I Just Can't Hold All These Metals

What was meant to be a warm up for something else ended up talking up my entire day. My brain said stop, but my heart said DRAW MORE HUMAN!SHARD.

I've had these designs floating around in various notebooks for months now, and I finally decided to make up some colored versions to see how they'd actually look finished.

V1.0 The original Mecha Metal Sonic. - Looks goofy, clunky, and kinda like a spaceman. Used brighter colors and more decorative "things" so that he looked a little more 90s cool than the rest. Compared to the newer models, this Metal isn't as streamlined, and there are still lots of wires and tubes that are visible that get tucked away later on as Eggman's tech improves.

V2.0 Kai/Titan Metal Sonic - Made to look like a deranged JRPG final boss, this is when Metal Sonic first absorbs the Power Gem that enables him to have free will later on and become a nice dude. But in the meantime, he's full of rage and flamethrowers. He's basically the 1.0 design, only more spiky, red, and, erm, metal. I wavered on whether to make the gem green or red, since it's green in the book while his eyes stay red (contradicted later on when he's reintroduced), so I went with both, like the red EVIL is corrupting the naturally pure green gem. Also in typical JRPG fashion, his hair gets longer and more of his bare chest is visible. :V

V2.5 The Not-OVA Jerk Metal - The point at which Metal Sonic becomes Shard as we would know him. Darker, sleeker, fewer color groups, more along the lines of what was cool in the early 2000s. Made him look more athletic, and less like one of Eggman's goofy badniks. He's broken off at this point to pursue Sonic on his own, piecing himself together after being destroyed in his Kai form, and so he's got more of his personal style than the Doctor's flair. His hair looks a bit more Sonic-y, since at this point he's obsessing over being a better Sonic than Sonic is. As a human, I draw his arm canon as a finger gun (think YuYu Hakusho). Did another retcon and went with red for the gem and the eyes because it looked cooler, and he's constantly in battle mode during this issue, up until the end when he decides the badnik gig isn't working out for him anymore since you don't make friends when you're terrorizing and killing people, saves the day, and promptly dies.

V? Shard - After sitting in a case of hardened lava for months, and then sitting on Chuck's workshop shelf for months more, Metal's had time to contemplate his lack of a navel, and works out a new direction for his life. He rechristens himself "Shard", after the gem that now contains his soul, and also as a piece of some larger thing that's broken off to become its own, separate item (as he has done with the Eggman Empire). He's done being evil, he's done taking orders without question, he's done being Sonic, and he is 5000% done with the color blue. He's trying desperately to put that part of his life behind him (they're like embarrassing baby photos to him now, particularly his Titan Metal Sonic phase), and doesn't want to look like anyone but himself.

I gave him a mohawk based on the gold stripe on his head, and gave him clothes that match the Rivals/SFF uniforms. He's even less colorful than he was before (black/white + a single color is totally in right now), and he's starting to look more like a normal person than a cold, mechanical killer. And he's stopped doing that sadistic grin that makes him look like an asshat.

Current Metal Sonic - Made for comparison between the current Metal and V1.0. Current Metal is the same shape and roughly the same size, and he's got the same haircut. But his design has been streamlined, there's less color all over the place, and he's overall more equipped for battle. He's scarier- his eyes aren't as human as Shard's were, reflecting his lack of personality and attitude. There's nothing charming about him- all those trademark aesthetic quirks from the Rrrobotnik age are gone in favor of Eggman's efficiency.

The deal with the glasses: Actually a carry over from how I draw human!Jules. I have this quirk where I tend to draw characters with odd eyes or "eye liner" with glasses in their human form (i.e. Shadow or Silver, or robots like Jules and Shard). They just look off without something around their eyes.

I have human designs for a huge portion of the Archie cast sitting around, and I want to go ahead and upload them soon similar to this. I'm pretty positive either Larry or Sonic will be next.

Forgive my messy doodles- some of these could use a lot of work and fixing. I'll do cleaner versions once the designs are finalized. Shard's is pretty much done, and I think Kai's too, but I'm iffy on 1.0, 2.5, and the Current Metal. They could use some tweaking.

Shard, all of them (c) Archie, SEGA
Metal Sonic (c) SEGA

Poor Quentin Quire still has no legs. :C