Markatron's Brawn fan art

G1 Autobot
Minibot BRAWN

15-Feb-2001 Markatron's commentary on Brawn

Sketch page
Enhanced b/w

When I first start a piece, I examine screen captures from the cartoon as well as the box art from the toy. I draw a detailed picture of the head as well as a small picture of the entire body.
I figure out which way I want to portray the character (cartoon or toy). All cartoon characters are drawn with simplicity so they don't kill their animators! But Marvel did a fine job of making each toy more "humanesque" as far as their proportions. But I strive for detail and the cartoon versions are extremely bare in this. So I go to the toy for accuracy.
For Brawn I used the animated version as a basis. I would then add on detail from the toy.
Tough and cute! That's Brawn While I really like the cute little robot on the package (and the "Cylon" type red strip in his visor), fans would go for the cartoon look.

As you see above, I experimented with a couple of different poses. The "lunging-at-you" pose would be nice but I wanted to convey his strength since that is his most useful trait. I enjoyed the sideways pose but I didn't think the viewer would care for just seeing a character's back. (I'll have to save the back-view for a comic strip or something.) I think the uppercut was both original (not a clone of some of my previous artwork poses) as well as fitting to the character.

The most striking feature of this drawing is the way I interpreted Brawn's arms. I always felt it a tragedy that his arms weren't shown in the chrome that the toy had. But I really like the "Colossus" chrome arms so I borrowed that concept and applied it to Brawn. Love it or leave it. I was rather pleased with the results. I didn't "Colossus-ize" the entire arm. I drew shoulder pads and left the forearms very typical of G1 cartoon characters.
I kept his human hands. The toy has these pincher claws that really worked for me. I'd envision him pounding the tar out of those Decepticons with those metal clubs of his. My temptation was to use the claw as a "brass knuckles" and draw a claw but put a human hand inside it. Well, I left him with human hands but put a hint of the claw by a rather pronounced wrist guard.
The cartoon renderings always obscured the "car parts" when the character was in robot form. While I appreciate this. I wanted to add detail and the best way was to add back on those vehicle attributes. First of all, the arm shields (jeep doors) had to be restored. Second, the tires (while de-emphasized) could be placed back on his legs. Third, the contours on the toy leg have been added back down the front of each leg. If the back were more visible, I would have added back all the front of the jeep (see sketch of back-side).
The feet were from the cartoon but the heel is definitely from the toy.
To further elaborate on the pose (in the final piece), one couldn't just have him jumping in the air. The viewer needs to see the power that Brawn can deliver! He needs something to be hitting. :) His target is a rather bland looking robot, no features to distinguish who he is. This is in keeping with my philosophy with portraits -- to focus on one character (or group). Now, if I drew a "VS" poster, say Brawn verses Thundercracker, I wouldn't use a pose such as this. Both characters would be "primary" and (as much as possible) both have full-body shots. Since the target is merely secondary and takes up very little of the page, I left him as a generic G1-style robot.

Brawn probably didn't die in the movie.
He was the toughest of the tough. He only got shot in the shoulder. The shuttle was travelling at a pretty low speed when it went down.
He survived a crash thru the atmosphere! Certainly a low-level, low-speed crash from a ship made millions of years later (TF timeline) would fare better.

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Sketch page	Enhanced b/w
When I first start a piece, I examine screen captures from the cartoon as well as the box art from the toy. I draw a detailed picture of the head as well as a small picture of the entire body. I figure out which way I want to portray the character (cartoon or toy). All cartoon characters are drawn with simplicity so they don't kill their animators! But Marvel did a fine job of making each toy more "humanesque" as far as their proportions. But I strive for detail and the cartoon versions are extremely bare in this. So I go to the toy for accuracy. For Brawn I used the animated version as a basis. I would then add on detail from the toy. While I really like the cute little robot on the package (and the "Cylon" type red strip in his visor), fans would go for the cartoon look. As you see above, I experimented with a couple of different poses. The "lunging-at-you" pose would be nice but I wanted to convey his strength since that is his most useful trait. I enjoyed the sideways pose but I didn't think the viewer would care for just seeing a character's back. (I'll have to save the back-view for a comic strip or something.) I think the uppercut was both original (not a clone of some of my previous artwork poses) as well as fitting to the character.	The most striking feature of this drawing is the way I interpreted Brawn's arms. I always felt it a tragedy that his arms weren't shown in the chrome that the toy had. But I really like the "Colossus" chrome arms so I borrowed that concept and applied it to Brawn. Love it or leave it. I was rather pleased with the results. I didn't "Colossus-ize" the entire arm. I drew shoulder pads and left the forearms very typical of G1 cartoon characters. I kept his human hands. The toy has these pincher claws that really worked for me. I'd envision him pounding the tar out of those Decepticons with those metal clubs of his. My temptation was to use the claw as a "brass knuckles" and draw a claw but put a human hand inside it. Well, I left him with human hands but put a hint of the claw by a rather pronounced wrist guard. The cartoon renderings always obscured the "car parts" when the character was in robot form. While I appreciate this. I wanted to add detail and the best way was to add back on those vehicle attributes. First of all, the arm shields (jeep doors) had to be restored. Second, the tires (while de-emphasized) could be placed back on his legs. Third, the contours on the toy leg have been added back down the front of each leg. If the back were more visible, I would have added back all the front of the jeep (see sketch of back-side). The feet were from the cartoon but the heel is definitely from the toy. To further elaborate on the pose (in the final piece), one couldn't just have him jumping in the air. The viewer needs to see the power that Brawn can deliver! He needs something to be hitting. :) His target is a rather bland looking robot, no features to distinguish who he is. This is in keeping with my philosophy with portraits -- to focus on one character (or group). Now, if I drew a "VS" poster, say Brawn verses Thundercracker, I wouldn't use a pose such as this. Both characters would be "primary" and (as much as possible) both have full-body shots. Since the target is merely secondary and takes up very little of the page, I left him as a generic G1-style robot.
Brawn probably didn't die in the movie. He was the toughest of the tough. He only got shot in the shoulder. The shuttle was travelling at a pretty low speed when it went down. He survived a crash thru the atmosphere! Certainly a low-level, low-speed crash from a ship made millions of years later (TF timeline) would fare better.