Designing the three-quarter view of the arms and hands for the Robo Samurai...

 With time running out swiftly I've decided to concentrate my efforts on finishing just a three-quarter view of the Robo Samurai first, so that I can move on to adding some colour before the end of the semester. This will save me having to continue working on parts of the body that can't be seen from this angle, such as the shoulder blades/pads and back.

Above is the design at this stage, the arms, hands and sword have been sketched in roughly just to indicate how the final design will look. I liked the rough shape used here, thinner strips of exposed metal being used for the upper arm and a broader, heavier shape for the fore arm. I liked the idea of having plates of armour attached to the outer side of the arms, and blades running off the end of the lower plate. Below are my initial sketches...

I then remembered that I don't have to design the full arm at this stage in order to progress with the three quarter view, so I changed tack slightly and started researching some images of robots to look at the way the limbs connected - the elbow in particular. These are shown below...

 I then used the three quarter view as a starting point as well as the images above to draw the following sketches...

I wanted to show the mechanism in the elbow but have a closed unit for the fore arm. These are basic designs but the plan was to keep the drawings clear and simple. I tried some different shapes and textures for the fore arm, in the end having the armour curve and point at either side of the wrist. I also liked the downward pointed edge at the elbow, of the armoured plate for the upper arm. I felt this angle would work well with the rest of the Samurai design. I also chose to lose the blades for time being, although I thought they were a cool idea they were a bit too reminiscent of Xmen's Wolverine or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's Shredder. This was starting to take shape, next up I had to consider the hands, so I once again put together a mood board of other artist's robot hands...

Here I was particularly interested in the shapes of the fingers and knuckles and how they connected. Again the top of the hand isn't shown in the three quarter view I'm working on so that wasn't a concern at this stage.

Here, I started by bringing in the design of the arm and sketching in a hand and sword handle. This was too human so moving to the right, I made the fingers and thumb more block-shaped and the palm more angular. This was better and I liked the suggestion of the pointed knuckles, but it was too flat in this drawing so I redrew it (bottom left) refining the geometry. I really liked this outcome but still wanted to experiment with some other shapes. The middle hand has softer, rounder edges with different knuckles. I then thought I'd try a similar variation but with slightly more square, harder edges. This was good practice but I decided to go with the design bottom left. Here is a visual of it attached to the arm design...

 This works very well, I then thought it would be a good idea to see how this sat with the latest design of the upper body...

I have to be aware of the length of the upper arm and where and how that connects to the body, underneath the shoulder pad but that will be a design consideration for next semester. For now I'll do my best to place it so that it looks visually appealing. Next job is to design the Samurai sword.