MotU by j-bird

[Niki]

I really like your ideas, your creativity is amazing but now i know what has bothering me.

It´s my own taste! your slightly tilted poses gave the characters more width.

From the front they look to "skinny" for my taste. MOTU characters are wider in general. Your proportions are exaggerated but still correct but the proportions make the characters look like 17 year old beach boys.

FILMATION used real bodybuilder for their sketches and in the first mini comics all of the characters looked really muscled almost "heavy".

So, yes, it´s my own taste which was the issue

[j-bird]

I just wanted to post a quick update to respond to a couple folks and let y'all know I haven't abandoned this project. In truth, I've been busy getting "parts" refined / organized to use for this little "assembly-required" experiment. That's getting to be a grind, though, so I'm hoping to put together another character / get some color going / et cetera. I've also been sketching and coming up with some ideas in terms of how I want to proceed.

interesting update. i really like the armored base, it works well in linking the look of characters like man-at-arms (looking forward to see the final version), mekaneck and snout spout:
they actually look like part of an army. Designing mek's helmet with nod's to m-a-a's one is a cool touch, as well as king miro's shoulder guards.

Thank you for saying that; part of my goal in these is to have the "parts re-use" make sense in the context of the world these characters inhabit, as well as developing my vision of that world. It also gave me an excuse to tweak Mekaneck's helmet in a little less awkward a direction ...

I really like your ideas, your creativity is amazing but now i know what has bothering me.

It´s my own taste! your slightly tilted poses gave the characters more width.

From the front they look to "skinny" for my taste. MOTU characters are wider in general. Your proportions are exaggerated but still correct but the proportions make the characters look like 17 year old beach boys.

FILMATION used real bodybuilder for their sketches and in the first mini comics all of the characters looked really muscled almost "heavy".

So, yes, it´s my own taste which was the issue

That's fair; hopefully they'll grow on you a little bit as time goes on, but if not, I'm sure I'll change things up again eventually.

EDIT:


Here's my version of Prince Randor. This is (obviously, I think) based on the MYP design for him as Captain Randor. I used this design for the "Prince Randor" version because it was easy to tie into Miro (by tweaking the colors) and Keldor (with the kilt / loincloth bit) and because, in my canon, I'm going to have his "Captain Randor" look more closely resemble some of his DC Comics looks.

At this stage, he is still living in Dyperia with King Miro and his brothers Stefan and Keldor. I think their birth-order would be Keldor > Randor > Stefan. Keldor gets passed over for the throne of Dyperia (because racism, I guess), Randor ends up getting selected by the Council of Elders to rule Eternos (and so abdicates the Dyperian throne), leaving Stefan to unexpectedly rule Dyperia as his father's heir. This retains the reason for Keldor's animosity toward Randor as well as incorporating Stefan into the more modern mythos.

I feel like there are still a few tweaks to be made in terms of what colors go where, but he's pretty close I think. Anyway, let me know what you think / what suggestions you might have, if you feel so inclined.

EDIT₂:


So, something a little different from me ... I wanted to see if I could figure out how I'd do Battle Cat in a style that would mesh well with my other MotU characters. I haven't drawn a whole lot of non-humanoid creatures in the last several years, so it's taking a bit to get comfortable with the anatomy.

The green version was my first sketch to get the concept started, the white one is more pieced together ... and looks it (even disregarding the jacked up front shoulder). Obviously the white one has a more accurate tiger head, but the green one seems to have more personality. I feel like the forelegs are the weakest point here ... suggestions welcome. I'm not necessarily striving for 100% accuracy in terms of feline anatomy, but I want something passably close that also incorporates the more stylized anatomy of my humanoid figures ... I think I would also like to keep a relatively face-forward view so if I put Battle Cat and He-Man together in the same shot, they look somewhat more natural.

EDIT₃:


Tried again ... this seems to be better, but I'm not sure it's quite there yet. I do plan to actually draw a new head for Panthor, but I figured I'd give my Battle-Cat test run a quick recolor just for variety's sake.

EDIT₄:


I think I've found what I was after ... adjusted the leg positions, elongated the body, tilted the neck forward more ... he looks a little less timid now than my prior take. As always, feedback, questions, and suggestions are welcome.

