Nightspider's Beast Wars Art

Beast Wars Art

An archive of my own artwork. Some pictures are posted up somewhere else on the site, as well, though certain pictures can only be found here. Click on thumbnails to enlarge images, which open in a new browser window. The gallery is graphically intense and may take some time to load.

Series Characters

Dinobot
Dinobot and his blade, done in drawing pencils on sketch pad paper. This picture I drew a couple years ago, when I was first getting into this "Beast Wars" thing. Little did I know I would develop this into an obsession...

Silverbolt and Blackarachnia
A later page in the same sketchbook. The pencils on this one came out particularly dark. For some reason, the couple looks excessively ticked-off in this picture. Maybe they already knew I was going to become a Tarantulas fan.

Transmetal II Blackarachnia
This picture is also on Blackarachnia's character sheet, though you can see it full-size here. The figure is done in watercolor ink, and I added the background in Photoshop. Not my best work, I'll admit, but it's hard to find a good picture of Blackarachnia's Transmetal II body. Personally, I liked it; I wish we could have seen more of it. ...No, Botcon fanboys, not in that sense.

Secrets of Cybertron Characters

Pantora
I admit it, everybody adds a female cat. But Pantora is my friend Meagan's creation, so I personally am absolved of the guilt...though nothing was stopping me from drawing her. This picture was drawn in Photoshop.
Nightbird
Arrg! I draw way too many girls! At least this one gives you a "transformation sequence," which is something a little different. My sister gave me heck for the Nightbird picture, saying it "looks too much like me." While I'm flattered by the comparison of my body to that of a warrior ninja robot, I won't deny it entirely, particularly in the front picture where the dragon "hood" looks a bit too much like hair. After coming up empty on how to make it look less like me, I went all the way. Nightbird's a free-use plot-device NPC designed mostly by my boyfriend: who cares if she's got my supervillain colors and my "Sekka" armor?
Epitaph
Another Photoshop picture. Epitaph was a character of my own dark designs. I drew up the picture after I'd already been running the NPC for a few months. The players complained that I needed to do that sooner and more often. "If I'd known Epitaph had such a pointy head, I'd have picked fun of it a lot more!"
Upgrade
Upgrade in his Transmetal I body. The stupid Photoshop tricks continue; this was several layers of pencil, scanned in sketch form and inverted. Cheating, I know. There are actually several pictures of Upgrade, but this is the only one where I got the proportions to my liking, which is to say, completely off, as if Ultra class arms were stuck on a low-end Mega body. I'm still a little iffy on the colors, so I might mess with this one again.
Mindrazor
The ex-Green operative, in a meditative posture, looking a bit like a Shiva idol or a yoga instructor. I added the curtain-like background simply because I couldn't figure out what was holding her up otherwise. Certainly not perfect, but it gives the picture some atmosphere. The leg up is the same on this picture and the Epitaph one, above, though I actually did this sketch first.

Other RPG Characters

Number Five
A "Swarmling" character from the Beast Wars: War for the Future RPG still running by e-mail over AOL. A longer-running game than my own, and the game that first got me motivated to create my own Beast Wars RPG. Number Five, shown here in her original Transmetal body and lying on the back of a borrowed mech, is a member of a race cloned from several other Beast Warriors...in this case, the volitile combination of Blackarachnia and Tarantulas. Five has always been fun for me to play, and was the inspiration for some of the "Daughters of Tarantulas" characters in SoC. Photoshop-colored.

Number Eight
My personal favorite computer art render of all time. Number Eight, shown here in his ultimate, Swarm-organic body, is the reluctant giant of the Swarm. This render was done in Maya 3D, with textures hand-designed in Photoshop. A complete skeletoned model, though it's very slow to animate. Eight is a hornet, and, yes, the wings are supposed to look that small. It gives the character weight, you see.

Anarchy
Swarmlings are given designation numbers instead of names, as above...unless for some reason one should go renegade. Another fun-to-play character, and the inspiration for the "Multitasking" Merit, Anarchy is the quick-thinking nonsense-spouting Swarm rebel that was the first Cybertron to use the phrase "crystal rooster hockey." There was a "clean" Photoshopped picture of Anarchy, but the little smark-alek housefly lost so many fights that I discovered I couldn't picture him in my head anymore unless he had the slag kicked out of him. Swarmlings bleed. Pencil and ink, with some Photoshop after the fact.

Mystery
Mystery, originally Swarmling Seven, rebelled from the Swarm shortly after her brother Anarchy (originally Nine). She's in her Swarm-organic body, though it's sleek, and the ink-only coloration makes it very comic-book. Mystery is a red-eye assassin, which is a fascating venomous insect that players have a hard time remembering. She has a fan-created look, I'll admit, but she doesn't have the fan-created-femme-bot look. This I reserve exclusively for Number Ten, the butterfly, whom I'm still modeling.

Elita One
Not actually a fan-created character, but living in this category for now because she is the canon character I play in the "Transformers: the Lost Years" old-school MUSH. Here, she's watching the fall of Iacon from a strategically placed window. I like to depict Elita One in profile, because it minimizes the ridiculousness of her headpiece. Scanning this picture doesn't really do it justice, because most of the colors are iridescent: it's painted in black ink and colored nail polish. A good alternative medium for the shiny robot look, but not reccommended for anyone who gets light-headed easily.
Out-of-Character Lounge
Before there was Maximal Magnaboss, there was "Transformers: The Lost Years." Probably the most amusing thing about the "Lost Years" MUSH is the fact that Shockwave and Elita One actually get along impressively well...as long as they're sitting in the out-of-character lounge. Sitting around chatting and putting the war off isn't that unusual of an occurance. I'm very amused by Elita's coffee mug in this picture, which is just out-of-place enough to make an odd amount of sense. Shockwave's mug is supposed to say "BFPC," which is the player's "short-form" alias for his character. Take a second to figure it out.

