Yep.
Could I make another “How I did it…” post with a different design?
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Do it!
Heheh, ok. Prepping the material.
A New Hope:
Anyone dabbling in “making” things; art-ish or hardware-ish, surely know the feeling of getting the kind of “WOW! That’s an idea worth doing!”
Now, with drawings sometimes, before you reach the “Look at that!” phase, you have to drag your face across miles of wasted paper.
It’s what I call the “Paper Sacrifice to the Art Gods”.
Sometimes the Gods are feeling positive and magnanimous, other times (sigh) they require a hefty one…
In this case? I felt they were totally looking somewhere else… Oh boy! 
The idea is pretty simple- the Tin Man. Actually a cool Tin Man to put on the side of a Huey.
Reason? Reasons will follow… 
How do you draw a Tin Man? How do you make it “cool”?
S#!t-for-brain decide to play pranks on me and stops the creative part of my brain so I can only visualize the 1939 movie version.
Ugh. I mean…
I don’t dislike it, but not definitely something you can be proud to wear while raining white-hot lead with multi-barreled heavy weaponry!
So, only happy faced Tin Men in my brain- how do you get OUT of this situation?
You fight fire with fire- in this case I started browsing my physical DVDs wall to fight the mental image.
Twentyseven seconds in and BAM I got it.
But let’s see if YOU see it. 
Now- this will be exactly the depitcion of the Step 2) that was missing from the first post- the long winding road to “somewhat-acceptable-art”.
First step A.K.A. The underwhelming beginning…
Courtesy of S#!t-for-brain…
As you can see it kind-of-sort-of respond to the basic requisite of Tin-Manning the design but hardly something acceptable for me…
Showing this to my kids brought up joy to their face, of course, to the sound of their happy voices crying out “He’s the TIN MAN! He’s CUTE! Bravo Papa!”.
Not the response I was after. Here’s when I start browsing the DVD wall.
Half a minute later I rush to the white paper and I know I’m unto something!
The next piece of paper brings this, in fact!
Second step A.K.A. Way Forward…
Here the drawing starts to get closer to what I start having in my mind but somehow it lost completely the “Tin Man” feeling… One step forward, two steps sidewise-in-opposite-directions-at-the-same-time… I can take that.
It’s the third sheet of paper that finally have me.
Third step A.K.A. The Light at the End of the Tunnel…
Yes, it still just looks like- ehm, that character- with a pilot helmet’s on, but even as I’m sketching some more details of teeth and jawline, my brain is already shifted into next gear and prepareing the work for the next one…
I still take my time to calm it down. If I don’t adrenaline will kick in and make hands tremble, perspective mistakes and all…
So I enjoy doodling this paper for a bit more.
This, for me, is particularly useful at it allows me to take in details missing and focus on “what makes this drawing closer to what I need? What doesn’t? What’s missing?”
Fourth step A.K.A. The Right One…
I simply turn around the paper and my hand flies on its own; I literally sit around and admire its work.
With two sheets of paper and a half I reached what I believe is the right base for the final line-work.
There’s metal aplenty, there’s bad-assery aplenty, there’s Tin-Mannery enough.
Detailing is what’s going to take the next step: there’s nuts and bolts to add, there’s definitely a place for a spent bullet’s case, a bullet hole…
All in good time, all in good order. For now I’m really happy with this base.
BONUS: The look on my kids face was less and less convinced with each iteration…
Hehehe- I liked that, in my own twisted way. 
*IN PROGRESS *
Your thoughts, guys?
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I’d definitely fly a Huey with that skin anyday. 
I’ll be waiting for its release.
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Really cool!
Even though I couldn’t draw a picture if my life dependend on it, I recognize the creative process.
It’s often fun to go back and look at the first drafts. I always go “WTH was I thinking?”
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I’m not as kind on myself
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Loving it!!! rah!
–T
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So, eventually I managed to get some free time and continue…
I first gave a quick Ink to the guy.
I then proceed to add details and darkened areas to give the piece some depth and make it easier to “read”
I then proceed to test some variations to see what tickles my artistic sense better
And I think this is the Winner
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I kind of liked the first pic. He looks a bit mischievous… 
That looks awesome!
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Too kind, thank you!
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Really cool!
Can we have the rest of him…? Pleeeeease!
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Heh, I’d love that. Unfortunately I lack the time.
I do have several other ideas, though, like making the Scarecrow, the Lion, the Dorothy, the Toto and the Wizard.
I’m worried a bit about the Copyrights…
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Yeah, somebody will be wanting money…
I understand that. I’m a bit surprised SAAB hasn’t contacted me about my RDR ConTrollR 
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