EDIT₅:


Another take on my version of Prince Randor. I gave him a younger-looking / beardless face and tweaked the colors to more closely match the original Captain Randor design ... I'm not sure he's quite there yet, but I think he's closer. I wanted to cut that darker blue-gray color from the Captain Randor design altogether, but it works better than the teal color from my first version ...

EDIT₆:



So, I feel like I found the route I want to take with Battle Cat and Panthor in terms of style / pose / et cetera.

In terms of canon, the term "battle-cat" would be similar to "war-horse": it would be a term used to describe a type of steed rather than a specific individual. I take this idea primarily from the vintage box art, on which Skeletor and Beast Man are both depicted riding cats identical to He-Man's. It's further supported by the existence of Panthor and (Illumina's cat) Sleetah.

I choose to imagine that the battle-cats are bred and trained largely by the Qadians. They've been selectively bred over the generations for size and intelligence (the cats cannot speak, however - no talking Cringer in my backyard). This has led to the wide variety in coloration and, to some degree, temperament in various battle-cat breeds. I would imagine breed specifics would vary by region / breeder / what have you (i.e. a variety with dark violet fur in the Dark Hemisphere, a white variety with perhaps thicker fur in the Ice Mountains, et cetera).

Fun Fact: I recently read that ligers (offspring of a male lion and female tiger) are, on average, larger than either lions or tigers, while tigons (offspring of a male tiger and female lion) are typically not. I haven't done any extensive research to verify the truth of this, but the reasoning behind it made sense at the time.

Given the idea of "battle-cat" as a more generic term, I should perhaps have named my Battle Cat picture as follows:
Attachment 112266

but i did not.

In my imagination, and in an effort to combine various existing canons, Adam was abducted as an infant at the same time as Adora, however, only Adora was spirited off to Despondos / Etheria. The infant Adam was lost during the pursuit and recovered by the inhabitants of a remote Qadian village. He grew up there under the distant-but-watchful eye of the Sorceress, raised as a common warrior (whose Qadian name translated to "He-Man") by Qadian foster-parents. During his youth, he encountered the cub he would ironically name Cringer, who would go on to become his steadfast companion (the battle-cats in this region would be of the green tiger variety). As they grew, they would become the champions of their village and the nearby region, but would eventually leave as indicated in the vintage mini-comic, "He-Man and the Power Sword." With the Sorceress' guidance, He-Man would make his way (eventually) to the city-state of Eternos, be reunited with his parents, and assume his place as Prince and heir.

Or something.

Anyway, wordy as always, hopefully you enjoy.

EDIT₇:

Finished versions of my "Assembly Required" Stratos and Beast Man.



I stayed pretty true to their classic designs, but with slightly elongated arms and a simian "thumb" on each foot. I did take some artistic license with Stratos' wings, since I'm free from the constraints of making an actual action-figure work.

[JafariStew]

Nice work on the cats!!

[j-bird]

Nice work on the cats!!

Thank you; I am glad you like them. They were a nice step outside my usual comfort zone, and I am hoping to get further use out of that body down the road.

But, for now, a finished picture of my version of Prince Randor:



I tweaked the colors a little more and went with the helmeted head for the foreground picture (the helmetless version is in the background). I feel like if i were to revisit King Miro (yet again), I'd use these armbands instead of the "regular" ones, but I'm not sure I'll go back and do that ...

[Alleyezon4]

Are Battle Cat's eyes closed? All I see is the red from the mask.....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[j-bird]

Are Battle Cat's eyes closed? All I see is the red from the mask.....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, they're not (or not intended to be) closed; I went with the red over the eyes to match the MotUC and vintage figures ... they're also red on the vintage box-art ... but if people think it looks odd, I can go back in and see about using a gold / yellow or something.

It might also be the size you're seeing it; if you're on a phone (which it seems that you are, given the "Sent from my iPhone [...]" thing), it might be reading differently than it does on my PC monitor. It looks ok to me on my phone, but I'm obviously not impartial ...

Also, I did go back and update my version of King Miro with the same gauntlets / wristbands as Prince Randor. You can see it in post #449 in this thread (page 18), in the Community > Fan Art section here on the .org, or in my DeviantArt gallery.

[Niki]

Panthor looks great, i really like him!

Battle Cats helmet looks a little off to me, almost to big and wide on the face part. maybe putting it a bit higher..?

I don´t know i just have the feeling it´s somehow a little off if you ask me.

