 30 minute lunch break ended not too shabby.