Handful of sketches

Some more sketchbook stuff, less cartoony creatures this time.

  

The face of a new species of my headworld fiction. Its name will be something similar to "Eyuikuey", but I haven't yet settled on that. It is able to smell "three-dimensionally" with its two tongues, similar to the forked tongue of a snake, and the sail on its back helps to determine airflows like a fish's lateral organ. Their home range lies above the ever-so-often foggy and stormy treeline close to the Great Library, so they can't rely too much on their eyes when it comes to orientation and food-finding.

Another head sketch of the aforementioned plus Adrian welcoming Kreyim to his life. It looks like he's doing something else there, argh.

 A species called Kanerodoptrix, which lives in the humid depths of Eneriss' cave systems. It's the oldest thought-up creature of that fiction part and quite generic, but still ;3

A odd-limbed Phantasma without too much meaning, just sketching away ;)

Back to the roots

When I was young, me and my cousin told his little sister bedtime stories about us piloting spacecraft, cooking food in energy barriers and meeting video game characters. Our avatars were anthropomorphic animals, and some time later my first real headworld fiction emerged from this. Every now and then, I like to go back to these times, read some chapters and doodle a bit based on it.

 

This was/is how my cousin, Lulu, looks. A little fox-thingy with a passion for drooling.

 

A big, big Sorowèl named Frederik wants to shield me, Luna, from the spider invasion. You can tell that I really liked Tiny Toons when I was little ;) The snake-ish thing on the right doesn't have something to do with the picture itself, it's a toy Lulu likes to play with.

Some bones to remember

After the Christmas holidays, the supermarket around the corner had two leftover rabbits whose date of expiry had arrived, so I bought one and prepared its bones after we had a nice dinner. Not all of them survived the extensive cooking and bleaching, and the paws weren't included in the first place. I accidentally destroyed the axis vertebra, though. It's not super-correct in terms of anatomy, but for my first experiment into this direction, I like the outcome. :)

Small snippets

Only quick and not really refined stuff in the last time, I hope I can use the Christmas vacation to really work on some drawings and concepts again.

My character Rreyagae is under construction for years now, and I really need to settle with some design since his backstory and personality are waiting since an eternity ;) I wanted to do a last picture with his current looks, and here he is, swirling up the dust of a uncomfortable corner of the Ksyrix. The moon that hangs on the forever veiled skies resembles a pupil that never changes its position or even blinks, so you're always tempted to look at it again...
 

Next iteration of Rreyagae. It's a good direction, but too floral. In fact, he's entirely human, but came in contact with a Kaenam, a living mask, which slowly turned him into this. It didn't happen randomly, though, since he underestimated a fellow named Ival when he tried to exploit his vocation skills. Ival wanted him to turn into what he truly is, and it's something that's only a bizarre and twisted shadow of a human anymore.

Quick thing from a break at work. It's a "low budget destroyer" and was vocated with the biggest efficiency (= as cheap as possible) in mind. The swelligs on its chest react to pressure changes and explode when they're compressed, so when the Phantasma reaches its destination, it crash lands on it and takes it down with itself. The poor creature lacks everything that does not serve its purpose - only very limited senses, no digestive tract, hardly any structure at all. It can stay airborne and fly for some hours before dying of exhaustion, which is what will happen if it gets lost or needs to struggle against air currents too much.

Happy holidays everyone :)

City Night Line

While on my way home from work, this popped up in my head. I'm going on another night train ride soon and this time, it's City Night Line 419, which has legendary status for me ;) Several years ago, my night train addiction started on that line, and I like to travel on it at least once a year to bring back the memories. Going home for christmas is my last chance in 2013, and boy am I going to use it. It's only two hours till my hometown and I'll be up all night for those two hours, but I'm happy that way. :) Seems like this is fairly close to the name of this blog - Blogger's internal jpg compression ruined the textures on the image, though.

#25

Because sometimes, you need SUGAR. Pokémon rocks regardless of that. ;)

MORE SNOUTS (and some mouths)

A dream has come true and it's now gracefully resting on my desk. Over the course of the last year, I got more and more used to the Cintiq I use at work and I realized that I drew less and less on my Intuos at home because at some point, there's no turning back. The immersive power of a Cintiq is unprecedented, and so I gathered all my courage and money and... well, here it is, and my already not-too-long nights are getting shorter and shorter ;)
Until now, I rather sniffed at what I can do with this device because there's this rather irrational fear of scratching the screen with every stroke. x)

The Atticus got its second phenotype, and although it's only a first test, I already like it very much. The crests are a bit difficult to place nicely when it turns its head at big angles, but we'll see what the next iterations bring.

A small snippet of my headworld. Tristan and Adrian made it out of the underground alive, but what's next? This grass plain doesn't look too friendly either when it's freezing and devoid of anything edible. There's actually a reason why Adrian is as good as naked (besides that I like to draw shirtless men) - he gave all his clothing to his little brother who lived through that many hardships over the course of the last weeks that he's not too far away from death anymore.

This is Kyrronir, a corioalar character of mine who's around since 2005. I forgot some small details, but doesn't matter. Had fun. :) Remember what I said about long-snouted mixtures of dromaeosaurid, rodent and canine anatomy with opposable thumbs? XD

Red and blue snouts

Whenever I relax through doodling, chances are good that there's a long-snouted mixture of dromaeosaurid, rodent and canine anatomy with opposable thumbs. x) I think it shows in the following sketches. A bit.

