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Illustration Process- Battle Bot: Dog Pound

illustration of Battle Bot by Lauren Mays

After watching an episode of Battle Bots for the first time, I got inspired to create some fun fighting robot designs of my own! Since the robots on the show often had funny names, I decided to design robots based on pun names. For this one, I chose Dog Pound.

I sketched out a design for the robot, leaning heavily on the dog theme. I though of a dog walker with two wild dogs on a “leash” attached to his back. He’d shoot tennis balls at the opponent, prompting the dogs (named Chomps and Biscuit respectively) to attack. I gave him two ear-like points on his head as well.

Inks

I chose colors that would make both Dog Pound and the dogs stand out just enough from each other.

illustration of Battle Bot by Lauren Mays

Then I did some simple shading and added a colorful background!

Here are some extra sketches I did as well to get used to the character.

Dog Pound’s detachable kennel with the robo dogs sealed safely inside.

Chomp and Dog Pound glaring at their opponent.

Thank you for reading!

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illustration process

Illustration Process- PL: Miracle Mask redraw

I’ve recently gotten into the Professor Layton series, and it’s games have been a constant source of inspiration! Engaging mysteries and challenging puzzles have been on my mind for a few months now thanks to them. I’ve done quite a few drawings for it by now, but I got an idea for another illustration around the game that introduced me to it all: Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask.

I had found out that the Japanese version of the game had an update that added extra cutscenes, and one in particular caught my eye.

Said cutscene I though was cute for obvious reasons. Source: https://youtu.be/8TWOpWgGeeo?t=79

A cute little scene of Layton (on the left) and his assistant Emmy (the right) dancing. I really liked it, and suddenly I had decided to do a screenshot redraw. I’d recently been experimenting with lineless artwork, and chose to go that route with this picture as well.

I started off with a very rough base sketch, just getting the poses down.

Next I got as clean of a sketch as I could of essentially the final picture. Since I’ll be doing lineless I need as clear direction and details as possible.

After the sketched was prepared I laid out all the base shapes and colors of Layton and Emmy to build the details on.

Next was was adding the faces and smaller details of the clothes and hands.

Here was where I started on the background, paying close attention to the screenshot reference.

Since the shading would be coming next I went ahead and added all the lighting details in the background.

Character shading, there wasn’t that much so it didn’t take too long

Character highlights.

After adding extra lighting details and an overlay, the picture is done!

I really love how this came out and so far it’s one of my best lineless works. Hope to keep experimenting and improving! Thank you for reading, and give the Professor Layton games a look! You might find yourself wrapped in a puzzle.

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illustration process

Illustration Process- Young Heroes

After getting into Rayman again recently, I started thinking about how much fun it is seeing game mascots together in series like Smash Bros and other crossover games. I decided to do an illustration of some of my favorites coming together, and thought it would be fun to draw their younger selves for it.

This was a rather tough one to figure out at first. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, but not exactly how I wanted to show it.

First I thought about Rayman telling young Mario, Crash Bandicoot, and Sonic about his adventures in a book, but I wasn’t a fan of the composition.

Then I played around with the idea of him teaching them, since almost all of them had some sort of learning games. However, I still didn’t like how it was coming out.

Eventually I ended up finding a nice solution and a composition I was happy with. I kept the idea of Rayman reading to baby Mario, while having Sonic and baby Crash off in the background.

I refined the character sketches and fleshed out the background a bit. I was referencing referenced Pink Plant Woods from Rayman 1 for the setting.

I refined the background even further for more details, and at this point I decided against inking it and instead coloring it lineless.

I inked the characters then laid out the background flats for later.

Went into more detail and shading in the background, then laid out the flat colors for the characters.

Then finally I added the last bit of details to the characters and background with shading, lighting, and text on the book.

Here’s a video of the process!

This illustration has been one of my most detailed ones so far, I’m very happy with it!

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illustration process

Illustration Process- Sonic X Ocarina of Time

Sonic in Link costume illustration by Lauren Mays

In 2017 Sonic and The Legend of Zelda had an interesting crossover, and I wanted to draw a picture inspired by that. However, I never ended up finishing it and eventually gave up on it. Jump ahead to 2020 and the idea came back to me again, this time with me fully committing.

First, I had to figure out which of the Zelda games I wanted to combine with Sonic. My original idea was with Twilight Princess (which I’ll still get to eventually), but after thinking it over I decided to go with Ocarnia of Time for inspiration.

I took time to look at some of the game’s art to figure out the type of mood I wanted the picture to have. Then, after gathering as many references I could find of Sonic’s outfit from the official crossover, I got started.

I had the image in my mind of wandering into the forest and encountering with the fairy that travels with you in the game, Navi. I wanted to really capture that feeling of wonder, with Sonic reaching out in curiosity,

Next I refined the detail in the sketch as much as I could. I pulled out a lot of forest references for this one. Also tried to get the most out of the references of Sonic’s outfit.

Detailed Inking
Flats
Basic Shadows
Basic Lighting
Overlay + Effects

After adding extra effects and details, I came away with an illustration I’m still very happy with now! I’ll have to revisit this crossover combination again one day, and maybe finally tackle that Twilight Princess picture.

Thank you for reading!