Clockwork Dog notes/meta...

[neotoma]

Yes, I'm still working on theclockworkdog. Unfortunately, most of the work has been drawings, so until I get a scanner, you won't see what I've been doing. Turnspit is coming out with nicely messy hair, though, so I'm pleased.



I wish I were a better/faster sketch artist. I'm okay when I have a reference and a few hours to kill, but I doubt I'd make it as a commercial artist. And I'm not going to be able to bring my pose books to work and doodle during lunch, because my pose books are full of naked models -- the company frowns on that sort of thing, you know.

I have figured out why I like the pose book form 1986 more than the two more recent ones I have. It's not like there are more male models in the old book (there are two men in each book I have, and between 4 and 6 women). It's that the women in the older book have their heads up! It's not even that they are in more dynamic poses -- though they are, it's a 'figure in motion' book -- it's the simple fact that they are NOT look down.

Right now, I'm trying to draw 'upright stranglers', for the upcoming sequence where Iros and Turnspit wind up hunting sphinx. Drawing sphinxes is harder than I thought, because human faces on lion bodies -- well, I can use pose books for faces, but then the animal body looks too cartoony. It's either bad Looney Toons art, or knock-off of anime catgirls. I need to print some good pictures of lions, basically, because they are very heavy and short-legged compared to housecats. Unfortunately, I know what house-cats look like, because I have sure seen more of *those*. Hmmm... maybe there are monkey-faced mini-sphinxes that aughisky use for mousing? Could go with the idea of mice-sparrow griffins, which I saw on a fantasy art site several years ago...

Aughisky *hate* sphinx, as it turns out. They're more malevolent than aughisky, who are merely hair-trigger violent than anything. Sphinxes are like cats -- sadists with pleasing purrs -- but the size of lions and with the ability to talk.

I'm pretty sure that the Brocks arranged for aughisky to breed with humans after the Queen's death. That actually bred *into* the aughisky better dispositions -- evener tempers and more ability to cooperate. Turnspit is goig to be appalled when he figures that out. ("What were they like *before*?!" "Different.")

I'm also accumulating names. It's wonderful to go to a mythology site like theoi.com, look at the names of various minor gods, and steal the meaning.

For example, Scylla could be Tear and Rend (skullô), Hermit-Crab (skyllaros),
Dog (skylax). That's at least two names, one for an aughisky or Selkie as 'Tear-Rend' one for a human as 'hermit-crab'. I also like 'Grapevine, 'Rhythmic Beat', 'Contorted Dance' (change it to 'Twistdance'), all of the "Horse" names -- 'White Horse', 'Yellow Horse', 'Royal Horse', 'Horse tamer', they'd be great names for daughters of aughisky. Occasionally, something will even work for Brocks, like Amphitrite -- 'encircling third' is vaguely mathematical, and since Brock names tend to be math, engineering and geology terms, it works very well.


PS I *love* the sketchbook that gblvr gave me for Christmas, and am becoming very fond of the cartridge fountain pen. I may have found my medium...

Comments

[murasaki99.livejournal.com]

Sketching good! Sketching nudes at work more difficult unless you can set up in a spot where no one can look over your shoulder and you have a good cover for the book.

Why can't sphinxes have house cat-bodies? Or leopard or tiger? Google the big cats and download a few images for reference. :)

So human-crossing has improved the aughisky temperament? Joy. 0_o

I raid horse names for the Harlekki. Works good for them.

[arashi-neko.livejournal.com]

Sounds like interesting artwork. Messy hair sounds rather cute, actually.