Webtoon: Robot Design Sketches

I started to design the robots using basic shapes as a guide line for the main proportions of the character. I first quickly sketched some robots as a warm up before properly beginning the character design for the robot however I quite liked the middle robot with the pose and the shapes that I had used for the lineart. The angular geometric shapes worked with the hunched pose that the robot was given and looked intimidating through the use of the eyes and the jagged jaw. I found that the other two designs on the page were not successful due to the slender shapes that were used which made the robots seem friendly rather than threatening. I then carried on the designs using a mixture of shapes inspired by the designs that I had found and gathered on the site Pinterest. I found the character design using silhouettes as a basis for the shapes before taking one and adding detail, helped me to consider the shape of the robot before adding extra detail to the robot. I found this helpful in the last few pages in which I merged some of the previous sketches with new designs. I quite liked the left design on the second page through the use of the head and torso with skinny arms that made the robot seem creepy and daunting. I believe this was due to the overall stance of the robot and the expression on the robots face which helped with the daunting atmosphere. The design next to it held an interesting torso however the bottom half let down the design through the use of the hips and the extra metal parts on the legs.

Robot research

Warm Up Sketches of Robots

Second page 

On the third page, I preferred the right design to the left design as the design held interesting body shapes and I liked the form of the hands. I didn't think that the robot looked threatening with the use of the legs and arms however I felt that I could develop this further in the next few pages. The left design on this didn't look like a robot, it looked more like a monster which was not successful with the character design that I needed to create for the comic. Although these elements created a monster looking creature, I did like the shape of the arms which I could use for inspiration for the next designs. I really liked the first design on the fourth page through the use of the torso shape which I developed from the previous page however the robot felt short with the length of the limbs, in order to refine this design I would need to extend the arms and legs to work with the torso and head. I felt that the robot would work with elongated limbs that could possibly drag on the floor to give that threatening appeal to the design. I carried this design on to the page bringing the arms forward and making the stance more hunched to show the weight of the arms. I purposely made the fists larger as to make it threatening which I felt worked well with the overall composition of the robot. I really liked this design however I felt that the legs let the design down with the form of the feet, the feet needed to be bulky and jagged much like the previous page with the claw like feet. I did like the idea of using one eye for the robots face, it felt scarier than using two eyes as I found the majority of the robots faces that I had designed so far looked too friendly and cute to be an evil robot.

Third page

Fourth page

Fifth page

The last design was inspired from a mixture of the second page with the skinny limbs and the more bulky design on the fifth page which I separated into segments to show the slim proportions. I liked the position of the head on the torso which I felt worked well, if I had added a neck the composition would not have worked as well through how the lack of a neck makes the robot look lifeless and less human like. I asked for feedback from my peers, my feedback was very positive with the only criticism being the fingers on the robot which needed to be changed to a less pointed shape. Another idea was to merge this design with the robots head on the second page which I agreed with as I felt that this would make the design more threatening however I would merge the neck into the shoulders it will enhance the lifeless appeal to the composition.

Sixth page