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thomastapir — Atlas Ray
Published: 2008-08-22 17:14:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 5934; Favourites: 131; Downloads: 55
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Description
Chalcosomanta atlas, the Great Atlas Ray. I've had this idea in mind for a manta ray with beetle-styled soft-tissue head ornamentation, and this guy represents one possible morphological variant, with its anterior loosely based on an Atlas Beetle. Other members of the Chalcosoma genus were more directly influential, but "Chiron Ray" doesn't have quite the same impact, methinks.I tried a somewhat different technique on this one, and I wouldn't be surprised if not everyone is wildly enthusiastic about it. I accidentally inverted the drawing at one point and found it more visually impacting that way, but then I was left with the problem of keeping the elements I liked while losing that tell-tale "X-ray glow." I really struggled with it, and I'm still not delighted with this version, but I think it looks better now than it did originally.
UPDATE: I tweaked the "wings" in Photoshop using the Liquify tool, which I think is a first for me.
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Comments: 23
Wooow...Really cool design of this manta.
I love the big horns on the head..It would been amazing to see one of these mantas coming up from the sea and when they come up their horns pierce the surface of the water
Great work my friend!!!
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Whoa, what a cool image! I just flashed on a whole school of them breaching the surface, horns poking into the air and then sliding back beneath the waves. Or even leaping clear of the water and crashing back into the ocean, as mantas sometimes do.
Thanks for the great feedback!
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hehe..That sounds great
Mantas are beautiful animals.
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Oh, it works very well. Besides, anything with beetle horns is automatically awesome. It does look like an old photo too.
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Thanks! And I agree--beetles = win.
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To me this looks a bit like an old-fashioned photo :3
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I can see why, the inversion gives it that rusty, sepia look of a tintype or something...
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haha ... x .. RAY *sigh*. Anyhow, these are pretty neat! Is this the top or underside?
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Ooo, I didn't even catch that one...Gah. Manta X?
This is the underside--it was probably clearer before all the Photoshop craziness. : /
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In addition to the spondylocephalids (vertebra heads), I have just decided on using beetle heads for a clade of hesperunguloherps on Gossipiboma
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Right on! Go Coleoptera!
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And here they are:[link] !
One of them, at least.
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Thank you! I still think yours is better
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What's the adaptive advantage of this? are these cartilaginous (?) protrusions feeding structures?
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I was thinking of them more for display, species and sexual identification, perhaps courtship rituals...That's a good point about the cartilage, though; they probably would need some kind of underlying support.
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Eh, no need to worry. I think it looks quite good.
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You did a great job capturing the beauty of nature in this art. The shades of blue are amazing.
Let me know what you think my digital painting "Split Decision"
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Thanks very much! I put quite a bit of work into the background, so I'm glad you like it.
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