When you think of robots, what names come to mind? R2-D2 and C-3PO? Wall-E? Crow and Tom Servo? Megatron and Optimus Prime? One name you definitely should think of is Dacosta. Actually, Dacosta isn’t a robot. He’s a Vancouver-based evangelist for Wacom, and the designer of a huge collection of charismatic robot characters, created with Adobe Illustrator and Astute Graphics plug-ins. Just visit his instagram page—called chocolatesoop—and you’ll quickly get an idea of the man’s talent and his prolific imagination.
Dacosta got an early start as an artist, winning his first art contest at the tender age of 5. And the joy of drawing remained with him through reams of paper, as robots invaded his imagination during the 1980s, the heyday of Japanese anime on after-school TV.
For Dacosta, those robots represented perfect blend of career and creative aspirations. “I was interested in industrial design early on, and at some point I wanted to be an architect. So I always thought that robots were awesome because they’re the combination of industrial design and character.”
And despite receiving the all-too-common advice that drawing was, “the silliest thing someone could try to do for a living,” Dacosta stuck with it and embraced digital tools, using Corel first and then switching to Illustrator in the mid-90s. And now—thanks to ignoring that “silly” advice—he’s been making a living pursuing his creative passion for nearly 20 years.
Nowadays when he’s not producing videos or attending events for Wacom, Dacosta spends the bulk of his time developing his own characters, and connecting with his fans through events like March of Robots, a daily drawing challenge he inaugurated in the spring of 2014. Originally inspired by other artistic community events like the plethora of ‘tobers: Drawtober, Inktober, Monstober, etc., March of Robots has spawned a book project, recently funded though Kickstarter.
When it comes to the process for creating his robot characters, organization and a logical approach are keys for Dacosta. “I’m probably a little bit OCD about organizing my Illustrator layers, and I always group objects so they can be ungrouped in a logical cascade—from a full arm, to the hand, to a finger, for example.”
And he avoids sloppy shortcuts that might make a piece harder to work with down the line. “I don’t leave paths open. I use an animation production method of creating different body parts in my robots that you can move around. So when there’s an arm that sits behind the body, there’s a whole arm there, even if you can’t see it all. The whole structure is there, in case I ever want to move it. That way, I don’t have to go back and extend any lines.”
When asked which Astute Graphics plug-ins he uses, the answer is simple.
“All of them! WidthScribe, VectorScribe, SubScribe, Dynamic Shapes, MirrorMe—they’re all just amazing. But the one I use the most and absolutely can’t live with out is Dynamic Sketch. I used to use the Blob Brush a lot because it allowed me to work in Illustrator to create a hand-inking style. But the problem is, the Blob Brush creates closed, filled paths instead of open, stroked paths. I want to have that line to work with, and Dynamic Sketch gives it me. And if I don’t like a particular line, Dynamic Sketch allows me to go back and tweak it afterwards. It allowed me to rediscover the inking process with the freedom of the Blob Brush, plus the control of having that stroked line to work with. Dynamic Sketch is what Blob Brush should be. I constantly use VectorScribe and Dynamic Sketch.”
Dacosta’s also looking forward to adding Stylism to his arsenal. “I’m a big fan of offset paths. I use them all the time, and I can see how Stylism will come in really handy for titling and header graphics in the March of Robots book project. And with Stylism, Free Transform feels like a whole new tool in Illustrator.”
MirrorMe is also a must-have for Dacosta. “I use MirrorMe if I’m doing turns for 3D, or icons, or just basic explorations. It takes away the hassle of having to be accurate and allows me to experiment. During the March of Robots, I created some pixelbots, or maybe I should call them “polybots,” because they had triangles and other polygons in them. Using MirrorMe allowed me to see what shapes would happen, so if the robot body was too fat, I could just shift a line and I could see right away that it was better. MirrorMe just takes away a lot of the hassle and guesswork, and opens up room for experimentation.”
And it also saved precious time better spent drawing more robots. “They come out pretty quickly when you have tools (like that) that let you turn off your brain and just play with things.”
For Dacosta, the process of creating a new robot character often takes between 3-6 hours, from the initial idea to finished art. And the Astute Graphics tools—especially Dynamic Sketch—are big time savers. “Dynamic Sketch saves me time because it allows me to stay in illustrator and not have to use other programs to achieve the look I want. I used to do a lot of inking work in Photoshop or Corel Painter, but when Astute Graphics released their plug-ins, I immediately jumped back into illustrator and stayed there.”
For Dacosta, ‘bots are never mere machines. Character development is always key, as he crafts every line with the goal of finding the soul in the circuitry. “Every character represents something, whether he’s a spokesperson for a cereal or the hero in a epic tale. Characters have purpose. They have drivers. And its interesting to me to explore what those drivers are. I’m all about trying to tell a story with my characters.”
Not surprisingly, he’s a big fan of other artists who are adept at storytelling and rich character development. Syd Mead, Ricky Nierva, Jake Parker, Tezuka Osamu, and Hayao Miyazaki are all in the pantheon for Dacosta. “I’m really fascinated with anyone who can tell a story. It’s little decisions that they make, tiny movements of line, subtle positioning and composition. That’s what brings out a character.”
Dacosta’s advice for anyone looking to find that same soul in their artwork is simple. “Experiment with everything and sample across the board. And when you’re looking at something, try to understand what it is, understand why the shape is what it is, and how its form is communicating the idea.”
So what’s next for Dacosta? More ‘bots of course, which may show up in toy projects, kids books, interior design elements, you name it. “Inspiration comes from anywhere and everywhere.”
And the focus is on connecting with like-minded folks. Dacosta is a big believer in sites like Kickstarter and Patreon, which allow artists to stay connected with people who are interested their work and willing to support it. Patreon in particular allows for an ongoing relationship where fans can act as crowd-funding patrons of their favorite artists, subscribing at various funding levels so they get a copy of whatever the artist does next, whenever he or she produces it.
“At the end of the day, you have to find that mechanism that provides connectivity to your audience. There’s so much noise out there, that any tools that you as an artist can employ to connect directly with people who are interested in what you are doing, should be completely utilized.”
And you can be sure that as Dacosta expands his amazing empire of robot characters, the Astute Graphics plug-ins will be completely utilized as well.
All images copyright of Dacosta!
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