Also visit my Web Gallery at Bowling Green State University Computer Art.

Back to White Wolf Beast Wars

	Dinobot Dinobot and his blade, done in drawing pencils on sketch pad paper. This picture I drew a couple years ago, when I was first getting into this "Beast Wars" thing. Little did I know I would develop this into an obsession...
	Silverbolt and Blackarachnia A later page in the same sketchbook. The pencils on this one came out particularly dark. For some reason, the couple looks excessively ticked-off in this picture. Maybe they already knew I was going to become a Tarantulas fan.
	Transmetal II Blackarachnia This picture is also on Blackarachnia's character sheet, though you can see it full-size here. The figure is done in watercolor ink, and I added the background in Photoshop. Not my best work, I'll admit, but it's hard to find a good picture of Blackarachnia's Transmetal II body. Personally, I liked it; I wish we could have seen more of it. ...No, Botcon fanboys, not in that sense.

Pantora I admit it, everybody adds a female cat. But Pantora is my friend Meagan's creation, so I personally am absolved of the guilt...though nothing was stopping me from drawing her. This picture was drawn in Photoshop.
Nightbird Arrg! I draw way too many girls! At least this one gives you a "transformation sequence," which is something a little different. My sister gave me heck for the Nightbird picture, saying it "looks too much like me." While I'm flattered by the comparison of my body to that of a warrior ninja robot, I won't deny it entirely, particularly in the front picture where the dragon "hood" looks a bit too much like hair. After coming up empty on how to make it look less like me, I went all the way. Nightbird's a free-use plot-device NPC designed mostly by my boyfriend: who cares if she's got my supervillain colors and my "Sekka" armor?
Epitaph Another Photoshop picture. Epitaph was a character of my own dark designs. I drew up the picture after I'd already been running the NPC for a few months. The players complained that I needed to do that sooner and more often. "If I'd known Epitaph had such a pointy head, I'd have picked fun of it a lot more!"
Upgrade Upgrade in his Transmetal I body. The stupid Photoshop tricks continue; this was several layers of pencil, scanned in sketch form and inverted. Cheating, I know. There are actually several pictures of Upgrade, but this is the only one where I got the proportions to my liking, which is to say, completely off, as if Ultra class arms were stuck on a low-end Mega body. I'm still a little iffy on the colors, so I might mess with this one again.
Mindrazor The ex-Green operative, in a meditative posture, looking a bit like a Shiva idol or a yoga instructor. I added the curtain-like background simply because I couldn't figure out what was holding her up otherwise. Certainly not perfect, but it gives the picture some atmosphere. The leg up is the same on this picture and the Epitaph one, above, though I actually did this sketch first.

	Number Five A "Swarmling" character from the Beast Wars: War for the Future RPG still running by e-mail over AOL. A longer-running game than my own, and the game that first got me motivated to create my own Beast Wars RPG. Number Five, shown here in her original Transmetal body and lying on the back of a borrowed mech, is a member of a race cloned from several other Beast Warriors...in this case, the volitile combination of Blackarachnia and Tarantulas. Five has always been fun for me to play, and was the inspiration for some of the "Daughters of Tarantulas" characters in SoC. Photoshop-colored.
	Number Eight My personal favorite computer art render of all time. Number Eight, shown here in his ultimate, Swarm-organic body, is the reluctant giant of the Swarm. This render was done in Maya 3D, with textures hand-designed in Photoshop. A complete skeletoned model, though it's very slow to animate. Eight is a hornet, and, yes, the wings are supposed to look that small. It gives the character weight, you see.
	Anarchy Swarmlings are given designation numbers instead of names, as above...unless for some reason one should go renegade. Another fun-to-play character, and the inspiration for the "Multitasking" Merit, Anarchy is the quick-thinking nonsense-spouting Swarm rebel that was the first Cybertron to use the phrase "crystal rooster hockey." There was a "clean" Photoshopped picture of Anarchy, but the little smark-alek housefly lost so many fights that I discovered I couldn't picture him in my head anymore unless he had the slag kicked out of him. Swarmlings bleed. Pencil and ink, with some Photoshop after the fact.
	Mystery Mystery, originally Swarmling Seven, rebelled from the Swarm shortly after her brother Anarchy (originally Nine). She's in her Swarm-organic body, though it's sleek, and the ink-only coloration makes it very comic-book. Mystery is a red-eye assassin, which is a fascating venomous insect that players have a hard time remembering. She has a fan-created look, I'll admit, but she doesn't have the fan-created-femme-bot look. This I reserve exclusively for Number Ten, the butterfly, whom I'm still modeling.
	Elita One Not actually a fan-created character, but living in this category for now because she is the canon character I play in the "Transformers: the Lost Years" old-school MUSH. Here, she's watching the fall of Iacon from a strategically placed window. I like to depict Elita One in profile, because it minimizes the ridiculousness of her headpiece. Scanning this picture doesn't really do it justice, because most of the colors are iridescent: it's painted in black ink and colored nail polish. A good alternative medium for the shiny robot look, but not reccommended for anyone who gets light-headed easily.
	Out-of-Character Lounge Before there was Maximal Magnaboss, there was "Transformers: The Lost Years." Probably the most amusing thing about the "Lost Years" MUSH is the fact that Shockwave and Elita One actually get along impressively well...as long as they're sitting in the out-of-character lounge. Sitting around chatting and putting the war off isn't that unusual of an occurance. I'm very amused by Elita's coffee mug in this picture, which is just out-of-place enough to make an odd amount of sense. Shockwave's mug is supposed to say "BFPC," which is the player's "short-form" alias for his character. Take a second to figure it out.