Surveyor

I think that makes three with legs, two that scuttle and two hovering. That explores most of the available space. I've another thing I want to try for the next architect though (serpentine didn't turn out right unfortunately).

This is a surveyor. He was a scrutator but I changed my mind. Surveyor isn't as obscure and sounds architectier.

The collar is weird, I like it. The other architects' "flesh" is mostly drawn tight. I tried something different here because I don't want them all gaunt and spindly. The head is also smaller and narrower than usual. I'm overusing the one-eyed look though, so I'll try and make the next one binocular.

WIP version of this had way too much shading detail. I think dialling it back was the right decision, though it was hard to decide which were the important parts. Shoulders, definitely to sell the texture of the "flesh" there. Collar, same reason. Belly because otherwise that area looked flat and blank. Torso so I could transition smoothly to the starker white on the head and arms (necessary so that they pop). Arms to ensure the spheres looked embedded. The fingers needed something but I didn't want more detail so they got a flat fill of the darker red.

Not sure what those spheres are. The purple stuff is obviously significant, maybe some kind of crystal? Since they're major self-modders they don't often need tools or props. That means the purple crystal orbs and green metallic stuff must be important. That's the sort of feel I want to give. There's no thinking like overthinking!

Inscrutable & Caretaker

Architects!  Two of 'em!

Side-by-side, it's striking how much more detailed the left-hand one looks. It's only slightly more linework and slightly more shading detail, but the aggregate effect is significant. I think changing the right-hand one's waist would eliminate most of it, but I like those waists.

I don't want to crappify the left-hand guy, because he looks cool. But I also don't want to sacrifice the style by trying to bring everyone to that standard. I guess I could call him a boss.

They have names. On the right is a caretaker. On the left is an inscrutable.

I was concerned that the architects would be too samey since they have strong similarities and not much in the way of weaponry. I didn't want them all with weird guns like the purifier. Here especially, both have scuttly-bodies. Even if the caretaker's odd pincers, I felt the inscrutable might be too close. Floaty artifact was an excellent solution that I plan to use more.

Trivia: Despite their more complex appearance, the inscrutable's legs each have the same number of lines as the caretaker's.

Caretaker looks a little gormless. I think he'd be a grunt-type.

Clown dolls

Finally got me my generic marionettes. They weren't intended as clowns; it just happened as I was colouring them. It gives them a bit of identity at least. I might change my mind later and recolour them in various light and dark wood colours. That could be pretty cool, but for now they're clowns.

The more productive I am with the drawings, the less I have to say about them. Also have a bit of a headache.

Hydrocore

Meet the hydrocore. I like elementals, but I'm trying to make them more interesting by not making them "pure". For example, the pyrovile isn't just made of fire, he has a skeleton. The zephyr king is... is... ok he's pretty generic. That's why hydrocore has a fleshy eye and a strange heart-organ.

He took for fucking ever to colour. I feel it was worth it though, I stepped up my game for him and the colours make him four times better than his linework. I was tired at the end when I did the splash of foam he's sprouting from, but I think that's passable.

The pose isn't perfect but all in all I'm pretty happy. I guess he could be brighter - the linework blends into the dark areas a bit.

I don't have a theme for him to live in. I just did a sketch and I liked it enough to complete it. I guess he could go with the brine cultists, but I'm not keen. Something will turn up.

Now I'm going to try and do some more architects.

Infernal Purifier

Another inf... hmm. I'm calling them infernals but as they become conceptually distinct from the fire and brimstone that name seems less and less appropriate. Abyssal? Collector? Architect? Architect... that's got potential. I'll think about it.

I wanted the hell theme to have some weird technology, but that niche has been taken over by these guys. That weird gun-thing he's holding is almost exactly what I wanted the fire elementals to have. Maybe I'll come up with another look for helltech later. Or abandon the idea. Either-or.

I do like the gun. I'm not sure what it does, but I bet it's weird. I wanted it to be made of the same bone-porcelain as the "hard" areas of its holder, but it blended in too much. It made me want to give the gun a thicker outline for the sake of depth.

The shoulders and legs are quite similar to the architect. Shared style is ok, but if I want these to look like individuals I'll need to be careful to include more variety. Legs are a problem though. I could probably get away with another floaty body if the torso was different enough. Scuttling spider-legs? Those are hard to draw. Naga-style? I have a sketch that might fit the bill.

I'm liking where these are going. It feels good to be making something distinctive. I've four of them now. No variants though. I'd like it if I was able to come up with a reliable way to make variants. And now I've typed that out I'm seeing possibilities.

Something else to chew over.

Infernal Artisan

Ever since I was little, 90% of the time I draw figures from the feet up. I bring this up because I like this guy's legs. He had lots of names: Strange engineer, artisan of the strange and various permutations. Infernal artisan is the snappiest, but I do like artisan of the strange.

I'm getting more of a sense of who these guys are. They're a people who used strange sciences to alter their own bodies. They're from an older time, and the survivors are a little odd by now. They didn't used to be so alien, but they've engineered themselves into exactly what they needed to be. They busy themselves making strange architecture that shouldn't work. This guy's puzzlebox is meant to represent that. Very individual, though I think maybe there should be serf castes who are unfortunates altered by their betters.

I don't have a lot to say about the picture. Errm, I added the bifurcated arms mainly to stop him looking too humanoid. The torso's shading is unconvincing.

I'm experimenting with white backgrounds and grey shadow to make it pop. I like the look now but we'll see what I think tomorrow.

Revised vine golem

Flashback to May 2009. That vine golem's cute, but the flowers have far too much linework, the shapes don't flow quite right and the colouring is muddy. It needs a revamp.

That's more like it. I think the biggest problem with the old version was the line density. I did a lot of small things to improve the ratio of lines to open space. The flowers were dialed way back, trusting in the colouring to give them definition. The mask is redone and made to contribute to the 3d flow of the pose.

I decided some of the vine twirlies were unnecessary and removed them. A lot of the body lines were tweaked and separated slightly to make sure there was more body than outline.

I made up for all the lost texture with the colouring, now that I'm "allowed" to use detail shading. Much more vivid and tropical now too. It has most of what I liked about the original, but updated to my current standards.

I don't think I'll be giving this treatment to all of my old ones, but this particular one was drawn to my attention and it was nagging at me.