>>1229512hello op
don't know katoki's story too well kawamori in particular was a former aeronautics engineering student and just had a great handle on the aesthetics of aerodynamic-looking shit
of course, getting into actual mechanical engineering just to get good at drawing fictional robots is a bit inefficient. something you can do that's a little cheaper is getting into vehicle model kits! many classic mecha designers were able to break in from a background in kit building and bashing (the prime examples would probably be kow yokoyama, makoto kobayashi and akira toriyama)
good luck!