And the straight leg which is front looks a little shapeless, maybe you could give it a little more shape.

But hey, who am i to give advise. I haven´t drawn any MOTU art in quite some time and in the end you are the better artist

Your cats are stunning now matter what. I really like them!

[j-bird]

Panthor looks great, i really like him!

Battle Cats helmet looks a little off to me, almost to big and wide on the face part. maybe putting it a bit higher..?

I don´t know i just have the feeling it´s somehow a little off if you ask me.

And the straight leg which is front looks a little shapeless, maybe you could give it a little more shape.

But hey, who am i to give advise. I haven´t drawn any MOTU art in quite some time and in the end you are the better artist

Your cats are stunning now matter what. I really like them!

The more I've been looking at it, the more I have to agree about Battle Cat's helmet ... it is off somehow. I will have to revisit that at some point.

As far as the legs, that portion of a cat's foreleg is rather long and straight (not a lot of curved musculature or joints to emphasize or exaggerate):



That being said, I did struggle with a balance between some degree of anatomical accuracy and a sense of stylization that fit in with the rest of my art ... I might still need to work on that. Regardless of all that, I'm glad you like them.

interesting update. i really like the armored base, it works well in linking the look of characters like man-at-arms (looking forward to see the final version), mekaneck and snout spout:
they actually look like part of an army. Designing mek's helmet with nod's to m-a-a's one is a cool touch, as well as king miro's shoulder guards.

Touching back on this idea, I finally took the time to develop some concepts I've had brewing in the back of my mind for a while with regard to the military (using the term somewhat loosely) of Eternos. Below is my concept (left to right) of the Special Ops, Royal Guard, and Civic Guard of the city-state of Eternos.

• The Special Ops would report ultimately to Mekaneck as the Spymaster of Eternos and would include the army's scouts as well as the spies, saboteurs, and assassins (those who do the "dirty jobs") of Eternos - in an RPG terms, they'd mostly be rogues. This would also include named characters like Clamp Champ and Roboto (later in his development). I see Mekaneck as still having something of the reputation he typically has (kind of lame and somewhat ineffectual) but using this as a cover for his true duties. He often makes hard, dark choices that are hidden from most of his comrades; only Randor, Man-at-Arms, and Teela know the bulk of what his agents do.
• This branch of Eternos' military would wear blue, red, and silver uniforms. Their armor would be equipped with dampers for both sound and light (a stealth-mode) and a long-range communications apparatus.
• The Royal Guard would report to Teela and Man-at-Arms and would include both the field army and the Palace Guard.
• This branch would wear green and orange/gold uniforms equipped with a degree of thermal insulation and heavy-duty kinetic dampers. Certain divisions would also have additional plating similar to that worn by Man-at-Arms.
• The Civic Guard would report to Snout Spout (yes, really) and would include the firefighters, constabulary, and emergency respondents. They would function primarily within Eternos itself (as opposed to the other branches, which would operate both "domestically" and in the field).
• This branch would wear orange, violet-red, and indigo uniforms. Their armor would be equipped with heavy-duty thermal insulation and respirators.
• I am considering including the bards of Eternos as well, and thereby including Man-E-Faces (and Songster, should I decide to draw him) in their ranks.
• As backstory, I would have Roboto (in his mini-comic colors) start as part of the Civic Guard, later moving into Special Ops and changing to his red/blue color-scheme.

Ram-Man would be part of the Royal Guard, but I'll have to try and figure out how to get him to fit in visually ...

[Niki]

The more I've been looking at it, the more I have to agree about Battle Cat's helmet ... it is off somehow. I will have to revisit that at some point.

As far as the legs, that portion of a cat's foreleg is rather long and straight (not a lot of curved musculature or joints to emphasize or exaggerate):

http://hippie.nu/~unicorn/tut/img/ba...ne-muscle.jpeg

That being said, I did struggle with a balance between some degree of anatomical accuracy and a sense of stylization that fit in with the rest of my art ... I might still need to work on that. Regardless of all that, I'm glad you like them.



Touching back on this idea, I finally took the time to develop some concepts I've had brewing in the back of my mind for a while with regard to the military (using the term somewhat loosely) of Eternos. Below is my concept (left to right) of the Special Ops, Royal Guard, and Civic Guard of the city-state of Eternos.

http://img08.deviantart.net/085e/i/2...10-db4wqtg.jpg

I always neg about some helmets, i´m sorry!

