Imsee Dancer

speed painting early character concepts

Thinking of some ideas for what a vreem language might look like. I figured since they have crab claws they would have a hard time using cylindrical writing tools so i came up with a stamp like pen instead. This is an example of Khlhk and is one of many vreem languages in my setting. It uses a vertical script of lines and dots and is an agglutination heavy language, so an entire sentence or phrase is also a single word.

Also an example of some graffiti with a stylized version of the script.

Just some drawings I've been working on. I've got some world-building stuff i need to get around to posting on here.

More shading practice , this time a dragon rider. I haven’t drawn a dragon in quite some time.

Yet another species from my extra-firm sci-fi setting.

These are the Qoati an now-extinct species of sophonts who used to hold a rather large civilization across most of locale space, and were highly technologically advanced. Biologically they are colonial organisms, similar to siphonophores and are comprised of multiple smaller semi-independent organisms called zooids all of which are held together in a shell/skeleton made out of a material structurally similar to dried balsa wood. While the exact location of their homeworld is unknown, they did have a preference for high gravity terrestrial worlds.

Qoati drivers, are specialized zooid which have senses, such as eyes that help to navigate the colony, but they aren't the actual brains of the qoati. Those are instead a collection of worm-like zooids which act as the main cognitive group of the colony. In truth the Qoati sense of self is rather fluid, as while they do have a central brain, they also technically think with their entire body, and can share their zooids with other members of their species.

Haphazardly put together recap of my favorite artwork - 2024

Not as much art as i wanted to get done, but significantly more than I've ever done in, well years actually. I made this blog in 2018, and never really took art seriously until this year. I had actually considered quitting it all together a few years ago (general depression and lack of motivation), but found myself constantly wishing to write stories and making comics again but my skill was never in the place I wanted it to be.

Well this year, i got the guts to really get it together and try to improve and while its been difficult considering my lack of time nowadays (and my overall wish that i did it sooner) I'm happy that I started now rather than never.

There's still a lot I want to work on, skill and technique wise but I've discovered the mediums I like to work with, where i want my art to be skill wise, and what i need to do to get there. So for once, I have a sense of direction and even an action plan of sorts. And I've done the thing I initially set out to do, learn to draw robots (there's a long story in here but way too long for this post)

Anyway cheers to 2025, and hopefully nothing world shattering happens and another year of trying to Git Gud.

So long 2024, see y'all 2025, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

thinking more about my alien dolphin/whales

I'm thinking that Imsee evolved from an avian ancestor, something similar between a bat and pterodactyl that then transitioned to a semi-aquatic lifestyle. (which at least to me explains their body plan) So in a way a Imsee are weird penguins that just so happen to look like dolphins. Also, they are born with coat of fur which later sheds off during adolescence, and a bit like seals/otters they have to be taught how to swim by the adults.

I've also decided that the Imsee "species" is actually made up of three different closely related squid-whale species that can all reproduce with each other. Fig. A are River Imsee they have slender bodies and longer mandibles, B. Coastal Imsee, they're the most common and historically had the largest population on their homeworld, and C. are lake Imsee, they have stockier bodies and were typically found more inland than their river counterparts and were rarer too.

In modern times, Imsee are fairly homogeneous, due to a centuries of intermingling. So as a whole, they phenotypically vary a lot.

Now there is another species which are also Imsee, D. Deep Children. These are genetically modified Imsee who are adapted to a purely aquatic lifestyle. Imsee pretty have the best biotech around, and so deep children are created from adults who undergo a sort of metamorphasis via a pool of nanobots, called the Pond of Change. Its sort of a risky procedure (mostly because it heavily modifies the brain) and has a lot of ritual involved so its not something that's done casually. Deep children are a bit like biological super computers, anything that requires a lot of math and consideration, its usually a deep child that's figuring it out.

A purple space dragon partially inspired by sea-slugs. I wanted to get some more practice using colors Ii don’t normally use. 

WIP, for a design for robots, for my my setting Union Station. There's a human civilization which is ruled over by a network of AI and other intelligent machines, The Central Service Grid (CSG) and I wanted to make some high tech looking robots that were not android, as for one I don't really like overly human-like robots and two most robots are made by the CSG which generally values function over form most of the time.

I'm not entirely happy with the design, but i think its pointing in the right direction.

A slight update from my old sketch, I wasn't particularly happy about the head. A little too mammalian but i wanted to maintain a a few recognizable bits from the old design. Out of all of my alien designs they've changed the most from their initial concept sketches.