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nicholaskole β Sketchbook - Cactacae
Published: 2007-01-24 05:38:26 +0000 UTC; Views: 10806; Favourites: 86; Downloads: 477
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Description
Cactacae design has been giving me trouble for AGES. (sorry, again...Cactacae are cactus men from China Mieville's Bas-Lag books). I mean, China Manages to make the culture and tone of the cactus-men so cool in writing, but all I could see when I tried hard to visualize what they might look like was the Final Fantasy dancing cactus making that ridiculous "o!" face
So...this is a recent sketch page that shows the more adavnced stages of the cactacae design in face, body and costume. I'm very pleased with where it's come, it's been a few years and a lot of tweaks I had to conceive of them as they're written...a desert culture of proud and mighty creatures, that has adapted to life in New Corbuzon but still retains it's look. It's important to me that each of the races bear distinct traces of the culture they're imbued with in the designs. So that, in the melting pot of New Crobuzon, if a human character were wearing an item of Cactacae clothing it would be recognizeable as such.
I'll be working more on them , I'm sure, since I haven't quite got the costume style down on all the races...but this is the start.
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Comments: 14
Yeah, what I like about them is that they are not justΒ some not very inteligent trolls with wooden club in their hand (though some of them are, but the same we can say about many humans as well). A short story or a storyline seen from cactacae perspective is something I would like to read, if China will continue with Bas-Lag books. Aaaand some (modest) fanart of a she-cactus would be interesting too- apparently there is none yet.
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They are a cool race, to be sure- every now and then I still get the urge to draw them again. Maybe, some day...
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A lot slimmer than my initial picture of the cactacae, but I like what you've done with the clothes. Great job!
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I'm finally reading The Scar after having quite enjoyed Perdido Street Station about a year ago, and I have to say that your art really brings to life the brilliantly-conceived world of Bas Lag. Thank you for sharing it!
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Interesting take. They seem a little too "human" to me... But I like the addition of muscles. The Dragon Magazine take was good, but a tad too "plant-y".
The clothes however, make the succulent.
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I love your take on the Cactacae, for some reason they were the hardest for me to picture, and I usually pictured them like large toony Humanoids.
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All your sketches look amazing. This one, even if fantastic, is the only one that isn't like I saw the cactacae. I thought they were less humanoid, more...trunk...like. Less necks. Like the mythological golem is sometimes drawn. But this works very well.
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Dragon magazine (#374 I think) did an excellent depiction of them. See if you can grab a copy of it.
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I saw it actually, I was myself rather unsatisfied with Dragon's interpretation of the Mieville characters, which was one of the things that sparked this glut of sketches back in the day! I've let it go, but up until Dragon did it, I was one of the only people seemingly ANYWHERE doing illustrations of Mieville's work
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That's true. I would like to see more artists attempt it.
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I, too, have a bit of a hard time envisioning something besides cactaurs. I'm not sure they will ever look as humanoid in my head as your's do here, but I think you are very close to the books' descriptions.
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i have a question. what pencils do you use when you draw in your sketchbook, or what pens do you use(i'm not really sure that there is any difference between those two but...) and you have such beautifull lines eaven is sketches(pokes my eyes out)
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hmm...very nice ideas! i'm curently reading "the iron council" ^^
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That is very close to how I imagined them as well.
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