This is a commission for
for his character, the Autobot Fairy, Whirlybird! When scanning for her alternate mode, she chose an Apache attack helicopter, but ended up getting a remote-controlled toy model!
In keeping with the fairy theme, Whirlybird's helicopter rotors become her wings. Thinking about it in possible toy terms, I designed the rotors so that one pair splits and joins with the other pair to form the upper wings, while the remaining portion of the first pair end up as the smaller, lower wings.
The primary influence on this interpretation comes from the CG models of Transformers: Prime, with a touch of Animated. Her body design has a mix of contoured limbs with a more blocky main body, which is a little G1 (post-movie).
Played with scale a bit here too. A low angle shot makes Whirlybird look large, as expected from a Transformer, but she's actually perched on top of a desk, and what first appears to be some kind of radar dish is a lamp.
Pencils on A4 Vellum Board
Colors on Photoshop CS3 with a Genius G-Pen 450
Whirlybird created by
Transformers by Hasbro
Original art by Jon Mallari
`anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
Sta.sh
Unfortunately, instead of a full sized AH64, she had instead scanned the Radio Control Apache Longbow 2CH AH64 Helicopter. She never even realized the size difference until she raced off to do battle.
Now she has all the "boom" of her original weaponry in a very pint sized package. It's also resulted in her "fairy" robot form. Overall she's taken the teasing from her teammates in good spirits. But any decepticon who dares call her a mosqueto may be looking for a good mechanic when she cuts loose.