hey guys, I spent a fair bit of time on this project. I guess it took longer than I originally envisioned but I wanted to make something nice and i didn't want to be spending several hours each day on it.

it's been 2 or 3 hours every couple of days, giving me chance to do other things.

please view the largest one to see the detail. I worked on various details so please don't miss it.

forum attachment, probably smallest and low detail

3840x2160

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/6585/aptomzl.jpg

1920x1080

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/3189/aptomzm.jpg

1280x720

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/2457/aptomzs.jpg

I am very impressed by the detail on Aptom. He looks like he just came of right out of the manga, but in color. Nice work.

Do you have others done in this way?

Very nice.

thanks guys
 

Do you have others done in this way?

well this took me two months... so no!
or do you just mean this style of working?
not sure.

cannibal has a gallery of some of my work, http://www.guyver-world.ru
some is in my deviant art account, http://drag-5.deviantart.com/gallery/
but i lost a lot of it, it's floating around the internet somewhere. one of them is in your avatar of course.

Man, u r amazing!!!!!!!! The last of your works i saw was Imakarum (and that was awesome), but this one is a huge step up in comparison! Great job mate!!

(does it means something that we both chose Aptom to be the subject of our artworks? )

it means aptom is cool !

thanks, yeah I spent much more time on this. the last works I have done have taken 2 days or even 3 days at the most.

Two months were not in vain! Fantastic pic :Haptom4:

This is seriously my favorite picture of anything ever! As soon as I saw it, I made it my desktop background!

actually the original reason I started doing this is his eyes.

looking at the title page for chapter 177, I studied his eyes and i noticed that apart from being the shiny gem like object i had previously thought, I could actually see pupils inside.

this is beautiful dude!

not a single bit of detail that looks off. i especially like the purple bits around his chin and etc. the highlighting is superb.

although did you consider putting the landscape lower down on the image at any point? i like how it's done but i think it is fairly high. just a thought

Thanks BBdude,

as you might have caught on by now, backgrounds are not my strong point

I wish i could just not have a background.

what you say could well be correct. I was having trouble with the placement of that to make it seem right.

looking at it now after a few days of rest, I can see that yes it should be lower because of the angle we are viewing aptom from.

I'll consider correcting it.

btw, as always, if anyone wants to work with this image to make a derivative work, let me know and i will send the psd file.

This is my wallpaper right now.

i especially like the purple bits around his chin and etc. the highlighting is superb.

ah thanks for this, I was very uncomfortable about these bits for a long time. I was unable to find any suitable texture and could not develop any shading technique to increase the look of 'chitin'. it is a bit too smooth for my liking but i have to compromise.

oh there is one bit that nobody has mentioned, perhaps not noticed.

I purposely made the cream bit at his mouth piece lighter in order to make it look more reminiscent of his teeth in his first form. I felt that is what Takaya was going for because in some perspectives the grooves do look like the separation between would-be teeth.

LS, glad you like it so much

About that texture problem.

http://www.steeldolphin.com/htmltuts/painting_steps.html

Ryuki, if you look at Aptom's mouth, it's actually the same as Hayami's(Bio-Freezer's). And there were some scenes where it did open up and had teeth. Just not like Aptom's.

I wonder if Aptom will still use living missiles, or Zx-tole-style wings for flight?

About that texture problem.

http://www.steeldolphin.com/htmltuts/painting_steps.html

hey thanks, that is an interesting tutorial. it gave me some ideas about highlight colours etc. I am considering doing additional work on this aptom piece so I could use that for colour corrections.

Ryuki, if you look at Aptom's mouth, it's actually the same as Hayami's(Bio-Freezer's). And there were some scenes where it did open up and had teeth. Just not like Aptom's.

I see what you're saying but that's not what i meant.

you see those black grooves that come from the direction of his chin?

in certain circumstances, those look like teeth separations.

I'm not suggesting that he actually has teeth like how he used to have, but I feel like it is more of an aesthetic reminder of who he is.

almost like this -

wow you're really good, has released a masterpiece

thanks very much

(although I look at it now, I am not happy with it, the colour balance and lighting is all wrong. maybe i'll adjust it at some point.)