Commission Process

I was contacted to do a commission a few days ago.

The brief I received was as follows:

Setting: Near-future/cyberpunk

Art Brief: A badass woman in a high-tech armored wingsuit grinds a hapless humanoid robot to its destruction.

Mood/Emotion: Righteous violence

Details: She wears a translucent visor and carries a pair of Japanese-style swords (one short, one long.)

Ideas/Suggestions: The swords should be worn both on the same side, attached to the hip/belt area with a cord or cable wrapped around their scabbards

I was also sent various visual references about the pose, wing-suit/armor, swords... I gathered them in a single file:

In left superior corner the pose ref, next to it sword's ref and below all the armor refs.

First thing... to loosen up, because if not, everything can be uptight and stiff. Aim should be to relax and just play around, move the hand, let it flow without hesitation nor fear. Avoid start things super stiff and jump into details. At least this way I tend to work better.

It's obvious the super loose(r) drawings. But if you like a rather nonsensical doodle, and keep giving it form you may end up with something simple, perhaps dynamic, and conveying.

That's the order in which they were popping up.

Now I like to send sketches with a little more presentation. Something simple.

So I tend to do a sketchy grayish and textured background...

And stack a color layer on top of the sketches.

Client liked better sketch B. I proceeded and make it bigger and start getting it into shape.

I wanted a little more room in the part where the poor robot was going to be so moved a little bit the character up. Also she looks better now.

I thought the robot's head could be in a different perspective.

But nah didn't like it that way. I keep detailing and sculpting the black masses of pixels until this came out:

Client wanted the visor on the forehead instead of on the eyes. Also they gave me context about the story of the characters:

... she's attacking a corrupt rich guy's bodyguard robots. For her approach, she dives in from an airplane, coasting in a wingsuit before crashing through a skylight and tackling the robot in the moment this piece depicts.

And that's it. Poor roboto. I don’t think he made it.