VR7's New Artwork Thread

[Ryujin]

I reallly like the secondary AS drives & the lower legs on the revised Ardor, especially the calves.

[crashlegacy14]

sweet, a few questions.

1) is that cockpit designed to be similar to the panoramic cockpit that can be jetsoned? (like the one char used in CCA?)

2) looking at the arms I'm not sure if the blade retracts into the arm or if it is similar to the exia's blade. if the blade is not a flip blade and is retracted, does the other arm feature the same weapon. I mean in the Andromeda System thread you discribed them using mainly melee and energy weapons are the melee weapons likewise made of energy, i.e. beam blades?

how similar is the Ardor to the Aglaope or visa-versa I mean like gimick wise? same basic designs and the wing binders?

[VR7]

The cockpit was originally meant to be a rear-mounted ejection pod similar to the Sazabi, but eventually I discovered that the new torso design could squeeze a cockpit in there, so I did. As a result though, the ejection capability is gone.

With Ardor's SSA blade, I played a bit with some different ideas, such as having a similar weapon to Exia's GN sword rifle, or a retracting blade, but I ended up settling with a blade similar to Jehuty's. It's a solid flip blade made out of Andromeda SSA, (tentative name based on the wiki data) the material used by Ardor and pretty much every other Combat Frame.

The left arm doesn't have a built-in weapon. It's going to carry some kind of shield, I have yet to design one or its other optional armament though.

The current Ardor actually had a major design change--it carries three AS Drives, (AS Units will be omitted from the story, the change won't be reflected on the wiki until I move to a new server) one main drive and two secondary drives. The secondary drives are mounted in the wing binders and are now used for propulsion, allowing the main drive to allocate more power to other functions of the Frame.

It makes the drives more susceptible to damage though. Someone suggested allowing the boosters to be jettisoned. I currently say no to that though, since having design flaws left in intentionally (especially for ace pilot units) can be fun.

In the storyline, Aglaope is a twin designed alongside Ardor. Basic design should be the same or very similar, except Aglaope carries a completely different armament and possesses presumably wackier performance characteristics. I don't know if it will have the triple AS drive system that Ardor is currently using.

Note though, because Ardor is the foundation from which I judge my own mech designs, Aglaope and most of my already existing mecha will have to be redesigned as well.

[crashlegacy14]

of course, I was mainly asking because there dosen't seem to be that much info about many of the "main units" out and I kinda wanta take a crack at drawing a combat frame, specficly Aglaope since the standing design of it is the oldest/least updated of the Three frames you have drawn.

In your art of it it has some sort of "bulbs" on the back of it which seeing your latest Ardor makes me thing of them as the aditional drives. where as I intialy thought they could have been some sort of bit/fang storage system.

[VR7]

Ardor has a bit system similar to Jehuty V2's wisps, if that means anything. Also, Apollo isn't a Frame.

Utaware Radio 4koma.

The idea for this comic was actually lurking in my head for a very long time.

[crashlegacy14]

actually the third frame I mentioned was Hestia
http://vr7.deviantart.com/art/Hestia-xa27-77794767

God, I can't remeber the wisps...must look up. wait wasn't that the ranged grab abilit in second runner?

[VR7]

Oh, Hestia. Forgot about that.

In ZOE2, Wisp as a subweapon enabled Jehuty to grab objects from afar using its own wisps, it had i think 2 or 3 of them. When Jehuty upgraded to Jehuty ver. 2, the wisps also became a passive enhancement to Jehuty, which fired along Jehuty or joins in on blade hits.

http://vr7.deviantart.com/art/wRaven-Gun-Pose-85278063
http://vr7.deviantart.com/art/20-minute-Noel-85288756

I haven't drawn anything in a while, (summar job) so I ended up drawing the above two as diagnostic. The first one is kind of crap though.

[VR7]

White Raven gets coloured.

It doesn't take long to paint actually. What usually takes long is the cleanup process for the lineart.

Also I went through a hefty process trying to figure out a colour scheme.

[VR7]

Back on Snow Hawk and Hestia...

Redid Hestia.

As I said before, because Ardor is what I use to judge the standards of my mech design quality, the others will have to be redesigned before I can move on to something new. It's a complete overhaul and it looks a lot more inspiring than my last attempt at a feminine robot.

And a larger than usual drawing of Snow Hawk/Noel.

[Turinu]

I really love the head design of the Hestia. I have a thing for heads in that kind of fashion, dome-like foreheads rather than the usual blocky kind or fin kind. The "pods" or whatever they are on its back strangely go with the flow of the design; it's surely unique, and it works somewhat.

