TF Redesign: Blackout

Tumblr Mirror: Link

Just a personal challenge to see how fast I can sketch and color an entire character, I need the practice after all (especially considering work-related stuff). Plus I wanted to expand upon my redesign from my previous picture.

THanks to the fact that I have a more supervisory role right now, I have at least a little bit more free time to do some practice and personal challenges.

And now I shall copy the longpost form the tumblr mirror, where I explain the design philosophy behind my reinterpretation of Blackout

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For his full design, I added elements from Transformers Prime and mixed in with his original bayverse incarnation. 

I redesigned him by following a theme of him being a “Blue-Collar” worker  who eventually rose to the ranks of becoming on of Megatron’s Loyal Lieutenants. Because Blackout deserves a stand-out personality dangit. He likes Bullet-Cigars like Hound from AOE/TLK.

Blackout of Tarn comes from the same lower classes as Megatron, responsible for the laborious and unrewarding job as Heavy Transport, and joined the Decepticons as he believed in their initial ideals of promoting equality for the masses and stopping the corruption within Cybertronian society. Inspired by Megatron during Megs’ gladitorial days, he remains a loyal and powerful servant, and was instrumental in recruiting fellow working-class bots due to his background.

A powerful Point One Percenter, he’s known for his monstrous strength and durability, and effectively towers above almost all other Decepticons. His most famous and feared ability however, is his ability to send EMP pulses and energy waves (and just like in TFA, by just stomping on something). In spite of this, he prefers fighting hand-to-hand, a holdover from his days a pugilist from Tarn. His fists are practically unbreakable, so woe be to any autobot on the receiving end. All these factors combined made him earn the nickname of “The One-Bot Assault Brigade”. His Alt-Mode is an Assault/Troop Transport Helicopter.

For all his might however, he’s still an idealist at heart, and remains loyal to the original ideals of the Decepticon cause, regardless of how the leader he so admired has now become a tyrant. It’s due to these ideals he still has a sense of honor, camraderie and a personal code of ethics, as he would say “a ‘bot on the other side was once just a ‘bot like me and you’”.

Fun fact, Blackout is one of the reasons I wanted to aim for a job in animation in the first place, alongside Disney and Jurassic Park. His introductory scene in the beginning of the 2007 movies basically got me hooked on CGI, and I LOVED his concept art. So you could say he holds a special place in my heart, not just from a “his design is so good” perspective, but also in my development as an artist .