And i looked it up as well but found two pictures to show what i mean:

leopard_cub_zambia.jpg

67qDScKnnAs.jpg

With her you can see there is is a little more shape showing even from the front and i choose leopards since they have big paws similar to your drawings.
Maybe´s the shading which is to straight...i don´t know.

I like the fire fighter helmet with out the ears and the snout but my favorite thing on the latest picture are the eyes of the guard in the middle. He has those "manganized" closed eyes/characters is smiling eyes.
Such a happy guy, i love it

[j-bird]

I always neg about some helmets, i´m sorry!

And i looked it up as well but found two pictures to show what i mean:

leopard_cub_zambia.jpg

67qDScKnnAs.jpg

With her you can see there is is a little more shape showing even from the front and i choose leopards since they have big paws similar to your drawings.
Maybe´s the shading which is to straight...i don´t know.

I like the fire fighter helmet with out the ears and the snout but my favorite thing on the latest picture are the eyes of the guard in the middle. He has those "manganized" closed eyes/characters is smiling eyes.
Such a happy guy, i love it

Since Battle Cat is based primarily on a tiger, I went with an adult tiger for reference:



The legs here are much less tapered than those of the leopard cub in your pictures. That being said, I can probably tweak the shading to give a more dynamic effect ... I'll have to try that when I go in to fix his helmet (which you're totally right about, no need to apologize there).

As far as the guard's happy manga eyes, well, he just wasn't fully colored (i.e. I hadn't put his eyes in), but I can totally see it now.

Thank you (as always) for taking the time to provide your feedback.

[Charlie Brown]

interesting updates...

i like what you did with the cats, and final versions of beast-man and stratos are pretty cool (even though, i'd like a little down tuning on stratos' lips);

regarding the "military" corps i'm quite digging' the path you choose...even though i have my personal canon 'bout this, especially regarding mekanek and man-e-faces
(but, obviously, don't want to hijack your thread).

[j-bird]

interesting updates...

i like what you did with the cats, and final versions of beast-man and stratos are pretty cool (even though, i'd like a little down tuning on stratos' lips);

regarding the "military" corps i'm quite digging' the path you choose...even though i have my personal canon 'bout this, especially regarding mekanek and man-e-faces (but, obviously, don't want to hijack your thread).

I can see what you're saying about Stratos' lips ... maybe I'll explore a more down-turned version if / when I get to an updated verson of the Avian warriors, just to give it a shot.

I don't have any problem with you sharing your personal canon in this thread, it seems like a relevant discussion with regard to the art posted here (perhaps a short version / summary since it's technically an art thread, I dunno). I just can't promise that any aspects that speak to me won't find their way into my own head-canon.

With regard to my vision of the Eternos military, I've decided I'm going to call the scouts / special ops the Avant Guard; it relates (at least loosely) back to the original meaning of the phrase avant-garde ("advance guard" or "vanguard", literally "fore-guard") as well as its current meaning: "people [...] that are experimental, radical, or unorthodox [...]". It also seems like a nice nod to established MotU naming conventions and gives all three branches a "____ Guard" name (Avant, Royal, and Civic), which I like.

[Charlie Brown]

I don't have any problem with you sharing your personal canon in this thread, it seems like a relevant discussion with regard to the art posted here (perhaps a short version / summary since it's technically an art thread, I dunno). I just can't promise that any aspects that speak to me won't find their way into my own head-canon.

ok!

well, the general idea is that the heroic are basically divided in two main groups: lurkers and roamers...no, wait, wrong franchise...

the more "barbaric" adventurers, who accompany he-man in external travels/tasks and are more involved with sorceress and castle grayskull,
such as fisto, stratos, buzz-off, moss-man, teela, ram man, etc;

the more "civilized" soldiers, who acts as members of eternos military/rescue organization, and are basically divided in 3 main divisions (as
you already envisioned them): each division is based on he-ro's main spells, and each of the 3 generals keeps a ring (as a nod to those packaged with
trap jaw and triklops) containing a differently colored shard of the spellstone.

