Okay, so worked out some layers working with the knight idea.
And then to make sure the whole design works in an actual comic panel…
author: Mike
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5616951
Looks I’m actively trying to avoid: https://img0.etsystatic.com/179/0/7023895/il_340x2… and https://www.cosplayhouse.com/var/images/product/39…
Your in-progress sketches gave me an idea though. Rather than the crown symbol above the eye line that I see in the rightmost sketch, can a stylized crown become the optics themselves? While I thought about that, I remembered the wings adorning a ton of the fancier armors - usually on the back, anime style, but it needn’t be that. What about forming a mouth-guard out of them? Super-rough sketch to follow.
author: Bill G.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
((Agree completely on Sentinals of the Multiverse.))
author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5617408
Had some trouble sleeping due to our impending snow storm (sinuses, man…) so I decided to iterate a little more. I went a little heavy into the tokusatsu designs, but we’ll get into my comments below.
1 & 4. Bill’s design pretty much verbatium and my own take on it. It kind of feels weird to try and get those wings to work well. I’ll try some other ideas later.
2. A more classical knight helmet.
3. Somewhere between Voltron and Pharah from Overwatch.
5. For some reason, I smirk at the idea of Link repurposing a wielding helmet for his battlesuit.
6 & 9 & 12. Variations on your normal Power Rangers-ish helmet, with 12 taking a bit from the recent Robocop.
7. Trying the wings again. Doesn’t feel right. Too Techno-Viking.
8. Taking the idea of the Bull a little too literally.
10. Also some Robocop.
11. I was totally watching Robotech on Netflix while doing this and felt Bill would approve. Those flight helmets man, I almost bought one a few years back. If they had Roy’s color scheme, I probably would have broke down and done it. Feels like it’s a little plain as is, but probably with a bit of modification it could be something. To the right is a side view.
author: Mike
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5625041
I was totally watching Robotech on Netflix while doing this and felt Bill would approve. Those flight helmets man, I almost bought one a few years back. If they had Roy’s color scheme, I probably would have broke down and done it. Feels like it’s a little plain as is, but probably with a bit of modification it could be something. To the right is a side view.
I very much imprinted on Robotech back in the day, so, yeah, I’ve sort of had those images in my brain as you’ve been discussing all this armor for Link.
author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5625209
11 looks pretty good for where Link is right now: scrounging tech and using his own ideas with the few safe devices he got access to from Rossum’s old lab, after AEGIS took it over. From the neck down, your most recent armor was solidly in that same aesthetic.
Earlier versions might have literally had a welding mask, I hope he’s moved past that by now. But the idea of it suits his lower tech, practical approach to inventions. Not a lot of fancy add-ons or gewgaws, just whatever works best and isn’t fragile.
author: Bill G.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
Got it. When I get home, I’ll try working out some aesthetically pleasing variations and try to match the armor a little more. Also, we’ll start on some Pneuma and Otto designs. I’ve also got some ideas for Ghost Girl and Mercury to work out… okay, this is starting to sound like a week’s worth of work.
Doyce, is there room in the budget for an art team? What do you mean there isn’t a budget?!
author: Mike
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5625610
In all seriousness if you have a PayPal donation link or patreon or etc I would like to contribute.
author: Bill G.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
Bill G. said:
In all seriousness if you have a PayPal donation link or patreon or etc I would like to contribute.
Believe me when I say if my experience with Doyce trying to commission me is any indication, attempting to pay me with actual legal tender will turn me into an anxiety-ridden mess that hardly touches a pen out of guilt and self-doubt. Instead, pay me with praise and support in my future endeavors (whenever I actually get around to those, I’ve been procrastinating on a comic since around 2005-6). Besides, I make more than enough money at my day job and the stress-relief and enjoyment I get out of making art is a fine payment for my time.
author: Mike
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
Chiming in with a vote for helmet eleven, as well as the “wish we could donate to the cause without it causing anxiety” faction. 
author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5626066
Mike, you are doing the one thing I haven’t had an artist do literally in years, which is make it through one round of sketches and feedback for a character I play. I cannot overstate how grateful I am for that. It means a lot and I want to properly express that, whether through money or otherwise. So, thank you.
author: Bill G.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
Your welcome Bill. I am very proud of my stubborn perseverance, and I’m glad that it is working for this.
And now some lunchtime Ghost Girl sketches.
Compare with my previous GG. I felt before I’d felt I’d made her face a bit generically cute and decided to make something a bit more distinct and creepy cute. Also, I love the half ghost design (inspired by Saga’s Izabel, who is also a teenage ghost) though I’d like to do something distinct and incorporate something with how Charlotte died into her design, but I don’t know that it has come up.
To the right we have three different designs for how she looks when she freaks out:
1. Demonic/Ghostbusters-style ghost
2. Skeletal ghost
3. Disintegrate into dust and fire!
4. (not pictured) Rewatch Beetlejuice and the Nightmare Before Christmas and make some Tim Burton-style horror.
A quick to-do list for the third iteration (I think I need to add this for everyone. Harry hasn’t gotten a lot of love, sadly.):
- Finalize the scare look. Going to need some feedback for that.
- Add at least one more affectation of the modern world. Are sunglasses too much? I feel sunglasses would be too much. I think I need someone to fit that big sister aesthetic she’s got going on. Add a coat? Hmm…
- Add a bit of personality to the pose. I sort of want to do something where she’s chatting with someone with a coffee cup in hand from… what was the name of the coffee shop? I remember it being a pun.
- To the previous bullet point, add PowerPony. This was the image that was picked out for her, right? Shouldn’t be hard stylizing that look.
author: Mike
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
The coffee shop was “Bump & Grind” – but I love “Hungry Ghost”.
author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
As for scary faces… https://i.imgur.com/UWZUB93.gif
author: Bill G.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
Bill G. said:
As for scary faces… https://i.imgur.com/UWZUB93.gif
*snort* Yes. I must do a version of Ghost Girl that vomits rainbows, yes. Oh Karina, I get linked her comics all the time but never go through reading all of them, which is a shame because she’s got some really kickass art.
Anyway, some post dinner doodles that got away from me. More Link as I play around with that helmet design.
So first, much more detailed Leo this time around. Trying to figure out what anime hair would look like semi-realistic is a futile effort, by the way. I have way too many friends that cosplay and watching them shape and contort wigs is sorcery, I swear. Anyway, on to helmets.
While drawing this out, I suddenly realized that this sort of resembled the helmets from Gatchaman and quickly resolved to not make the visor look too bird-like… to middling results. I really wanted to still try to incorporate Bill’s wing idea, but it just looked weird. While I did not include it, one of the sketches ended up looking like Immortan Joe wearing sunglasses and I decided that I did not want to go that shiny and chrome. In the end, I decided to try stylizing it out into some antennas which I think works a little bit. The overall shape and style, however, totally looks like something that could come out of a tokusatsu show (throw some antenna on there and he’d be a fine Big Bad Beetleborg).
I feel like there’s probably one more revision in here (still seems like it’s missing something), I like the current end result.
author: Mike
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
Looks good.
“Leo, why does your hair do that anyway?”
“It all has to do with static buildup. The graphene batteries are pretty well insulated everywhere except in the helmet, because of all the leads to the sensors. It builds up a charge on my scalp. I deal with it by pretreating with La Apretadora, then condition, add some Baba de Caracol, and moisturize with Chocolacio Leave In. Vitamin E oil seal-in is the last step. The static makes my hair poofy and feathery, but it’s better than my head feeling itchy all the time through the helmet.”
author: Bill G.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop