MECH CYCLONE DEVELOPMENT

this is the original Zangief sketch i did on my Cintique. it was only about 2 inches tall and meant to be a proportion test. i was playing around with the idea of doing a Mech Zangief factory scene, but that wasn't really gonna happen. i did a mock up, but apparently, it looked so terrible that i trashed all layers that even hinted at that concept. it wasn't until days later that the blueprint idea crept out of my brain.

this is one of my 1st full digital illustrations. i usually sketch with pen on copy paper. the 1st three images are split down the middle, so you can see what i modified at each stage. the lower right corner is the final line work i used.

here's some of the reference i used. the icons for the fighting moves were impossible for me to find on Google, so i recreated them all. that damn boot icon was a pain and i still don't like it. ha.

i wanted the moves to be as accurate as possible, but i had to take some liberties. i mostly play Super Street Fighter IV, so i made the Hyper Combo fit that game. but i'm pretty sure Mech Zangief doesn't have Vodka Fire in SSFIV. he's also not supposed to have Banishing Flat as Mech Zangief, but oh well. i put in the fighting moves that i'd want my version of Mech Zangief to have. so, all of the knit picky, obsessive, fanboy, accuracy Nazis out there can gripe all they want.

i wanted to fill out the blueprints with other info about Mech Zangief, so i drew a side view to call out his Vodka Fire attack. the 2 views obviously don't line up. i was just using the front view as reference.

this is an early exploration for the layout. i probably changed it a dozen times, and tweaked it a hundred times.  

i did most of the elements in Illustrator and modified them in Photoshop.

 these are the teaser images that i posted up on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. i tried to throw in some humor with the Winning Quote and the acronyms of Vodka Fire and Green Hand. you can type in all of those ones and zeros to decode the Winning Quote, if you want.

 and here's the final. i tried to make it look kinda realistic, but i'm pretty sure it's nothin like a real blue print. i probably spent way more time tweaking it than i should have, but hopefully i didn't over work it. 

i plan on doin 25 prints for the Street Fighter 25th anniversary art show on Dec 8th up in San Francisco. i'll probably keep some to sell on my website after the show. i may also do one alternate version, but i don't know when i'll get to that.