Armblades Not Included

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Katie: It's a group shot of the Trolls from Homestuck at a certain point on their timeline. XD The astrological signs they wear actually have a significance of sorts, but I'm not going to spoil it. XD

Anyway, since I'm obviously I'm on a hueg Homestuck/Househeld art kick...



God Tier Bustin and God Tier Colin preparing to start some sick fires, bro.

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

And finally colored this damn thing.

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Just a little something for Katie's birthday. ^^ Not exactly my best work, but I've been sick for the past few days and this is the best I could do. ^^;

Hope you like it anyway! ^^

I do love the way you portay PokeMon- As realistic animals with elemental additives, as they should be, unlike the Western cartoon-style the games and anime have. You know you're a good drawer when you succeed in makingSnorlax look savage.

Out of all these, I'd have to say the Charizard looks best in my opinion- Like a true dragon. For something you call a doodle, and done while sick, this is mighty good as always.

I hope you'll feel better soon ^^

Even though Charizard already has short stumpy arms, I think they are attached in the wrong place. In this picture, it looks like the arms are sprouting out of the wing joints. That looks awkward. As wings in real-life animals are a modified hand/paw structure, I can see the reasoning behind this. However, I think an insect wing-evolution path would have been better, with the arms having their own joints and pseudo-wings with some other use (i.e., heat dispersal) be present in earlier stages.

Off of Charizard now. Snorlax looks like a bear. That is awesome. It fits the bill of being hungry and lazy at times all at once, but formidable when attacking. I love the tail. That cute and stubby tail is the best part of this picture hands down. /)O3O(\

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Secad: As stated before, this is far from my best drawing and definitely not my best Charizard - which may explain the awkward jointing - Although, honestly, vertebrates with a hexapodal anatomy do not exist on Earth (as you've stated and is honestly pretty obvious to anyone who takes a singular look at skeletal structures, flying wings on tetrapod vertebrates - such as birds and bats - are essentially highly modified hands) and so one is forced to go into speculation when trying to figure out how another set of appendages would connect. Modified shoulder structure with two joints rather than one, perhaps? Or two sets of shoulder-like connectors? The musculature behind this sort of thing would probably be pretty crazy too. But really, the amount of detail I went into in this drawing is not enough to discern much of that - in particular because it was a birthday present and not an anatomy lesson.

Also, note that I say another set of appendages. Charizard is, in essence, Generic Dragon #6 - which suggests Archosaurid (or at least hexapodal alien biosphere equivalent of which) physiology. This sort of physiology could not support a structure similar to insect wings due to the very nature of insect wings.

For starters: Insect wings are NOT appendages. There is no homology (ALL the Homology! </YGOA>) between any of the insect appendages and their wings. Insect wings are, essentially, outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton, specifically of the nota (singular notum, the broader, larger part of the dorsal plates) of the Mesothorax and Metathorax (the second and third segments of the insect thorax). They do have some form of jointing - but this largely consists of an array of smaller plates (or sclerites). As such, their entire functional mechanism depends on the segmented, plated structure that insects have and vertebrates lack. Actually, in most insects (with the exception of Dragonflies, Damselflies and Mayflies, actually), the wings aren't even connected to muscles directly: muscles are connected to the nota. When they contract the nota are pulled down, and because of the arrangements of the joint plates of the wings (the basalar and subalar plates are particularly important), this causes the wings to bend upwards. When said muscles are relaxed, they flip back down almost exclusively by the elasticity. There are various variations on this in different insects, but that's the general gist of things.

Absolutely nothing in Charizards (or its pre-evolved forms) suggests that they COULD have such a structure (do you see a segmented plated structure on any of them? Neither do I!), and previous stages of the line do not have wings or proto-wings in any form of material by design. So there goes that idea.

Also (and this is relevant to DS's comment as well): When drawing Pokémon with a higher degree of realism than the cartoony official style one must remember that, while there is room for divergence from the original style, you still need to remain largely faithful to the original design. It always bugs me severely when people draw Pokémon as currently extant Earth Animals with some funky colors and maybe a crest or two attached to them to the point they aren't recognizable as what they are. And call it HURR DURR REALISTIC. Maybe, but it's not Pokémon. I personally try my best to interpret the source material and give it a biological twist while at the same time not take away its inherent... Pokémon-ness, if you catch my meaning. And yeah, That means not turning an obvious dragon into a weird bug - unless it already has a lot of arthropod elements like in Flygon's case, which I've seen at least one really good arthropod-based interpretation of (but I still see as a more specified, externally plated archosaurid myself).

Tl;dr: Kindly do your research before you start your keyboard, especially when biology and my art thread is concerned! XD

Buuuuuuuuuut enough of that. It's that time of year again where appropriated legends of Nordic origins are celebrated. And though he has faded from belief by many, there is still one they all expect.

In their tongue, he is Santakiin, Reindeerborn!

Contrary to popular belief, he distributes the damn presents HIMSELF (since his life is after all one huge fucking fetch quest after another).

Well, he used to have Reindeer... but then they took an arrow to the knee.

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

And now, simply because that huge bio rant is taking up too much space, here's something to catch the end of the holiday spirit thing, what with the date rolling over in ten minutes over here.

Some festive nerdosity involving me and ze lifemate. <3

JAKLJSDKLAJDKLJSJDKDJS I literally have no words for how adorable this is, my lifemate <33333 I'm all squeeish and giggly now thanks to you <3

This is a wonderful amazing Christmas surprise <3 I can't stop smiling <333333

I consider myself conquered, Stel. Thank you for your insight.

Best fireplace ever. Is that a stylized DNA helix I spy?

You know, I'm surprised there aren't any triangles on this cute scene. Is this your dream house, Stel?

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

Welp. Here's some random stuff.



A yet unnamed species of insectoid aliens. This particular individual is female (males are smaller, have a smaller abdomen, lack an ovipositor and have more branched antennae). It's obviously impossible to see in sketch form, but they're also very very shiny and iridescent, like Jewel Beetles or Chrysidid wasps.



I don't even KNOW.



With the reveal of Imperial Drones on Act 6 Intermission End, I felt like drawing one of the damn things.

And finally:



This is what happens when El throws interesting dragon concepts at me. I just have to try and draw them. XD

[StellarWind Elsydeon]

I've decided to close this art thread. I will possibly start a new one later... But there are things in this thread that I'd rather leave sealed and never unopened for now.