Griffin IIC Concept Sketch (Patreon)

This redesign's lineart is already out in Recognition Guide #14, but I thought I better dump it as I know you all like seeing everything possible. More sketch stuff during the 3D render drought.

The VMI redesigns are always a lot of fun. We've got a highly stylized design with strong Japanese mecha vibes, with a consistent presentation. Then most of them already have a nuseen IS depiction. Finally we've got a project phoenix depiction.
It leaves a lot of room for picking the best parts, and usually a VMI start point that isn't terrible. From there I inject some nuseen details/proportions/vibes to make a lineage connection, and take any phoenix parts that hold merit.
I chose to draw right over an old Griffin sketch on this one.

There's also the interesting part of having to decide where the weapons go. Usually when I/we do a redesign the weapon locations are already well defined and often a critical part of the design, but VMI mechs rarely ever show weapon ports.
In the case of the Griffin, Phoenix Hawk, and Shadow Hawk, this means we're in some way or another forced to break the VMI silhouette. For this Griffin it was adding the LRM5 housings.

I couldn't reasonably retain it's crazy shoulder pauldrons haha. But as can be seen with the final lineart, if its arms are in a wide enough pose they push out a fair bit.

Feel free to post this one around on the internet. Maybe let people know new stuff is rolling out here. Enjoy.