Megaman

I never liked the covers of the Megaman games, so I made an attempt myself. I think it failed at the composition stage and it totally lacks an idea. It started out as a cover idea which looked interesting as a thumbnail, but as I worked on it I realized more and more that it didn't work. Maybe I approached it wrong too. Realizing that, I turned it into a white background pinup instead. Now it does nothing more than present a few drawings without any finesse.

Head-scale feels a bit on the fence. It's not like the sprite (2 heads) and not comic scale (5-7 heads) either. I think mine is 2.8 heads or something. On the sprite, his head is between his shoulders, so I lose similarity points there too.

I don't like the cone-feet which became so pronounced in the SNES games, so I put the masses more towards the center of the legs. Not sure how that worked out though. I do like how MMZ tackled the legs and costume designs. Actually I think he has cone-like limbs in a few of the intro/equip screens from the NES games too, but in MM2 he mostly look tubby/trunky.

Megaman's face is actually close to white in the first game. This was because they used a bright yellow skin tone, and large white eyes. I think this works better with the idea that he's a robot. Borg, and all that. They actually changed his skintone to flesh in MM3. In MM4 we learn that Rock was a household robot which was converted into a fighting robot. He does have a flesh colored face in the MM2 equip screens though.

Megaman has always been a silent lethal assassin to me. He got in there and did the job without bla bla bla teen angst. His mouth is just a neutral line most of the time, and the first games didn't really have any lines/speech for him.

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So, where to go? Here's a few things I wanna do. A 'true to the game' MM1 cover, with the same amount of fun as the SMB1 EU cover. These are the original Megaman covers (they're missing the Famicon one which was kind of fun).

Maybe it would also be neat to make some illustrations like the Kid Icarus instruction booklet had. Also, I wanna continue my Mega... uh, -maiden(?) project which is like 6-7 heads, and that would require some larger enemies and higher detail resolution, which could be a fun elaboration.

The cuter 'Super Deformed' scales are fun too in a way, but (at least when it comes to robots) I tend to lose interest when there are no details to explore or they are exhausted too quickly by the eye. With too much simplification and focus on narration and gesture, designs can be a bit like... a 4 note jingle; Catchy and easy to get, but not quite satisfying on an intellectual level.