Rodimus, #1 minimegs fan, and mecha fanatic! || 15yo (MINOR) He/Him || NSFW dni || tags: my art, shitpost, doodle || https://thelostlightship.straw.page/
|| I block freely, for any reason! ||
Seriously, how do you draw Cybertronians so well? You're an inspiration, and anything that says otherwise is lying through its teeth. I dug up your first drawing on your blog and wow, the improvement was incredible. So yes, the first question is an actual question. I need, absolutely need to know 😭. Do you have any tips for drawing Cybertronians? Anything you learned that made a huge difference? Could you talk about your improvement process? What did you study to learn how to draw Cybertronians?
*takes a deep breath after diving through your blog*
No pressure, answer only if you want 🫶
ohh my god this gave me the biggest toothiest grin you have no idea how much that means to me 😭😭😭 THIS IS SO SWEET
Anyhow, me learning to draw transformers was kind of just a process of trial and error, and I kept drawing and drawing them till I figured out a way that works I guess? Honestly there's times I look at my earlier art of transformers and go "how the. how the fuck did i go from that to this huh what happened"
Some of the things I did was study Alex Milne's art and the way he draws things since he's my biggest inspo for drawing transformers :D You can find some videos of him drawing on youtube, and also just check his art out on twitter and some on Tumblr at @markerguru001 !!
This is a video I watched for example of him drawing just to see how his process goes and adopting some of that into my own processes
The main things that really helped me get better at drawing transformers is improving my grasp on form and shape, and really observing what shapes makes up a transformer's design. Most of the time it's lots of blocks! I guess I unintentionally did the box exercise by just drawing a billion transformers which is kind of hilarious
I drew Nightbeat the other day for example and just turned him into boxes, adding the rest of his kibble ontop of those main shapes, and kinda just. sculpting him I guess. the big thing is definitely to get the main body down before going onto the details (which I don't always follow but it's generally a good thing to do) because then you know how to draw Cybertronians from the ground up !!!!
Another thing was just me generally breaking some drawing habits I had such as messy asf lines and building a lot more line confidence. I started to sketch things using hard line brushes rather than pencil brushes because it forces me to get the main idea down of the drawing, making my sketches easier to follow and more concise.
Also reading the comics helped me hoard references of my favourite characters so I can understand their form better HEH, such as my gigantic folders of Megatron and Ultramagnus/Minimus Ambus <3
Try and guess which folder is which, I dare you... but yeah having a lot of different views of the TF you're trying to draw is generally just quite useful, depending on the poses they're in
Overall that's probably the most amount of advice I can give because I am not too great at explaining the way I do things; it's built through muscle memory and mileage + intense robot autism. As well as learning through failure a bunch of times.
Just fuck around and find out I say; or draw a ton of robot yaoi + get really really good at drawing your favs because that's literally most of what I did
Every couple weeks I see someone making the point that IDW1 ruins its premise because the Decepticons started out 'in the right' and ended in galactic genocide, which itches a little. I feel like many people miss the 'point', if there was any, which is that the Decepticons were always a faction that correctly diagnosed many problems with their society and then used that fear and anguish towards personal gain.
Long post ↓
To be clear: Megatron is a fascist. This isn't something he slowly formed into over the course of the war, it's how he started it. At some point he personally believed in a route that followed pacifist, collective reform, but this was never his true party line. Megatron didn't envision a world where the subjugated were free from their hierarchy, he envisioned a world where he was on top instead.
Quoth Towards Peace: '...your "betters"? You have none. We are all equal. And we have a right to decide how to live our lives.' This is notably not, and never was, how the Decepticons were organized. Hearing it straight from Megatron's mouth, one might believe this is completely at odds with what they become in the future, but that's exactly what he wants his listener to believe. Here's one of my favorite moments in all of IDW:
Over and over again, he says us versus them. He doesn't specify who 'they' are, because the point is that the listener can fill that image in with their own personal grievances. He wants them to believe, as Drift says, that there is no other way. He does not believe in equality. He poses the Decepticons as the "betters" instead— the strong, the powerful, the just; they are the true voice of Cybertron, the real heart of this nation. The way Megatron speaks eliminates any shade of grey from their world. There is only us and the enemy, and the enemy is both infinitely powerful, oppressive, and infinitely weak, pathetic. Never mind that there are people within the system who seek to change it for the better, like Orion Pax, never mind that there are people on the streets already fighting for it, like Hot Rod. There's only with Megatron, or against him. And if you are with him, you are stronger, more noble than you have ever been.
Believing that Megatron's voice is the only one speaking for justice in IDW1's pre-war Cybertron is falling for his charisma. The Decepticons were never the 'good guys'. Megatron used the pain of his people as leverage to put himself in power...
...and if they're brutal, cruel, it can only be the fault of the system. The Decepticons didn't make themselves that way.
...if they're selfish, deceptive, it's only a failing to hold close enough to their zealotry. There is nothing wrong with the heart of the movement— the true heart of Cybertron.
A real Decepticon is always just.
The Decepticon Cause meant something different to every person who believed in it. But the Decepticon army exists with the singular purpose of war, of which the singular purpose is control. Megatron is ruthless, nationalist, anti-religion and anti-compassion. He pretends his expansionism is defense. His vision for the future is freedom only for himself.
All that to say it pains me greatly when people say that IDW is flawed specifically for having the early Autobots be in the wrong and the Decepticons in the right. The point isn't that either of them are the right one, but rather that war is never just. There are no perfect heroes in IDW; only millions and millions of murderers. This is what I love about it!!
Please more minimegs please God your art is so gooooood I need mooorreeee
I willlll I also just need some more ideas atm because my brain is running low on power ... sometimes I also just need to take an art break after doing a major piece HAHA
patience.... patience dear one.... although you guys can probably comment things or send ideas in my inbox you'd like to see drawn of them (I might take them up or get inspired who knows)
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