The beetle mech was another experiment in Blender using the MECH/FY addon. By the time I got to this project I had learned more ways of using Blender and, in turn, ne ways of working with the addon - namely the tapering of vertices which can mostly be seen in the head of the beetle.

The wireframe modifier also found its beginnings in my arsenal in this project. In this case it is used for the wings. Midge/Mantissa (https://www.youtube.com/user/T4ch1k0ma), a brilliant artist, uses modifiers as for the bulk construction of his projects to get insane results that would take you eons to accomplish using traditional/manual methods. I've since incorporated wireframed objects wherever I could in projects since then.

There's a lot to be said about reading the manual before taking any piece of tech out for a spin, but my approach has always been to jump right in, explore and channel whatever picture I have in-mind into a 3D format. This of course means that a lot of conventions known by other artists aren't employed and I often take a stranger route to achieve some results. This has since changed and ditching that bravado has benefitted both me and my work, although I try to always keep that blind exploratory element every project - getting an unexpected surprise in your own projects is always cool, I think.

You can watch the full timelapse here:
https://youtu.be/86mVRIbRKJ0