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Pteryxx — Tail Blade Dancer
Published: 2007-11-25 04:38:11 +0000 UTC; Views: 3460; Favourites: 41; Downloads: 23
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Description
Drawn for Silver, when he mentioned the Animorphs series was the first where he'd waited breathlessly for every book. Disclaimer: I haven't read the books or seen the series; in fact I never heard of Animorphs until about 24 hours ago. But I did look at two book covers and scan the Wiki. So, this is my interpretation of how an Andalite tail-blade fighter would move. Apologies to K. A. Applegate and any hardcore Animorphs fans who may stray across this site.Cheap mechanical pencil on random copy paper, 3 hours.
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Comments: 25
Its really good, have u ever thought of using color?
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Wow, there's so much energy in this! I love the detail on the muscle and the hooves especially. I always preferred drawing the heavy scythe blades, but you're right, this shape would be much stronger. the hook on the end of the curved-in scythe-shape would catch on each other when fighting, too (I hafta draw that now 
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Andalites are biungulates
but the ret is cool^^
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Love the movement in the drawing... I'm just waiting for the andelite to turne any minute
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*blush* Aww, thanks. I was trying for serious movement, lacking in so many of the references.
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Awesome pose. Great action shot. You don't get to see too many Andalites moving around like this
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Heh, thank you. All the references I could find were just posing and looking handsome. I just had to do something about it ; )
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This is amzing... I love Ax, hes so awesome.. Love your designing too. Great body structure
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Heh, thanks muchly. I don't claim this to be Ax, though, just some male trained in tail fighting.
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If he trips over his tail, its Ax 
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Well thought-out and designed. As an independent example of artistic anatomy from a realm of the imagination, I can say nothing but praise about this piece. The level of detail alone is impressive.
If the goal was to create an exact replica of the Andalite species (possibly by reading the author's mind), I recall references to the arms of a typical Andalite soldier being weaker than those of the typical human teenage softball player. Of course, that still leaves plenty of room for body-building Andalites.
In non art-related commentary, if you plan on reading the entire series, I recommend using the library; it'll be considerably easier on the budget than buying every single book.
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*inclines head* Thanks, Lev. I did see a note on the Wiki about Andalites' arms being weaker than humans, but I also used the book covers as a primary reference, specifically the Visser cover that *crunkette links to below. That one shows the upper body to resemble a muscular human's. I also assumed that a fighter by profession would be a very powerful representative of his kind.
However, there's no canon that describes what tail fighting actually involves, as near as Silver could remember. The Wiki has the single phrase, '...and tail fighting for sport.' On a search, it seems most tail combat in a life-or-death situation begins and ends with a single devastating blow, much like katana battle. It's unlikely that fighting for sport would resolve that way, though the loser might well risk a terrible wound. I assume formal tail fighting would involve dodging, countering and deflecting the blows of the tail, and positioning for advantage, as in human martial arts. Then there's a reason for overall body strength in a fighter.
Beyond that, 'artistic anatomy' is an uneasy truce between the author's dictates and those of physiology. As the creature is made more anatomically correct, it also becomes less humanlike. Humans' arms are their primary weapons, so they have reason to be strong; the Andalites' arms are solely for tool use, but they are not drawn that way on the covers. I also made a few physiological assumptions about the musculature of the humanoid back, and made the lower-body torso smaller, assuming that since they absorb nutrients through the hoof pads, there's no need for a digestive system in there.
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That drawing is awesome!!!
That has GOT to be one of the BEST Andalite drawings i have ever seen...Im totally spechless...
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I wonder what became of that series. I know she ended it, but I grew out of them before they were over, so I have no clue where the story went. One of my favorite parts was when Rachel acquired an alligator and her morphs went all crazy and she broke her house as an elephant, because it turned out she was allergic to alligators.
As for the drawing... yeah, really cool. As awesome as it would be to morph into all those Earth animals, I always thought Ax must have a lot of fun in his own body. Balancing as a centaur-type creature must be a trip, though... you'd be so front-heavy...
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Like all good series, they defeated the Yeerks in a massive battle lasting a few books, then ended it with a prologue.
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Aw, good to hear! I just found about half the series in a paper grocery bag in my attic. Thought about rereading them, but I didn't want to taint my fond memories, so thanks for the closure.
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*Nods.* Yep yep! Not a problem.
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Heh, I'm very interested in starting it now. If I read through to the end, I'll let you know how it turns out ; )
Well, humans balance quite well on their mere two legs, so I figure if anything the centaur shape would be more stable. The center of mass might be nearer the withers, except for the weight of a ten- or twelve-foot muscular tail. Figure a python that size, for example, weighs over a hundred pounds. So, this one I drew is spinning on his haunch, swinging his front end around to counterbalance the whip of his tail.
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Awesome awesome! The only critique is that it seems you've made his fur stop at where the humanoid body begins, when really they were completely covered in fur, but that's just technicalities... the drawing is a million times better than I could do, lol.
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Also, I notice from your other faves that the convention is to make the tail blade's cutting edge face the tail-tip, opposite the way I have it. I figure that this direction, the mass of the tail draws the edge across the target, while the other way the tail would have less strength... like how we hold a table knife, drawing instead of pushing.
I also took the liberty of designing the soles of his hooves, knowing they absorb nutrients that way. Is there any canon for how the hooves work in detail?
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I'm not sure it was ever described which way the tail blade actually was angled, and even on the book covers it seemed to really depend on the artist who designed them because they tended to vary in style/size/etc. Yours is much like the version on the cover for Visser ([link] ) so I wouldn't worry too much about that design choice at all.
(The depictions of the Andalites were much cooler on the covers of the prequel books than they were on the covers of the main ones, which tended to be cheesy computer generated versions of animals sorta peiced together or something, rather than the cool drawn covers like on Visser, lol)
The hooves were never delved into too much either as the kids were usually in "oooookay, I really don't wanna know" mood when it was mentioned, so it's basically open to interpretation as well.
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Aww, thanks. Noted on the fur... from the book covers I saw, it's clear that they're blue all over, but I assumed the fur stopped. I think I saw a reference somewhere to being bare on top; guess it wasn't canon.
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Looks fine by me *was a hardcore fan of the series up until the books hit the #30 mark or so*
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