Optimus Prime (Transformers Prime)

Well, here it is.  About a year and a half of.... okay, I'll admit, I wasn't working on it the whole time.  In reality, I probably only spent a couple months on it, but I have this nasty habit of forgetting about artwork that I start on sometimes.  Also, my personal ethic forbids me from doing any other artwork until whatever my current project is is complete.  Shows discipline?  Maybe.  Productive?  Absolutely not. 

Even without the long breaks where I didn't want to lay eyes on him for a few months at a time, Optimus took FOREVER to do.  So.  Many.  DETAILS!  It didn't help that my initial drawing only used one reference, which I later realized was the worst mistake I could make for a project like this.  Redrawing his neck was a nightmare in and of itself because some or all of it is always in shadow, and I had to find a bajillion references just to see what was going on there.  The other thing that gave me a harder time than the rest of it was his exhaust pipe in the back - specifically, the holes.  Drawing circles isn't hard, but getting the pattern correct was a little tricky, and then there was the shading, which I solved with a double gradient (thanks, !).  What am I most proud of?  Optimus' head, especially the spotlight on his helmet.  What am I least proud of?  The amount of time it took me to get my act together.  I told myself that I wanted to get this done and post it before I had to go back to school on Monday, and I pulled myself together enough to do it.  The background is just supposed to be a cloudy sky.  I wasn't sure what to do it when I was wrapping up everything (it was just a brown layer while I was working on everything else), but with a little bit of help from (again, many thanks!) I decided to make it a cloudy day outside. 

So!  Been a long time since I posted any actual art.  Hope you guys like it!