The Robo Trio
This is an idea I couldn't pass up; three robot characters with different designs, why shouldn't I draw them together?
This was an experiment with colored lines, shading, and glow effects. I default to the gaussian blur and the add (glow) effect to create glowing lights, but I used a combination of the add and screen effects, airbrush, and gaussian blur to create the glow for my characters this time. I used my traditional method for the monitors in the background. I believe that the method I tried works best on Harxol, but maybe it's because his glow is the most noticeable. Gizmo and Lacertae's glows are harder to see because of their palettes.
I used the multiply layer effect for the shading and a gradient with both layer effects and reduced opacity to make the characters appear darker. If I want to use more glow effects, I'll have to strike a balance between them and shading. I feel like I haven't struck it yet, and I don't know what techniques will help me here. The gradient did its job well enough, but I feel like I could have done a lot better. Once again, this is because I want to improve my technique but I'm not sure how.
My final notes involve the art itself. There is a MASSIVE height difference between the characters that I wanted to capture; Gizmo stands at 4'04" (1.32 m), Lacertae stands at 6'0" (1.82 m), and Harxol stands at 6'8" (2.03 m). I carefully placed them as not to overpower Gizmo and to accentuate their differences while keeping the background minimal. I feel like I will redraw this piece once I have more practice, but for now, I hope you like the result!