I decided to make the "red electro" creature the holotype for the Enprn species. It's more what I want for my headworld feeling. :) I'm not yet satified with the flow and dynamics of this side view, but the general features are there at least.

Front view of the Enprn's head. It also likes to be called by its scientific name, Atticus cuneatus. The latter means "cone-shaped" and describes the rough form of its head.

Tristan carefully pets an Enprn. There's a unwritten rule that every male individual who approaches an Enprn has to get rid of anything that shrouds his upper body. Well, now it's a written rule. When I've settled with a good design, I'd like to add a golden phenotype.

I like to doodle around when I'm somewhere between slightly drunk and slightly disoriented from too many free Ouzos at our local bistro. The things that emerge aren't too elaborate since concentration gets replaced by random mild euphoria in this state, but it's fun anyway. ;)

Warm-up doodle from before weekend work. It's some Izix-esque creature, and I have the feeling that I have to nail down something about these Phantasmas sooner or later - especially what's up with their forked processus coronoideus.

Hardly anybody believes that...

...one can pay better attention while drawing. Okay, sometimes I switch to selective hearing, but that counts! Some randomness from my notepad at work. It's not hard to tell what I like to draw when idle, except for aircraft smoking cigarettes - they were a novelty today ;)

Les Revenants

Last night, I dreamt of the following scene which I tried to capture in a picture I should and could have spent more time on:

I always like it when my headworld appears in dreams, and it was no exception this time. The character even said the sentence that's on the picture. x) I listened to Mogwai's "The Revenants" soundtrack while painting, and it fits perfectly, not only because of the title. In the area he's in, perception slips out of position, and it gets worse the farther he goes.

Red + grey + white = happy!

Evening fun with creature and colors. And I listened to a playlist named "The Top 500 Metal Songs Of All Time" while doodling, which was awesome. :)

Cavy cave

Undecided color sketch of a cave I imagine much more interesting, but this has to suffice for the time being ;) There, two of my main characters experience a pivotal point in their lives, and because of that, I have to make it worth it!11

 Another dragon-ish creature, this time it's Pyron. He came about on a vacation that we were having 11 years ago, and he's my first "real" dragon character. Quick sketchbook fineliner fun.

Lestharon

A little something I did for a good friend, it's one of her characters. Painting black things in bright environments is something I really like :)

Long time no see

Time to dust this blog off a little. Guess I'll just continue as if nothing happened. I didn't do too much on my private desk, mostly sketches, but better than nothing. ;)

 

 Quick sketch of basic Sorowèl anatomy, it's a species that's heavily connected to the homo sapiens, but with (mostly) animalistic traits that have been added through the use of the so-called Kaenam, a living mask. As it's always the case, the masks are being used for much creepier stuff - turning people into a giant, cuddly guinea pig is nothing. x) 

 

Another very quick thing that came along when I was sketching enemy designs for our game project. Since it would have been unwanted anyway, I took the creature home with me ;)

 

Chicken feet and musculature of Gallimimus, whose name means "chicken mimic". I love ornithomimosaurs! And I'm excited about the "Chickenosaurus" project.

Fictional species: The Enprn (Atticus cuneatus)

Rushing the savannahs of Dernee and Genner's first branches of the Arithan desert, the Enprn or Atticus cuneatus, or, as it's often called, the Red Wind, is an impressive sight. Standing 1,80 to 2,10 metres tall at the shoulder and equipped with powerful legs, it is able to escape most of its predators, and, in turn, can outrun most creatures that are trying to get away. It won't hesitate to eat anything promising - small animals, insects, carrion, fruit, seeds and herbs. Although it can be tamed (at least reported by some), related species are much easier to accommodate.

Super Mario 64 devastates me

Remember Super Mario 64's first ice world and the penguin mother who was in search of her baby? One was on top of the hut right behind her and the other walked around near the level's entrance. That one was her offspring, while the other... oh god. As soon as I realized this, my night was done. On the picture below it reads "the second penguin baby in Super Mario 64 has no parents who are looking for him". Why, Nintendo, why?

Midsommar sunset

How a friend and me experienced midsommar in sweden. Could be worse, I guess. :) In fact, it was one of the most interesting vacations I had until now. The picture was taken on a peninsula named Femöre, located on the east coast near Oxelösund which, in turn, is roughly 80 kilometres away from Stockholm.

Lychnobite

A lychnobite is someone who is active during the night and sleeps by day. This totally applies to one of my main characters who's shown on this little painting-thing I did some time ago. I really liked the simulated bokeh and decided to leave it as rough as it is.

Celerrime mountain range

A little late-night something from my brainchild fictional world. It's a view that has been there since 1998 but I never gave it a halfway decent picture. So, here's a part of the Celerrime mountain range located in the region Ljatar. The runway on the lower right belongs to the airbase on which two of my main characters learn how to fly. "Celerrime" is the latin superlative of the word "celer", which means "fast". The mountains got their name because of the steep cliffs located farther east. They're not on the picture, but they get their own sooner or later.

If Gaepora rode his Loftwing...

...it needed to carry quite a weight. His Loftwing isn't shown in the game, but he implies that every inhabitant of Skyloft is bonded with one - so I gave him one that (hopefully) fits his style and also resembles the noble bird that carries the statue during the Wing Ceremony. Skyward Sword fanart, just because :)