Category Archives: Cool Characters

Ah, the lesser spotted COTW post, some what of an endangered species, mostly due to the fact I want it to be special when I do post it, so it's not weekly anymore. But anyway, just because the forums are down doesn't mean we're not getting awesome artwork to feature. For example, Anarchangel posted this to his deviantart page earlier.

Ok it hasn't got as much of a "Wow!" factor as the last few COTW's but I felt this deserved to be featured because its very inventive. You don't see many mud/ slime creatures in Heromachine form, mostly because they're very difficult to do, but AA managed to pull it off in a very impressive way, just by using the elasticated arm as a base and working from that. And I think we can agree that the final product works very well.

One final thing, would you guys like me to make this post weekly again once the forums are back up and running (whenever that may be). I have said why I'd like to keep it a occasional post, but if you guys want it weekly again I will oblige. There's plenty of great heromachine work out there deserving to be featured for me to make it weekly again.

So, two days ago, this new guy starts a thread on the forums, begins filling it up with work that literally causes peoples minds to be blown. I mean, some of the effects he's doing with heromachine I've only ever seen done in photoshop and the like. Then, today he posts this;

Do I really need to give any further explanation as to why I'm doing a Character Of The Week post for this? Just go and check out the rest of his work here: http://www.heromachine.com/forum/the-heromachine-art-gallery/valyndrils-heroes/#p42381. He hasn't uploaded much yet, but what he has uploaded is spectacular.

I know I don't do Character Of The Week as a regular blog post anymore but I thought I might as well bring it back as a one off because I feel that this picture is in need of being singled out for sheer awesomeness.

Now, Cadruth has been doing a lot of truly amazing stuff recently (if you haven't checked out the forum thread Candruth's Characters :3 you've really been missing out), but I think this one takes the biscuit, if not the entire cookie jar. And if I had to single out one reason and one reason alone (which is quite hard actually), it would be the shading.  The use of colour here to accentuate and add depth is truly superb, especially on the wings and on the neck. And whilst we're on the neck, I have to applaud Candruth's posing here. It is fairly difficult to do a raised head in Heromachine, mostly because the join between the chin and the neck is quite hard to get right, but it is pulled of brilliantly here and the use of shading just add to this. I also have to make mention of the colour usage here. We'll start of with the colour usage in the shading, because I haven't gone on about the shading enough yet, but it's nice to see shadowing without using black (especially as someone who uses that technique exclusively) it adds much more vibrancy to the picture and allows the highlighting to make the subject shine. Then we have the contrast between foreground and background. Whilst I do think there could have been more done to the background (maybe loosing the outlines around and adding some shading to the clouds, as they look quite flat currently, also maybe a few more stars would make it more visually pleasing) but the overall sunrise/ sunset (I think it's more likely meant to be sunrise going by the colours) effect is very nice and it contrasts well against the main foreground colours, the light creamy gold of the wings against the slate grey is especially effective. Overall a very impressive composition.

When looking for a subject to cover in character of the week I always try to find something different, someone who I haven't covered before or even recently. However, this week it seems I have been unable to do so, due to the fact Jeimuzu exists and is doing stuff like this on a constant basis.

There are lots of things that caught my eye about this creation in particular, starting with the costume, which is kooky to say the least. I love the hat and the leaves coming out of the sleeves, which both tie in with the characters name; Dandelion. She certainly has a unique style, much like her creator.

The colours used enhance the character brilliantly, only needing three (major) colours for the costume and two for the body/ hair. The costume colours were well chosen to tie in with the name and costume, with the main focus being on the yellow, which alongside the green of the leaves and leggings and the orange of her hair, gives the character a very vibrant feel.

The face was the next thing to catch my eye. Very nicely understated and quite pretty, she looks like the kind of girl you could expect to see dressed in that fashion at some sort of anime convention. She doesn't look aggressive or overtly sexual (which seem to be the two main categories for super heroines), she looks relaxed, which would certainly be unnerving and strange for anyone facing her.

Finally the pose, which has a very nice movement to it. The fact that she is not really running, but more skipping towards her next adventure adds to the quirkiness of the design. Again, it gives the impression of relaxation around the character, that she's not really worried about having to do all the super heroics, which I think is a nice way to look at it.