The Great War: Technical Drawing against Artistic Representation!

First thing I should mention is that I did this for school. Yep, I somehow managed to work Transformers into a school project. Not just any project either, but the final project for my Foundation Drawing class in the first semester of my first year at the Ontario College of Art and Design. And I walked away with a good mark. These pictures are digital photos, so they don't really do justice to the work, unfortunately. You'll have to excuse some of the shiny pencil lines from the camera flash.

The assignment was to somehow combine both technical and artistic ways of drawing into one large piece. So I took my Optimus Prime toy and drew it exactly as it looks in real life from a flat perspective with as much detail as possible. Look how thin and weak his arms are in this version.

Then, on another illustration board, I drew Prime in a much more simplified, streamlined style, which is closer to the animated series or comics. It's still my own interpretation of the character, as each artist interprets those details from the toy in a different way. For instance, I like to make the feet really big. Wow, look at the difference between the two. The toy just looks pale in comparison. But the artistic interpretation could never realistically transform in three dimensions.

I did this with watercolours and coloured pencils on cold press illustration board. The outlines were done with a soft graphite pencil, as I've wanted to experiment with that technique for awhile. This is another piece of work that I finished in one night, sometime in December of 2001. Indeed, I am insane for doing that much work in such a short time, but it all worked out in the end. Except for the fact that it was due the day before the final exam, so I was pretty freakin' tired after presenting it and I fell asleep when I should have been studying.

I don't know why I draw Optimus so much. It's not like I really like the guy or anything.

© Hasbro/Takara

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