The Evolution of Gatchigon

Being surrounded by colorful monsters throughout the day has brought out that drawin' urge.

First up is one of Mori Katsura's newer creations from his "Lord of the Jyujin" series, the Gatchigon. This sculpt seems to be unpopular overall with even the limited phone order version sitting idle in S7's online store. For the longest time, I've meant to pick one up, but it sort of was shuffled down the 'to buy' list, as these things tend to be. I finally picked one up in a trade with a board member, and I have to say that this is my favorite RealxHead figure after the Chaos-types. So much so, that it apparently inspired me to begin sketching again.

So here's the penciled lineart for Gatchigon. I'll show more photos as I take it into PS and 'ink' it and spray in the colors. I can see the final product in my head; hopefully I can translate those mental pictures (sorry, Jon Secada) into something on the screen.

And here's some of my preliminary reference sketches. One of the challenges in drawing this guy is that Mori's toys are all semi-super-deformed, whereas I wanted to do a piece in 'real-life' proportions. Some of the earlier sketches ended up looking too much like el Chupacabra, so I had to mess with the legs a bit.

If you're wondering what the rosebud thing is in the bottom left, I was playing with this concept of making Gatchigon's claw arm an artificial limb that he could shoot out like a grappling hook. Not this time.

Anyway, we'll see where this goes. Just thought it might change up the endless stream of toy photos.