As for your character arts, always know I have a love for them. Keep up the good work~

[crashlegacy14]

My thoughts on the mecha are in the comments for it's image. actually having myself sit long enough to comment made me think. I know your going for hi-mobility dogfighting style combat in mecha combat, but none of your designs so far shows anything in the way of specializations or armaments. well beyond the blade on ardor. you mentioned in your other thread the fact that missiles rape most mecha in your world, but none of the diesgns include them or for that matter hand held objects. this is particularly odd given that you're infulnced by AC, though your ZOE influnces show up much more readily in design.

[VR7]

The idea of emphasizing on missiles and BVR isn't something finalized--I may change things around as I go. Actually, a lot of the ideas I've shared about my comic aren't necessarily final ideas, and some of them I might have even scrapped. High speed aerial/space combat is still an idea that I'm working with though.

Yeah, I need to start designing weapons and other fun stuff too.

I'm still experimenting with that new colouring style. It's not exactly different, since I did virtually the same things with my previous couple of colours. I personally thought it turned out better than my usual coloured stuff. Though, one thing I found was that it didn't matter whether or not I began working on the lineart before or after the painting process. I guess maybe because lineart is a boring process, all I do is just save it for last and delay the inevitable.

Also note that it's still in progress and still extremely blurry.

[crashlegacy14]

well the saying goes, form follows function. You should have a realitevly solid idea of the kind of armaments and gada-which-a-madinkies would be in heavy use.

for instance the entire reason why the ZOE orbital frames don't have normal feet is becuase they're built to go as fast as possible and hardly ever touch the ground. in that case the tapperd leg is droping a good deal of weight compared to say a gundam leg because it's tossing aobut 1/8th the legs mass out the airlock.

[VR7]

Just a small update, I was working on colouring that Snow Hawk drawing I did. It's the same link as from the above post, since I didn't make a new scrap showing my endeavours.

Background is still quite blurry though.

[crashlegacy14]

its really starting to look really good, I'm seeing it alot better, the older verson looked like it was done ontop the line art in some areas and confused me a bit.

[VR7]

Just thought I'd bump with some more boring stuff. My ability to draw has really decayed in the past week or so, I blame MGS4 for my troubles.

That Snow Hawk drawing I did a while back, I actually finished it but didn't feel like linking to here, because it already is linked. A cropped version is on my main gallery though.

I redid Raven's character sketch entirely. I redid it to tune her outfit a bit more, but mainly because I didn't like how she looked last time.

Oh, and emo facial distortions.

[Seraphic]

VR,

Sorry this is a bit late. Your new painting style is coming through nicely. It is a stark change in comparison to the 'comic book' style coloring you were using earlier. But of course, if someone is willing to branch out, it must mean they're skilled enough to do so, right?

About Hestia, it's a very interesting looking design. As everyone else has said, the spherical/circular themed "backpack" looks very unique. And you should know that I am the last person on the planet that should give advice on proportion, but perhaps Hestia could be drawn with a longer neck? It would serve to make her appear all the more graceful. =) And, maybe, something can be done to make the ankles a bit more interesting. There is a lot of 'open-ness' that can be developed upon in this area. My designs generally have terrible ankles. =/

Oh, and about this last work with Raven, it looks very good, and your application of the coloring style is worked in well. I do have to say that the coloring is a bit dark so that it hampers our ability to pick out the details of the drawing. And is it just me, or does she seem very "blonde" when she's decked out in her mini-skirt? Haha. =p

Keep up the work. I'm just trying to sound more useful than just saying "damn, you're awesome!" (And still kicking my ass! Haha.) =o

[VR7]

Late post, I just want to indicate that yeah, I actually did read the post. Back when it was posted.

I actually like the method that I use for my painting style. For some reason though, I'm still currently inclined to believe that it's more of an extension of my old comic book style, rather than a complete deviation from it.

The reason it's dark, if you're wondering, was because I played with using dark gradient washes. The reason I started off with a dark gradient was to try and make the contrast more vibrant. There isn't much difference though and as you've said, it is still rather dark and hard to see, so I might try starting off using brighter colours next time.

I didn't know she came off looking blonde, either.

Edit: Wee.

http://vr7.deviantart.com/art/ardor-gar ... a-92496266

[VR7]

My imagination has gotten rather broke...

http://vr7.deviantart.com/art/Em-Gee-Es ... e-94270514

[crashlegacy14]

my comment is already there.