1. green army - protection
commanded by man-at-arms, who's also commander in chief, with the other 2 generals reporting to him

it's the bulk of the army
lt. andra takes the role of teela in commanding the royal guards
dawg-o-tor is the leader of the eternian marines (nod to the musashi ko)


2. red army - defense
commanded by mekanek (his "vision" allows him not also to see at great
distances, to find weak points and unveil illusions, and also grants him
photographic reflexes and physical movement prediction - a kinda mix
of marvel's taskmaster and karnak, give or take...)

his members are scouts, spies, snipers, sentinels, saboteurs
mek's liutenants are
rotar (scout/spy)
roboto (saboteur/sniper)
shield maiden sherrilyn (sentinel, guiding the red armored guards from dc comic)

3. purple army - healing (more generally, rescuing)
commanded by man-e-faces (he's not an actor, but a healer as human, an engineer
as robot, and a destroyer as monster)

his members are field medics, firefighters, military engineers
manny's liutenants are
snout spout (firefighter)
mo-larr - yes, not kidding! - (medic)
melaktha (military engineer, also architect and archeologist)

well, that's all, more or less: hope you like the description and maybe even find it useful.
cheers

[j-bird]

ok!

well, the general idea is that the heroic are basically divided in two main groups: lurkers and roamers...no, wait, wrong franchise...

the more "barbaric" adventurers, who accompany he-man in external travels/tasks and are more involved with sorceress and castle grayskull,
such as fisto, stratos, buzz-off, moss-man, teela, ram man, etc;

the more "civilized" soldiers, who acts as members of eternos military/rescue organization, and are basically divided in 3 main divisions (as
you already envisioned them): each division is based on he-ro's main spells, and each of the 3 generals keeps a ring (as a nod to those packaged with
trap jaw and triklops) containing a differently colored shard of the spellstone.

1. green army - protection
commanded by man-at-arms, who's also commander in chief, with the other 2 generals reporting to him

it's the bulk of the army
lt. andra takes the role of teela in commanding the royal guards
dawg-o-tor is the leader of the eternian marines (nod to the musashi ko)

2. red army - defense
commanded by mekanek (his "vision" allows him not also to see at great
distances, to find weak points and unveil illusions, and also grants him
photographic reflexes and physical movement prediction - a kinda mix
of marvel's taskmaster and karnak, give or take...)

his members are scouts, spies, snipers, sentinels, saboteurs
mek's liutenants are
rotar (scout/spy)
roboto (saboteur/sniper)
shield maiden sherrilyn (sentinel, guiding the red armored guards from dc comic)

3. purple army - healing (more generally, rescuing)
commanded by man-e-faces (he's not an actor, but a healer as human, an engineer
as robot, and a destroyer as monster)

his members are field medics, firefighters, military engineers
manny's liutenants are
snout spout (firefighter)
mo-larr - yes, not kidding! - (medic)
melaktha (military engineer, also architect and archeologist)

well, that's all, more or less: hope you like the description and maybe even find it useful.
cheers

That's cool, i like where you're going there. I really feel like some degree of "color coding" the characters into a logical military structure makes some sense and isn't too big a stretch for most of the characters. I have a different idea in mind for Man-E-Faces, but I think your take is interesting, and I have to give you credit for working Mo-Larr into your canon.

It's funny, however, that you mention Lt. Andra ...



I like what you did with her in terms of "replacing" Teela in terms of her role as Captain of the Guard; there's something about Teela in that role that doesn't quite gel with my preferred version of her (the warrior woman from the earlier mini-comics), but I am still thinking I'm going to try and make that work for me (besides, I have a different vision in mind for Andra).

In my backyard (i.e. my head-canon), she's a member of the Dyperian military, not that of Eternos, and currently serves as the Dyperian King's bodyguard. I would keep the idea form the old Star comics that she's acquainted with Teela, but probably from time spent training in Arcadia together (again, in my head-canon).

I'm not sure, given her apparent age, how I would work the timing of her being Miro's bodyguard, so she might have to be King Stefen's (Randor's brother, from the Filmation cartoon) bodyguard instead ... unless she were to become Miro's bodyguard after he is rescued from his exile (or from the Enchantress, whatever) ... I haven't worked all that out yet (obviously).

I also had the idea that perhaps Andra and Miro (if she's his bodyguard) have a ... "romantic" ... relationship, one with which Randor is not on board. If she's Stefen's bodyguard, that relationship could be between them instead, perhaps being more scandalous to the nobles of Dyperia in terms of their relative station and the lack of official status ... I dunno, I want something about her to cause some tension without necessarily casting aspersions on her character itself.

