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povorot — Fastest Tentacle in the West
Published: 2011-06-09 21:31:08 +0000 UTC; Views: 22399; Favourites: 341; Downloads: 0
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My entry for this week's drwnblog challenge: GUNSLINGER.In doing this one, I guess I just figured the doing some boring old human in western clothing was NOT ENOUGH. So here - the fastest tentacle in the west prepares to bring hot death on some desert bandits ( out on some godforsaken planet further up the galactic arm). Those of you who know all my aliens might recognize the gunslinger in question from a couple years ago...
Check out the rest of this week's entries today (or preferably tomorrow - the other guys are slow) at our site:
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Comments: 50
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"Don't go for that gun, I need you alive..."
-Hang'em High-
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Hey if you like that... vimeo.com/224945053
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This is pretty cool! Sorry, couldn't resist: [link]
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You really should make a story of some sort! You have the talent for it! Maybe you could do something that's a combination of science fiction and western!
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Oh man I tried to do a story with these guys but they are just WAY too difficult to draw. Doing a whole story with them would be frigging exhausting.
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You don't have to illustrate it. Just write a short story or a novel.
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Thats a really good point - I've been lamenting the benefits of prose over visual storytelling over this past year, but never thinking of giving myself over to prose altogether...
GODDAMN IT I'LL DO IT! AND POST IT HERE!
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Yowza! I don't think you know how long I've been waiting for something like this!
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I like how your setting is evolving. I know you probably already have an idea of how you want things to go together, but whenever I see Good Business [link] I can't hep but envision this guy [link] as the "common ancestor" of both species, even if they don't both exist in the same "continuity". However if they do I think it would only make for a richer universe on your part.
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Yeah - well, in a very real way, the "good business" bug is the common ancestor of both the critter you link to, these creatures, and the time-squids from the "Bar fight" comic I linked to last year. The Bar Fight squids are basically the same body plan, only adjusted to match their mollusc ancestry. For me, creative evolution can be even more interesting then imagined natural evolution...
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well there isn't any reason that they can't have convergent evolution with the time-squid and the prawns/hoppers. You do have the "humanoid" spanish fly alien. If the design is effective, it should be expects to appear more then once.
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That's a damn good point! (It makes me think of illustrations comparing wolves and tasmanian tigers, and the like. I suppose there's no reason to hold convergent evolution to a single planet...)
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Absolutely! perhaps you could think of a couple of other "convenient" (perhaps the dinosauroid) body plans as well, so while there are intelligent species of almost every shape and size imaginable, there are independently evolved species that also resemble each other.
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You're welcome, I love how you made the weapons and holsters recognizable, yet still alien. I also like your approach to clothing with them, and the fact that each one has on a different style of "hat" too.
Are the different styles meant to suggest anything, such as the "bonnet" of the one on the "horse" meant to suggest that the individual's gender (assuming that even exists for the hoppers), or perhaps that they belong to different cultures, or do they just represent personal fashion preferences?
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This is the dirty prawn!
I could go on about the creature design (excellent), but what really grabs my eye here is the colors. Lovely! I also really loike the amount of attention given to the machinery and equipment. It looks recognizably, but not quite human. One question, though. How does a species with tentacles manage to shoot a pistol? The recoil would be very hard to control. Maybe with some sort of frame that braces against the prawn's forlegs? Or maybe they mount their guns on top of their carapaces on turrets, then use their tentacles to pull chords that aim and fire the gun.
I know, though, that you want to have something this guy can draw from a holster. Maybe something recoil-less, like a laser? Or maybe they have a system that launches the bullet with a spring or something, then the gunpowder ignites in the air and propels the bullet forward.
By the way, what is that webbed structure in the upper right corner?
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Well, the pistol I drew was more just pulled outta my head to make it, as you rightly guessed, something holstered. I haven't actually spent a lot of time working out ranged weapons for these critters - but I usually imagine starting with some sort of pole-mounted hand-cannon that you'd jam into the ground. From there we could get into more complex turret-frames, etc...
And yes, it is a sunshade. I couldn't just give it a cowboy hat, right?
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but you need something you can fast-draw. Maybe their technology borrows more from the sling than the bow-and-arrow. They use their tentacles to whip out and aim a delivery system that hurls a small grenade. Or they could have just arrived at lasers earlier
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The webbed structure is a sunshade mounted on the hopper's back, I think...
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I love the idea of a collaborative sketchblog! We've been trying to do one in the more lately graduated classes but, blah, no dice.
Keep up the good work, this is fabulous!
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Yeah - the collaborative sketchblog is difficult to get people to commit to. But if you can bully everyone into actually doing it, it's a great way to keep engaged and entertained with your art, especially when it's in addition to duller paid work.
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Oh yeah, man - some very fetching little awnings over there.
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I agree with what others have said, the tools are interesting. But I like seeing unique clothing just as much. Seems to add more character than tools do.
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And I think that believable non-human clothing is harder, too. You can more easily infer how a tool would work from your critter's manipulators then you can figure out how or what clothing they'd find appropriate.
So, basically, I agree.
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Yeah, and then there's the wide range of clothing that will crop up over a planet. Different cultural rules, different notions of modesty, different levels of society, different climates, everything can affect clothing. It's just such a global process, sometimes literally!
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I love the concept. Specially the tools, I love when people give their non-humanlike aliens tools that meet their anatomical needs (and not force them to use retouched versions of human tools) and the idea of the gun is great.
On a side note i was listening to this while I saw this on my inbox [link] ... I lol'd.
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Nice!
I like to spend time specifically on 'aliening up' whatever tools I give my critters - it's both funner to design and gives you a more engaging image.
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This looks amazing & I love the 'series' in general! I'm quite enjoying the way you seamlessly blend the sky and the ground ... 'no' horizon!
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Many thanks - I'll be here all summer.
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I'd like to see more of that gun... A gun designed to be used with a tentacle ?
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Oh yeah. Who knows - it might show up again!
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PRAWNS ! ! ! with... WEE PRAWNS ! ! !
I am curious, are the smaller (likley younger?) inividuals acting like squires of some sort?
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Well, the idea was more that the big blue one is a (closely related) beast of burden, and the 'little' dudes are just average-sized hoppers.
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But suppose Big Blue is a less intelligent species that split away from the prawns recently (sort of a neanderthal), and is now paid to do jobs involving hard labor.
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