Click To Enlarge
Well, let me say that this was a little challenging. I knew the movie designs were so loaded with unnecessary details and general shapes and forms that didn't make sense that it'd be a bit of a nightmare. But then I remembered whats important to do. Make it your own. You know its live action bumblebee, you know I drew it, and thats the point. With a few small tweaks... and just focusing on the main shapes that make it recognizable, you can concentrate on the general design without getting lost in the details. I actualy think 'Bay' should take notes. I think if the aesthetic properties of the movie designs were toned down in detail and generaly designed around a less 'clunky junkyard' silhouette and more like a humanoid silouette as i've done here, the whole franchise's designs would have been far better received. Anywho, just a little refining and what not of the robot form. Nothing major, as Bumblebee is one of the few that makes sense in a 'humanoid robot form' kinda way. And so I did small things to simplify his general parts but kept them all there. One small tweak was made that 'liscense plate' part yellow top armor, which I thought looked less tacky. But anywho. One of my fav parts of the movie robot design is the yellow 'knuckles' on his otherwise gray hand. Dunno, just dig it. I tweaked the face a bit, its somewhere between G1 and movie, as is the whole thing in general. And absolutely loved working on the SS camaro (whether bumblebee was an SS or not I dont knwo but hey thats what the customer wanted, and I deliver baby!) Though I shot myself a bit by making it more complicated to render the camaro with some unnecessary black fill... which I had to work around and fix mid-colors as is visible in the video. But I reigned it back in, got it under control and with the help of some Fu Manchu towards the end, locked down some stylish background stylie and color tweaks and effects.
Enjoy Jason! And thanks for the commission!
Full recording of the coloring work below:
(For some reason Livestream hasn't added this video to the library yet, which has happened before. Will add it up as soon as its available.)
