For this piece I did a bit of research regarding actual forging and blacksmiths so I decided that I wanted to draw Artakha in an authentic forge while creating the mask of light. However for the hammer I had to shrink it because sculpting a small piece of metal with a large warhammer was very impractical so I downsized it to that of a regular hammer like one you would find in your house. While sketching, the piece felt a little empty so I added some chains and a few easter eggs from Bionicle canon. I drew him holding the fiery hot avokhii with his bare hands because 1). It looked cooler and 2). I couldn’t draw him using a tong from that angle. As for the runes, I went and typed the names of the toa mata in the matoran language on the grey armor plates on his body.
For the mask of creation I wanted to go for a deer motif as Karzahni’s olisi was inspired off the devil which is associated with the goat, therefore an animal that was more tranquil would make a great design. The mask was said to reflect all cultures in the MU but most of those cultures had no name so the matoran, skakdi and vortixx were the obvious choice. The mouth is supposed to resemble the symbols on a vortixx breast plate while having a vortixx-esqe mouth. The vines on the crown symbolize the spines of the skakdi. Originally the garai-like fins were supposed to be the spines symbolism but that got lost in the process.
Check out this topic if you want to check most of the process: Mask of creation concept dump - #3 by KanohiReqi
Yeah it is kind of small. I want to go and change it but the lineart was done was traditional ink and the final photo already went through heavy special effects which may be hard to replicate after I make a few changes.
Neat style! I like the motifs you used for the mask, and that Matoran helper is adorable. I also see the… shudders Miramax Kraahkan. I love seeing Artakha portrayed with the Avohkii and Kraahkan, though. They’re arguably some of his most iconic creations, aside from the Toa Mata themselves, and the sight of Artakha forging such powerful relics is an awesome one.
