"Cybrid Hunter-Killer"

This was a Scarab-equivilent design based loosely off of the old Diablo concept. If you look closely at the two images side by side, they're almost the same thing. My intention here wasn't to do any real designing, but to try to draw in a more loose and organic style. I once again fell to Ian Christy's old Shepherd design as a source of minor inspiration, especially for the sensor fins.

I enjoyed drawing this, despite it taking many hours. The process of inking an image is painstaking: with each minor scratch you can ruin the entire drawing and hours of work. This means you not only have to primary every single line on the image, but also draw them all dark enough for it to be recognizeable to the human eye.

I enjoyed using light on this image until I got to the main guns and legs, which I had never totally designed away. Some small spaces were open, so I had to fill in the gaps, yet the body was shifted in such a way that those areas should have been all black. I took the liberty of ignoring my own plausibilities and drew them in anyway.

Overall, I like how this turned out, as it's pretty much exactly what was in my head, more or less, which can be a rarity for an artist. This is also one of the few images I had already almost totally completed in my head before I'd even started. As I said before, it was mostly already designed - I just wanted to draw it in a specific style. It looks like something you might see out a comic book... a poorly inked one, but still.

As far as the design itself goes, what you see is what you get. The forearms are there for tactile use, the main guns are for killin'. I'm not sure what the rods on the top are. I just drew them there because I wanted something overhanging to balance the image a little. The sensor fins and the pods they're attached to are one oddity I should mentioned - in my head, I picture the pods folding up, either for greater sensor clairity or for combat (take your pick), making the design look a little more Shepherd-like.

One of the best parts about drawing is that you can cheat and make the design move in unrealistic ways that can look somewhat natural on paper. A modeler doesn't have the same freedom, nor does an animator.