[Charlie Brown]

i like your version of andra, and your ideas for her too.
i do agree about teela, i much prefer her more "savage" version.

regarding man-e-face, i took the inspiration from hinduism (the trimurti: brahma the creator, vishnu the preserver
and shiva the destroyer/regenerator) and i believe it' make the character more interesting than being an actor, imho.

[j-bird]

i like your version of andra, and your ideas for her too.
i do agree about teela, i much prefer her more "savage" version.

regarding man-e-face, i took the inspiration from hinduism (the trimurti: brahma the creator, vishnu the preserver
and shiva the destroyer/regenerator) and i believe it' make the character more interesting than being an actor, imho.

I do think that's a cool take on Man-E-Faces, particularly with the source-inspiration; it also helps to fill the healer role in MotU (something which was only recently officially done with the introduction of Mendor in the comics).

I have my own plans brewing for Man-E-Faces, but a while back I had my own idea to fill in the gap with regard to a healing character:



My original picture of Heala can be found in post #252 on page 11 of this thread, if you're at all interested, but I thought it was time I did an updated version of her (plus I wanted to test out some things in terms of my "assembly required" project). This was at least partially motivated as well by thorr's recent thread regarding fan-characters.

She's named Heala as a play on both "healer" and gila monster and in keeping with general MotU naming conventions. If she were a figure, I'd give her a caduceus-type staff for an accessory. In addition to adding a healer-character, I had wanted to explore what a female Repton (Lizard-Man's race) might look like.

In terms of story, she could be introduced in an episode like "A Tale of Two Cities" from the old Filmation series. Already a captive in Targa, Heala would tend to He-Man after his injury in the opening fight with the Gargons.

Initially mistrustful of Heala due to her Repton heritage (and thus distantly related to the Snake Men), He-Man would come to value her as an ally after seeing the care she administered to all the gladiatorial prisoners, regardless of race (her healing talents were why she was captured in the first place).

With the contrast between Heala's reptilian appearance / good heart and the treacherous-but-conventionally-attractive Queen Balina, we'd have a built-in moral for the end of the episode about judging things based on appearances.

I considered adding more of the dark markings to make her look more like her real-world counterpart, but in the end opted to keep this look (I feel like it better fits the general MotU aesthetic).

Anyway, hope you enjoy.

[DiElEl]

Impressive, love your (unique) style!!!

[j-bird]

Impressive, love your (unique) style!!!

Thank you (and welcome to the .org)!

I'm back with another update of a character I've done before:



This time it's Destructor from the Fuerza-T knockoff line.

In my backyard, the Fuerza-T villains would be folded into the He-Man Universe as warlords subject to the ancient sorceress Shokoti, (for me) the main villain in the time of Wun-Dar.

I see Shokoti as just having the four Fuerza-T villains as her "henchmen" (well, them and probably Lord Masque), but they'd be individual warlords sort of like Mer-Man, each holding their own territory in Shokoti's name.

Destructor would have had dominion over the Ruins of Zalesia and the surrounding territory. I imagine that The Faceless One was either in some sort of dormant period or that Destructor aided Shokoti in binding him somehow, preventing The Faceless One from hindering their influence in that area.

EDIT:

It's been way too long since I've drawn this guy ...



Mer-Man is one of my favorite villains (design-wise, at least) from MotU. His characterization frequently leaves something to be desired, but even then I've always felt like he had potential.

For a while I thought of him as the Starscream to Skeletor's Megatron, but I'm not sure that's what I'm feeling either. Now I think I see him more like Evil-Lyn (but without the attraction to Skeletor): willing to work with Skeletor fairly loyally in an effort to further his own power (and perhaps take over down the road). I would disregard large portions of what happened in his Icons of Evil one-shot (but would keep the conflict with Aquarus, that guy was cool) and have Mer-Man retain at least a portion of his kingdom / army. I certainly see him as a more likely successor to the throne of Snake Mountain than Jitsu (as in the MotUC bios).

At the very least, he didn't get beheaded by Mermista in my canon.

