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[maddyfish]

I am not a great artist. When I got TRO 3085 and RS 3085 I really liked the Ebony mech's stats, but it's artwork is horrid. I have thought and and said aloud at our games that i think even I could do better artwork for the Ebony. So, I will be putting my pencil where my mouth is-

Guidelines. It should retain the flavor of the Ebony, be instantly recognizable as an Ebony, but not be goofy looking.

This first attempt was done in about 10 minutes, just to see how I could do. It is not meant to be a copy.

Ebony 1



Likes-- I like the legs, and the center torso, I may go in this direction to correct the head
Dislikes-- I don't like the head, the groin or the arms

[serrate]

Looking forward to seeing the next edition Jarod.  It's the head that I think I have the most problem with on the original art, and I don't think you've solved that issue.  Chaffee always seems to be drawing protomechs or battle armor (see Parash and Kuma).  His Ursus II on the other hand, looks just fine. 

[maddyfish]

The head presents one of the biggest problems. The head both gives the mech it's distinct appearance, and is the artwork's biggest problem.  Head are a couple head ideas.






I certainly see what you mean, it almost looks like a suit of armor instead of a mech.

[Death or Glory]

Well your illustrations so far are definitely an improvement over the canon illustration, however the ebony suffers from both being terribly drawn and terribly artistically designed.  While you've definitely solved the issue of the canon art looking like it was scribbled out by a five year old using his off hand, the issue of the Ebony being on par with the Yeoman in terms of just looking laughably ridiculous remains.  The head is definitely the main culprit here.  Your redesigns of the head are definitely improvements, but I still don't really like them.  At this point, my main suggestion would be to try to make the head look less sleek and curved and more blocky.
 

Looking forward to seeing the next edition Jarod.  It's the head that I think I have the most problem with on the original art, and I don't think you've solved that issue.  Chaffee always seems to be drawing protomechs or battle armor (see Parash and Kuma).  His Ursus II on the other hand, looks just fine.  

It's weird, I really like his Aerospace illustrations and his vehicle illustrations are decent, but his battlemech illustrations are all terrible.  This seems to be a case of an artist being forced to work outside of his comfort zone and area of specialty.  For future TROs, they should definitely have him stick with what he's good at.  Then again, I like a lot of the non-blood kite artwork from TRO 3067, which is frequently cited as being one of the worst TROs art wise, so what do I know .

edit: Sorry for the negative tone for much of this post, I just really hate the artwork for the Ebony and am still shocked by the fact that it actually made it into a TRO.

[maddyfish]

DoG, I agree with everything you have said, there is no way to approach this piece of art without being negative.

Your point about being more blocky. Yes!, my next full body attempt will be more blocky overall.

An interesting thing about the feet, the feet in the RS and in the TRO are different. I am not sure if this piece was still recieving revisions in between releases or not.

[maddyfish]

Attempt 3



I am not sure how far you can go with this concept, as the proportions are very human-like, seems to me it will be hard to make it look like a mech and not a suit of armor.

[Darrian Wolffe]

Remember, some Mechs are supposed to look like suits of armor - that's part of where the whole "modern Knight" mystique that was around in 3025 came from.  Witness, for example, the Griffin or Black Knight.

With that said, of course, I'm up for ANY redesign of the Ebony, which I'm, as an MoC player, totally "in hate" over.

[phlop]

I would agree with the human concept, alot of mechs have that style. Several of your light mech fav's are in that category.

[maddyfish]

^^True, but it should look human like I guess, but, without looking stiff and form fitted. It's hard to put into words.

For instance, an unseen Wasp, it is human form, but still looks robotic.

[maddyfish]

One thing that bugs me. SOme people will make excuses for the Ebony-and other bad art- saying "Oh it's a taste thing" or "It's subjective"

No, it is  not.  For instance--

The Yeoman, I do not find it to be an attractive mech, either in TRO art or mini BUT the TRO pic is well drawn, and the mini is very faithful to the TRO pic. So, it is good art, just not my to my taste.

The Ebony is poorly drawn. Maybe it would look better if another artist redrew it.

[Darrian Wolffe]

^^True, but it should look human like I guess, but, without looking stiff and from fitted. It's hard to put into words.

I think it's a couple of things.  Looking at the pic in 3085, I can match up armor segments to actual, REAL, pieces of armor.  The Mech actually has a vambrace on the left arm, rerebraces, pauldrons (well, closer to spaulders since they don't overlap the chest), a "frog" helm, a breast protector, cuisses, and what look like greaves.  The panel lines define these pieces and make it look to our pattern-matching eyes like it actually IS a suit of armor.  The "human" comparison goes even further with a totally non-mechanical hip region (seriously, compare it to a Warhammer or Atlas, neither of which a human could actually fit into if you keep the joints in the right places) and the fact that Chaffee drew actual, honest-to-god RIBS on the damn thing!

So how to fix it?  From the top down:

1) Give the head a makeover.  More detail, less rounding.  Give it one large visor instead of 2 eyeslits. 

2) Give it a clearly defined neck, instead of the "bucket" it currently has.

3) Take the ribs out of the chest and block it up a bit.  Not much - it's not too bad on that count and there are Mechs just as curved.  Make the flank torso panels flat panels that meet at obtuse angles, rather than being single, rounded sections.

4) Redesign the hips.  Take out the groin plate and give it clearly-defined hip actuators.

5) Un-round the legs.  Again, have a single flat plate on the front of the leg and have flat plates at obtuse angles forming a circle (say, half of an octagon) instead of actual rounded plates.

1b) When you do the head, DRAW THE EYESLITS THE SAME SIZE!  I just noticed this on my last look.  With the one eyeslit a slightly different size than the other one, it looks like it's cocking an eyebrow at you.  The right eye is larger than the left, and is shaped differently.  Giving the Mech a defined emotional "expression" goes a HUGE way toward anthropomorphizing it in our pattern-recognizing brains.