In the short film I’m working on, Metal Bum, the opening sequence requires the robot protagonist to be depicted in a soldier’s outfit. I painted the above image in order to figure out the look of the robot in wartime. I wanted to sell the idea of the robot being a war veteran in the quickest, most visual, and efficient way possible. To that end, I gave it an iconic soldier helmet (as silly as it may be since it’s already made of out metal) and a olive green color scheme. Of course I also threw in the standard issue assault rifle, grenades, and combat knife to complete the picture.

I started with line art and flat color shading, which took about 2 hours. Then I elaborated on details and rendering after a break of a couple of days for an additional 4 or so hours. I’m getting quicker, but I could still be improving on speed. Another artist with skills superior to mine would be able to take the rendering much further given the same amount of time.

Nothing wrong with a little traditional pencil and paper approach to concept art. I was inspired by the traditional pencil sketches done by Alan Lee and John Howe for The Hobbit and the Rings Trilogy, and Matthew Nava’s work for Journey. The above was drawn with a mechanical pencil loaded with 2B lead during a figure drawing session. I got bored of the model towards the end and started doodling this battle scene. Took me roughly 40 minutes. For the sake of my sanity this would be presented as a war photography still in the film, not full motion!