Tristan-Despero on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/tristan-despero/art/The-Unknown-53888592Tristan-Despero

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The Unknown

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This is a drawing for , for her life's work. It's based, roughly, on her concept for a group of monsters that are able to steal the innocence from living things. I suggest you read her work to get the full story on these vile critters. She gave me a very liberal concept, and then allowed me to work as I saw fit. This is what came of it.
I modeled the head a little off that of my horse, Mars. If Mars had fangs. The torso, I feel, is also a little bit equine. The limbs are mostly inspired by the first email she sent me, referring to these creatures as being like praying manti. They're like something humanoid, unnaturally transfigured into a predator. I'd played with the concept of these monsters appearing very frail, almost undead (as undeath and soullessness seem to go hand in hand) but being intensely menacing and as far from innocent in appearance as they could be. They're nothing but claws and teeth and rot, all empty eyes and cold breath. These creatures look as thought they don't have a redeemable bone in their spindly, festering bodies. If they did, you'd see it.
It's kind of odd, but I've got a process for coming up with my monsters. Besides the obvious physical and practical details, one thing I found myself doing as I drew the pencil sketches was imagining the monster's sound. I'd made this rasping, inhaling noise from the back of my throat that almost came out as a shrill roar, that seemed to capture the spirit of these creatures, and I just played the memory of that sound back, over and over again, to stay involved with them. To try and find the fear in them. Look, I don't judge how you get your work done...
The inking is okay, not my best work, but I'm happy that I don't think I skimped on the details. I did the outlines with a size 1 Rafael sable brush, and all details with crow quill. I keep having problems with my damn crow quills. If anyone can recommend a way to make sure it actually makes a line every time I put it on the paper, I'd love to hear it. All the white highlights in the ink, like on the foreground teeth, and whatever ink corrections that may have been required (and there were a few) were done with my trusty white gouache. I've got the original ink saved on my computer, in case anyone cares to color it. Otherwise, the shading was done with 5B and 7B pencil, as well as some shaved H lead to create the fog.
Whatever you think of the drawing itself, I'd love to hear it. Whatever you think of the concept, I think that Moon Oleander would love to hear it.
Coming soon, the second drawing from her story; Kail.
Image size
3248x2463px 5.69 MB
© 2007 - 2024 Tristan-Despero
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