Robot cartoon character mascot

This cartoon robot illustration was developed for a client who needed a cartoon mascot for their company. A toy robot in the old-school Japanimation style (think Voltron) owned by the client was the basis for the style, but with a Western (i.e. USA) look and feel to it.

I spent quite a bit of time at the sketch stage getting the right proportions for this robot. I had the basic look and feel early on, but getting everything to mesh properly was trickier than you'd imagine. He had to look tough and cool, but also fun. We established early on that this wasn't to be a comic book style robot or Manga style either.

Spending the extra time at the sketch stage proved worthwhile (as it always is) as the client approved the "initial" sketch. Really, the "initial" sketch was probably the 23rd version. Unless I am working through variations together with the client, the first sketch usually has a lot of "behind the scenes" work going on before the client sees anything.

From there the final vector illustration was completed. This character, especially due to the modular nature of his body parts, was created in Adobe Illustrator as separate individual units, even down to his joints. This not only was easier overall, but allowed me to tweak the positioning of the limbs to get everything just right. Final step was to add the company name. A few tweaks were made to the color scheme, most notably the addition of the orange to add some pop to the character. Originally there was no orange, staying with the company's logo colors (gray and teal).

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