Thursday, October 9, 2008

Anomalocaris canadensis Part Two: Revised Sketch

I lost more than twenty percent of my body weight overnight! Ask me how I did it!

So on the advice of Sam Gon III over at The Anomalocaris Homepage (see my links -- I really, really need to figure out how to do links inside a post but I think that might involve HTML and the very thought makes my blood run cold) I've trimmed down old Anomalocaris and while I was at it I changed the attachment of the fins.

I've got a grim feeling that this is going to make it more difficult to render in Illustrator, which likes nice clean seperate shapes. I may have to render them as seperate shapes, then blend them using color. We'll see...

The fins represent a bit of an issue in that they seem to have been stiff but they were not made of/covered in shell. (Sclerotized is the word for this. Thanks for the new word, Sam!) I can't quite get a mental grip on the texture of them. They weren't soft like a squid or a nudibranch, they weren't hard like an arthropod... I wish I knew more about the textures of invertebrates. I should spend an afternoon fondling creeping things.

But the tail was sclerotized (I'm assuming the word comes from sclerotin, which is the hard part of an arthropod's armor as contrasted with chitin which is flexible and forms the joints -- and is also the structural material in mushrooms. I wonder if the taste of seafood-flavored mushrooms like oyster or lobster mushrooms has anything to do with this?) so I can think of it as being something like the tail of a prawn.

Now it's back to the novel.

4 comments:

Glendon Mellow said...

Lookin' good! I can't wait to see how this shapes up. It'll be interesting to see how it works in Illustrator. One of my favourite critters.

On the subject of linking in blogger posting software, it's not too bad.

Highlight the phrase (Sam Gon III) you want to link, and click on the little chain-link symbol in the software.

A window will pop open, and you just type in (or cut and paste) the http//trilobites.info .

Say okay, and the link is done. Blogger does the html for you.

Sean Craven said...

Oh, man, that's so much easier than I was afraid it would be. Thanks so much for the information.

I did another revision of the sketch and am about seven-eighths done with the basic shapes in Illustrator. In other words I'm at the stage of the game where I'm doubting my ability to properly finish the piece -- I'm certain you know what I mean. And I really need to know more about how Illustrator handles layers -- there have been a few very interesting moments...

Glendon Mellow said...

Yeah, i know what you mean. I call it my "Ugly Phase" that every piece goes through.

Power through it!

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