A Different Kind Of Warm-Up

I've made a fair amount of posts on this blog so far that feature some strange creatures I've drawn whilst doing warmup doodles after plugging in my tablet. Well, the other day I decided to try something different - I asked people to give me the name of a character, and I tried to draw said character from memory. Most of the names I was given were of various Robot Masters of the Megaman series, but some characters I wasn't so familiar with, which led to some amusing results.

First we have Jupiter of the Megaman series (who I used to draw a lot, so he was fairly easy to remember), Metal Sonic of the Sonic series (whose appearance I got completely wrong - apparently the only thing I could remember about him was those seriously creepy eyes), one of my friends herself, and Burstman also of the Megaman series (who I also draw a lot, so his appearance was easy to remember despite being so crowded).

Next up we have Shademan of the Megaman series (whose appearance I didn't quite capture, but I got the gist of it), a silly character belonging to one of my friends who goes by the name of Crashmandicoot, Tlun (who's actually one of my characters so I'm not sure why I was asked to draw him, but I did it anyways) and Gyroman also of the Megaman series, who I think I've only ever drawn once, so I'm kind of surprised how accurate I was with his appearance.

Next up we have Microwaveman (who's actually a silly Robot Master of my own creation, but I hadn't drawn him in a long time so I couldn't actually remember the design I had for him), Brightman of the Megaman series, Skeleton King from DOTA 2 (who I had to look up a reference for briefly and then try to draw from memory, which, as you can see, didn't turn out too great because his design is very complex and detailed) and Crashman also of the Megaman series, who was insanely easy to remember because his design is so simple and I've drawn him a lot in the past.

Next up was Snakeman once again of the Megaman series (who I haven't actually drawn in a while, but I could still remember his details and things because I used to draw him a lot), Shadowman also of the Megaman series (who I don't think I've ever really drawn before), Dynamoman also of the Megaman series (whose design I got very much wrong save for his dome, so I threw in an inside joke to make up for it) and Plantman also of the Megaman series, who I decided to draw picking his nose with his vines for some reason. Hm.

And last but not least, Springman once again of the Megaman series and Skeletor from He-Man (whose appearance I could barely remember at all, as is probably evident here).

I ended up getting a lot more suggestions than anticipated, so I was at this for a good hour or two, but it was a great way to get myself loosened up before I started working on something properly.

It seemed to work, because when I moved onto sketching, I tried out a new way of structuring the body, and it made drawing poses and things that I used to struggle with a lot easier. There are still flaws and things, of course, but I'm pretty pleased with the above sketch - especially so because legs are something I normally struggle with, and here I was able to draw them with relative ease. I was also able to draw it pretty quickly, so it came out nice and fluid, too.

Comparing it to this picture I did about two or three years ago, it's nice to see my general anatomy has improved, too.

Never underestimate the power of warm-up doodling, I guess.