Nester's Sega Fan Art

[Nester the Lark]

It's been a good while since I've really tried to work on drawing, and I wanted to get back into it. And since I've been having a little bit of Sega nostalgia lately, I thought I would do some "Sega All-Stars" fan art. I'm going to start with simpler characters, and work my way up to more complex ones.

To begin with, here is everyone's favorite cute lil' sentient spaceship with wings and feet!

#1 - Opa-Opa

First appearance: Fantasy Zone (arcade, 1986)
Most recent: Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (multi-platform, 2010)



Don't know how long I'll stick with this, so enjoy it while it lasts.

[Fryguy64]

Damn I love me some Opa-Opa! Looking forward to seeing who you'll tackle next!

[8bitretroshit]

There's never enough Opa-Opa. Especially not after they kicked him off the Allstar racing crew (SEGAAA..!)

What program are you using to draw with? The black lines seem to be a bit jaggy, even though I like it that way.

[Nester the Lark]

It's far more rudimentary than that. The lines are good ol' pencil on paper (with some pen tracing). I scan it and use GIMP to clean it up, color it, and do everything else (with a mouse, no less). I do the best I can to smooth the lines out a little, but it always looks kind of rough and messy.

[Nester the Lark]

#2 - ChuChus

First appearance: ChuChu Rocket! (Dreamcast, 1999)
Most recent: Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (multi-platform, 2010)



In a rare instance of safety, the ChuChus are happy because there are no cats around.

For some reason, these guys were a lot harder to draw than I thought. Couldn't get their shape and proportions just right. I must've drawn a couple of dozen of them just for practice, and they still look off.  Man, I suck at drawing if I can't even get simple shapes right.

[kirbychu]

Those ChuChus look fine to me! Actually I find simpler characters can often be a little harder to get right. I guess when there are fewer details in the drawing, you notice more when those details are slightly off. Or something.

[Fryguy64]

It's true. Simple characters need big, sweeping curves and careful placement of features otherwise they can look off. While drawing Kirby (for example) might seem really simple, the fact is it's very tricky to get his eyes right (apparently even the Kirby's Epic Yarn developers struggled with this). Lots of guidelines required during the sketch phase.

While more complex characters require more knowledge about how bodies fit together, it's easier to get away with minor faults like that

[Nester the Lark]

Thanks, guys!

It really affects my confidence, tho. I mean, I go into it thinking, "How hard can it be to draw a few circles and ovals?" You learn this stuff in kindergarten.

I had a hard time with the "happy eyes" on the right ChuChu, mainly because I had no frame of reference for it. My goal with these is not simply to imitate official artwork, but to try to put my own spin on it and do something new.  I've never seen happy ChuChus before, so this is how I imagined they might look.

I forgot to add a background shadow, tho. Maybe later.

[Fryguy64]

OK. I have learned that when I'm feeling bad about my art, the best thing I can do is find an artist who describes their whole method. Not just how they produce artwork, but also all the bumps and fiddly bits, and finishing off with all the things they'd change if they had time. Sometimes I learn things, but often it's more useful just to see that art is hard, and we as artists are generally hyper-critical of our own work (which either makes us improve with practice, or give up through frustration).

So I decided to also draw a ChuChu, but I broke down my method, including all the little annoyances and headaches along the way. I call this my ChuChutorial.



Hope it helps!

[Nester the Lark]

Thanks, Fry!

I think the biggest difficulty for me comes in creating the initial line art. I have a hard time imagining a three-dimensional object in a flat piece of paper, even with guidelines. As I said, I use pencil on paper, so I make liberal use of an eraser. Once I scan it in, tho, the rest of it usually isn't a big problem. In fact, I enjoy the coloring and shading a lot more than the drawing.

I'm definitely my own worst critic. I'll try to lighten up a bit and be more positive.

[Fryguy64]

The only times you need to think about form is when you're sketching and when/if you're shading. During the sketching phase it's quite easy because you can just sketch over and over and over and over until you get the idea. Draw spheres and tubes and cubes and just kinda lump them together. Not happy with it? Draw some different shapes, or exaggerate the shapes. It's just sketches. Don't even erase them (unless they're a total write-off). Keep a few sketches on the page that you're not going to use, because it helps to visualise those shapes at different angles or positions.

Only when you're happy with your sketch should you even consider moving onto inking. Inking is essentially careful tracing. It should be slow, steady and requires little to no thought. I find, if I get halfway through inking and I don't like a hand, I'll erase the hand and start over. Much easier in PhotoShop, of course, but also possible on paper, so long as your sketch layer isn't too dark (mine usually is).

The other time to worry about form is shading - I'm quite new to this though, and I'm still learning. It's harder at this point because shading can just look wrong and you won't know why, no matter how long you stare at it. I'll get back to you when I work this out. But just know you're not alone - we're all our own worst critics.

[Nester the Lark]

Bet you thought I had already given up on this!

#3 - Flicky

First appearance: Flicky (arcade, 1984)
Most recent: Sonic Lost World (Wii U, 2013)



Like ChuChus, Flickies are sometimes terrorized by cats. In the original arcade game, the main Flicky (actually named "Flicky") must rescue all of her chicks from a house full of cats. Later, Flickies were one of the types of animals that the evil Dr. Robotnik (or Eggman, or the walrus... wait that was Paul) used to power his robotic Badniks until they were rescued by Sonic the Hedgehog. They've been a mainstay of the Sonic series ever since.

Thanks to Fry for his advice and encouragement. It's very much appreciated!

[8bitretroshit]

I always feel like playing Flicky whenever I see anything Flicky related... I mean it's such a simple game, but it's FUN.

[Nester the Lark]

#4 - Alex Kidd

First appearance: Alex Kidd in Miracle World (Master System, 1986)
Most recent: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (multi-platform, 2012)



I took a shot at redesigning the character while still trying to stay true to the original spirit. Hopefully it looks better than what Sumo Digital came up with.

[Nester the Lark]

#5 - Sonic the Hedgehog

First appearance: Rad Mobile (arcade, 1991)
Most recent: Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games (Wii U, 2013)



It was going to happen eventually.