[Charlie Brown]

great work on mer man: he's one of my favorite characters, since the first minicomics.

i'm really diggin' heala too: she definitely has a priestess/healer look, and her bio is quite interesting.

i also like the way you incorporated fuerza-t characters in shokoti's ranks, but i'm a little bit iffy 'bout
destructor's furry limbs (even though i'm aware it's a nod to the original figure).

[j-bird]

great work on mer man: he's one of my favorite characters, since the first minicomics.

i'm really diggin' heala too: she definitely has a priestess/healer look, and her bio is quite interesting.

i also like the way you incorporated fuerza-t characters in shokoti's ranks, but i'm a little bit iffy 'bout
destructor's furry limbs (even though i'm aware it's a nod to the original figure).

I get what you're saying about Destructor's furry limbs, but like you said the original figure was like that. I tried to make it work by keeping the fur to the forearms and lower legs, trying to make a more natural transition. Personally, I kind of enjoy the juxtaposition between the shell/scales and the fur - to me it makes him more monstrous.

In keeping with the Fuerza-T trend, here's one that I hadn't done before:



He was admittedly pretty easy to put together, given that I'd already done Beast Man and Mer-Man.

Working on his colors, I noticed that there's a fair difference between the color scheme of his figure and that of his packaging art. I opted for armor closer to the figure's colors (the card-art had more of a yellow-green armor) and a shade of fur somewhere between the two.

In my backyard, Pantano would have held the Tar Swamp and surrounding territory for Shokoti. I envision him as a sort of savage swamp-ape type of character, going from muck to tree and back again as he hunts his foes. I would imagine his fur secretes some kind of oil or other substance that allows him to shed tar / mud / etc, enabling him to move freely and swiftly through the dangers of the Tar Swamp.

EDIT₂:

Now 3/4 of the way through the Fuerza-T villains:



For me, Felinor (now a Qadian like Carnivus and, in my backyard, Kittrina) would be the Grimalkin from the Filmation episode "The Cat and the Spider," in which he'd be resurrected / restored / what-have-you from Shokoti's time, signalling the rise of her four generals and her impending return. I'm not sure where his territory would have been; I don't like the Vine Jungle for him for some reason, so I'm thinking plains somewhere ...

EDIT₃:

The fourth of the Fuerza-T villains in my style:



I had a hard time decide which color-scheme to use on this guy, since his card-art and the figure were very different. For the "main" version of him, I opted for the card-art color scheme over the shadowy, less colorful figure color-scheme. As I considered it, however, I had the notion that the figure color scheme was an alternate "shadow mode" that Carnivor assumes (involuntarily, perhaps) when lurking in the caves and tunnels of the Mystic Mountains. The brighter green-and-orange form is how he appears when exposed to the sun or other bright light. I did use the shadow-form as the background image for this one.

In my backyard, he'd reign terror over both the Andreenids and the Avians in Shokoti's name.

He might be the monstrous offspring of an Avian and an Arachna (Webstor's race), outcast from both societies.

EDIT₄:

Carnivor in his shadow-form with the "regular" version in the background.



EDIT₅:

And now we go from the obscure to one of the two most recognizable MotU characters:



Nothing too extreme about this version of Skeletor, just a few little stylized touches here and there.

[Charlie Brown]

great to see all the evil warriors from fuerza-t: amazing work, i'm really diggin' the idea of the shadow form for carnivor
and the nod to grimalkin for felinor.

[j-bird]

great to see all the evil warriors from fuerza-t: amazing work, i'm really diggin' the idea of the shadow form for carnivor
and the nod to grimalkin for felinor.

Thanks, I appreciate that. It was nice to finish those four.

Following up Skeletor, here's another classic villain I haven't drawn in too long:



Nothing much in terms of revamping at this point, though there could be some color-variations on this guy coming. For some reason his 80's color scheme is rubbing me the wrong way right now, despite the fact that it's so tied up with how I see the character.

I'm conflicted on this one and open to suggestions in terms of alt-color ideas. I'm working on a couple, but would welcome more ideas.

[thorr]

Black to grey, greens (not face) to black, pinkish to red

[j-bird]

Black to grey, greens (not face) to black, pinkish to red

Something like this?

Trap-Jaw (Alt-Colors 3) - Assembly.jpg

[thorr]

Yes. What do u think?
Actually seeing it now, I think he needs a different skin color or it'll just look like weird trapjaw