Toehunger

Sketching to you from the time after the time before time

[toehunger]

Hey Neighbor - Jul’ 26

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Another train drawing. This one feels a little unfinished honestly so might paint up shortly, but pretty excited actually about this McToran design I got going on here. The arm design being like a semi-aesthetic “sleeve” over the mechanics is kind of interesting

[toehunger]

Reidak - Apr ‘26

Lines: Muji pen

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Quick thumbnail on the train this morning. At this point i guess i have been trying to figure out a good way to draw Piraka for 20 years and…. The attempts continue. Their head is just the weirdest shape and the spines get so hard to place in space. More attempts to follow (peep part of an abandoned Thok on the right)

Recently remembered line weight is my friend

[toehunger]

Nuju Metru study - Mar ‘26

Lines: ballpoint

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Bonks back on my mind. This was totally from memory so don’t focus too hard on the scope being on the wrong eye… Twice

Shout out to those Noah Greenspan videos, it’s been fun doing a lore runback during work recently. I’ve been wanting to draw these guys again lately, and have also been more invested than ever in the “bio” aspect and the idea that these guys are supposed to be creepy robot-with-lungs freaks that I think gets sanded away unless you really think about it. Additional shouts to the animations on the Renaissance VFX youtube channel that I think does a great job capturing this perspective

Anyway my habit tracker app thing says this is my first post here in 1100 days but whose counting, ha ha whoops! I’m trying to make a more intentional practice of sketching all around these days which I think will extend to toehunger as well so we’ll see where this goes

[toehunger]

Stargazer - Feb ‘23

Lines: Muji pen, Prismacolor marker

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Really liked the composition here, feels very dramatic or sweet, and been wanting to draw onua for like a year. His mask keeps tripping me up. This ones actually like 5 weeks old, I kept saying I wanted to paint it before posting and then kept on not having the time. Still want to paint this one at some point!

[toehunger]

Rahaga Thumbs - Jan ‘23

Lines: ballpoint, Muji pen

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Messy. Wanted to do something cleaner eventually but i do feel like these have a nice character to them. Iruini and Kualas i guess?

[toehunger]

Nokama Metru - Nov ‘22

Lines: mechanical pencil

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You dont use pencil very often in industrial design sketching, and i gotta say, we are missing out! So nice and loose

I was so stoked to finally draw a toa metru (it was actually supposed to be vakama when i started) and so i tried no less than 3 times to digitally paint this and never got close to anything i was happy with. Just hard to get a good result against such loose lines or something. Not to say ill never get around to painting it but…. Dont hold your breath

[toehunger]

Clockwork Cop - Nov ‘22

Lines: Sharpie gel pen

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Warmup napkin sketch. More fun stuff coming. Is this the first time ive sketched a subject twice? Whoops

[toehunger]

Nuju Hordika - May ‘22

Lines: muji pen, prismacolor marker

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Clearly a lot of web of shadows movie influence here lol. Wish the sets had been more like them

[toehunger]

Matoro Mahri - May ‘22

Ink: sharpie pen

Color: procreate

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Playing with new effects for that undersea look. White is probably the hardest color to nail that with, which is not why i picked matoro but

[toehunger]

Turaga Vakama - January ‘22

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This one was fun! A little grittier and maybe dirtier looking than usual, i think that’s a fun direction to take these in.

This one still feels a little more “finished” though, I wanna get back into practice of just thumbnailing down a bunch of ideas at once and inking/painting what sticks.

Couldn’t tell if I loved the background but when i finished painting the character he looked a little jarring against white, so here’s both, open to any feedback on preference there. Never say never but can’t see myself straying again from analog linework for these, if nothing else i think the effect of the paper tooth gives these a nice feel

Lines: ballpoint

Color: Procreate

[toehunger]

The Commuter - Sept ‘21

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Orkahm headed to work. This was a little more of a production than usual, the sketch was like a 5 minute doodle but once I finished it i knew what kind of color palette and light effects I wanted to achieve and so it took some time to paint up.

I like the idea that chute surfing would turn into a dull annoying commute after a while. I think a lot about this line from a Spoon song, “every kind of fortune gets old”

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Lines: prismacolor marker

Color: procreate

[toehunger]

Tarakava - Aug ‘21

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Found it. Also found a really great copic marker brush a little while back that helped bring this one together.

Drew this guy without reference until close to the end so it looks a little thin, maybe it’s a baby. Still wouldn’t mess around with those boxing gloves though. This was a nice semi-mindless Rahi detour but I’d like to get to do some more Toa and other major characters shortly.

Lines: Muji pen

Color: Procreate

[toehunger]

Ahhh crap. I drew a tarakava like 2 weeks ago to paint and I dunno where I put it.

To be continued

[toehunger]

For those interested, here’s a timelapse video of the making of my previous sketch. I work very differently digitally than analog (digital is much more forgiving, I tend to work better under the pressure of analog) so you can get an idea of how this sketch was conceived and laid out. I had the idea solidly in ky head but it took a while for the composition to get there.

Not terribly different from how I lay out presentation sketches digitally for my design work, I basically just did this same thing for a product pitch last night!

Also peep the random thumbnails I threw down before the final drawing 👀 I’m sure a couple of those will make a comeback down the line

[toehunger]

The Runner - August ‘20

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What do you think he did?

Spent more time on this than I probably ever planned to on a toehunger sketch but it was too much fun and I just had this really dynamic composition stuck in my head. Still gotta work on my lighting/shading, which ive been saying for like 12 years now.

All digital toehunger for the first time! Still not my favorite way to work for most applications but it does have its advantages obviously. I have bigger issues with it for figural sketching like this than i do for my normal design sketching

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Lines and Color: Procreate

[toehunger]

Silent Nuurakh - August ‘20

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🤷‍♂️ hey! Maybe im back again stay tuned. I think i actually finished some of these and never put them up, i remember drawing like mutran last year. I wanna mess with doing these all digital

Lines: muji pen, prismacolor marker

[toehunger]

I’m also not sure how I managed to avoid this topic so far, but it’s probably worth mentioning I’ve actually worked inside the toy design industry at some of the bigger companies (not Lego..... yet).

I’ve seen how the sausage is made and what the toy design process really looks like. To be honest, it was not quite what I expected and it might not be what you expect either if you’ve never been in it before.

If anyone comes by here and has any questions about the toy design world or might be looking into going into product design and wants to ask a question, please don’t hesitate! I’d love to help if I can.