WIP: Snarl

So.

Snarl.

This "only" took me like five months, off an on, to draw. Why? Because I seem to have this thing about making things difficult for myself, given my (very) meager drawing "skills" at this point in time. Thus, I feel strangely compelled to draw Snarl with his tail raised, all dynamic and stuff. Like he's making ready to bash in Optim--I mean, Megatron's head. Yeah, yeah, Megatron's head. Right.

So, this was drawn by me. It was drawn partly on paper then scanned, and partly drawn directly on my tablet because I ended up being Not Happy with how I drew his tail and his tail spikes on paper. And actually, I still have a lot of Not Happy with this, but I feel it's good enough to post for now as a WIP, at least.

I used approximately elebenty-one screen capture references for "anatomy" and such because I'm not nearly talented enough to draw Snarl in this pose all by myself. Rather, it goes something like this: "OK, copy the head from this picture, turn it just a wee bit. Then copy the body from that pic, and the feet from that one. Turn 'em a bit...Voila!"

I'm like a friggin' piecemeal Xerox machine or something.

(One reference that I used is in my scraps, appropriately captioned, because it amused me greatly in a very juvenile sort of way.)

Aaaaaaaaaanyway, like my pic o' Slag, this will be Snarl as I see him in my wee little head, not necessarily as he's usually drawn on the cartoon. For instance, on the cartoon, he's usually drawn with these stupid random indentations in his body that serve no discernable purpose. I'm guessing they exist on the toy as a place to put kibble; it's been so long since I owned the toys that I don't remember. Or maybe someone just thought they looked cool. Whatever. Anyway, he has, among other things, these big, fat arrow-looking things on his sides that point toward his head, as if to say, "Brain is this way...maybe." Or maybe they're indicating, "Aim here." (Because, you know, Certain Decepticons seem to need such visual aids. Yes, Megatron, I'm looking at you.)

My Snarl no have any of that. My Snarl all smooth and not-very-shiny. My Snarl tactiturn (Yet erudite! Yes, you read that right!) badass.

Snarl also quite clearly has the cutest dino mode. Yes, he does. Do not argue with me, for this is not a matter open for debate. Slag comes close in sheer heart-melting, tooth-rotting cuteness, but Snarl edges him out. He's like this li'l chibi stegosaur, all squat and smooshed end-to-end. I seriously want to snuggle him. Seriously. Someone needs to make me a plushie of dino-mode Snarl so that I can snuggle him.

So, in an attempt to restore poor Snarl's dignity and counteract his utter snuggableness, I gave him bigger dorsal plates than they're generally drawn in the cartoon, as they should be. I gave him big, manly, not-cute plates. I also gave him the proper number of tail spikes. (Really, animators? TWO TINY, WIMPY TAIL SPIKES? Geez, hie thee to your local natural history museum, for pity's sake. Stegosaurus stenops had FOUR tail spikes. Four. And they were scarily big and fat, like three feet long big.) So, me Nightwind give him Snarl big, spiky, manly, pointy, scary, not-cute tail spikes. Four of them. Not two. I also thought about giving him the proper number of toes -- He should have three on his back feet, five on his front -- just to be a True Dinosaur Nerd(TM), but I didn't take it quite that far. I left him as he's generally drawn on the 'toon, with three toes on each foot. (Although sometimes they draw him with four toes on his front feet. Close but no cigar!)

Anyway, there's Snarl in all his line-art-and-boring-flat-colors "glory." Initial shady/shiny to follow shortly...maybe.