Skybyte! That's me!

This was my entry for an art contest hosted by Transformers World 2005. The object of the competition was for artists to design a statue of any Transformers character in a super deformed style. The winning entry would actually be made into a fully licenced statue by First4Figures. Of course, I had to enter, and who better of a character to pick for such a contest than the smartest shark in town, Skybyte?

Skybyte is the Predacon shark from Transformers: Robots in Disguise, and was the stand out fan-favourite character from the accompanying animated series. Since the RiD animation was in a kind of silly anime style, and since Skybyte would often have dreams in which all the characters were Super Deformed, the choice to draw him for this contest seemed obvious.

I thought it would be to my advantage to give SkyByte some dynamic movement. This can sometimes be difficult when working with SD, but since he's a tall, lanky character who is an effective fighter under water I thought it would be appropriate. So I have him jumping out of the water. The water, an SD version of classic Japanese prints of waves, would serve as a base for the statue, which would probably be held up by a clear rod. Since Skybyte loved to learn about the Earth's literature and poetry, I designed the statue with a book of "Human Poetry" in his hand. The fact that he's jumping out of the water while still looking at the opened book is just part of the comedy.

While this design will not be made into a statue, I was awarded with a spot in the 10 best entries! I'm pretty happy about that, but it sure would have been cool to win. Not for any selfish reasons, but because I really think Skybyte should be made into a statue!

Finished in the Autumn of 2005 with Photoshop and Streamline.

As a bonus, here's a look at some of the drawings I did before I decided on the above design.

© Hasbro/Takara

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