The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => LBT Fanfiction => Topic started by: Malte279 on February 21, 2006, 05:49:53 PM
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I'm going to post the pictures I made for my second land before time story, "The Cold Time" here. Unlike the colored pencil drawings I made for "The Big Quarrel" these are all made with aquarelle pencils. Those colored pencils whose pigments are not waterresistant so they will dissolve in water which gives the possibility to use them for many soft effects if the finished picture is later worked over with a wet brush (which is the technique I use almost all the time). Alternatively harder but still blurred lines can ge created by using the pencils on a wet surface. The hardest lines can be achieved by wetening the lead of the aquarelle pencils and use them on a dry surface. Another way to create hard lines is to draw them like you would draw a hard line with a normal pencil and then wet it with a very thin pencil following exactly that line. This is what I did for all of the pictures for the basic outlines of at least the characters but almost always also for the outlines of the landscapes etc. Anyway, if you have any questions, or comments, or criticism or anything to say on the technique, the pictures, their content, the story excerpts going along with the pictures, my own comments to the pictures or anything please, please, please DO speak your mind there is nothing that makes you feel as stupid as getting no reaction at all. Even rotten tomatoes (in case they come with a reason) are preferable than death-silence. More of you have read this story I think (due to the fact that it is written in what comes much closer to English though there are still mistakes).
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I have not read the story but I'll comment on the pictures if you post them. I always do and always have.
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(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/01.%20Ducky%20broken%20into%20the%20ice.jpg)
Ducky jumped down from Spike’s back and ran in circles several times to get a little warmer. Suddenly she stopped abruptly and stared at the ice sheet furiously. And finally she broke the silence that had been between them for nearly the whole morning. “We can not even swim! Oh I hate this coldness!” And then she started as furiously as inconclusively to stamp on the ice sheet. Her friends exchanged a grinning. It was unusual that Ducky really got in a fury about something, but when she did, it seemed to be more comical than threatening. Ducky had noticed the exchange of grins between her friends. She stopped trampling and looked at them enraged. However after a few moments she sighed and bowed her head a bit. But already the very next instant she raised her head jerky and her angry look fell upon a collection of stones that lay on the ice sheet. Furiously she ran over to one of the biggest stones and kicked it as violently as she could. She cried out, “Ah!” danced around on one foot and held her other foot, she had bent painfully at the stone, with both hands. Littlefoot couldn’t watch it any longer. He paced some steps towards Ducky and said: “Hey Ducky cool down! You can’t change anything!” Ducky had stopped to dance around on one foot. She cast a furious look at Littlefoot. He was right and she knew that; but she didn’t want to know that. Instead of answering she whirled around and kicked a stone, which was much smaller than the one she had kicked before, with her unhurt foot. The stone skidded away and left a dimple behind at the spot where it had lain, that was darker than the ice around. Ducky ran to that spot and began to stamp about in the dimple. Littlefoot, Cera, Spike, and Petrie changed an affected look now. Their original malicious joy had receded for consternation and pity with Ducky. The situation had lost all its comic effect. Never before had Ducky been in such a rage about anything. She was quite beside herself with rage. Ducky didn’t stop to trample about on the sheet of ice. Suddenly Littlefoot believed to hear a portentous grating.
“Ducky, stop it!” he shouted to her.
But she didn’t seem to hear him at all while she stamped on the ice and had started to blast loudly. “I hate this coldness! I hate it! I hate it! I hate it! Yep, yep, ye....” Ducky never finished the last “yep”. A loud grating and cracking was audible, and then the ice of the dimple, in which Ducky stood, gave in! Ducky shrieked at the top of her voice when she felt the icy cold water like thousands stitches. The coldness paralyzed her nearly completely and she couldn’t breathe for a moment. Littlefoot jumped up and tried to reach the hole in the ice with one leap. But it was an awkward movement so Littlefoot slid on the smooth as mirror ice and skidded past the hole where he lost his balance after all and remained lying on the ice sprawling. Cera didn’t make a better figure. Although she ran as fast as she could, she didn’t get from the spot until she slid too and clapped on the hard sheet of ice painfully. Petrie had flown off as fast as he could and had reached Ducky now. She had stopped shrieking and tried to make swimming-movements, but the coldness stiffened her, so she immersed in the icy water. In the very last moment Petrie seized one of Ducky’s arms. Petrie was unable to pull Ducky out of the hole, but at least he could keep her head above the water for a while. In this moment Spike was alongside. He had learned from Littlefoot's and Cera’s mistakes and had, hard as it was for him, not tried to hurry as much as them to get to the waterhole, so he hadn’t slipped. He grasped Ducky’s arm on which Petrie pulled already as fierce as he could. Quickly he pulled Ducky out of the cold water and put her down carefully aside the hole.
This is the very first of all the Cold Time pictures both in the sucession of scenes in the story and time it was painted. The picture dates from July 4th (independence day ;)) 2002 and is titled (not very originally) "Ducky broken into the ice". Some of the characters are still suffering from the "long-leg disease" you already know from my Big Quarrel pictures. Cera's face looks a little fat, and her eyes are too small, but I like her expression which gives away that at the moment she is (unlike Littlefoot) more anoyed about slipping on the ice than worried about Ducky. The mountains in the background are not outlined the way I describend in the first post of this thread and it is hard to decide whether that is a good thing (showing that they are some distance away on a hazy morning) or a bad thing (just too blury. This is more of a problem in the scanned than in the original though). I reckon a clear outlining of the mountains might have looked better than the clear outlining of the frozen river banks (which would be hard to make out in reality I suppose). What annoys me most is that blur that is supposed to be a leafless forest in the background. It was the first time I tried the technique of using a dry aquarelle pencil on wet ground. The failure of the result frightened me from using it again very often I think.
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I have not read the story but I'll comment on the pictures if you post them. I always do and always have.
Oh well. Nine pictures in the Big Quarrel pictures thread produced eight reactions from the whole community altogether. Sometimes a single picture will get more than eight responses. If I was more of a paranoid I would suppose it got to do something with me. Do I maybe kill off any responses by posting large comments along with the pictures myself?
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Nice one. :DD
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Oh well. Nine pictures in the Big Quarrel pictures thread produced eight reactions from the whole community altogether. Sometimes a single picture will get more than eight responses. If I was more of a paranoid I would suppose it got to do something with me. Do I maybe kill off any responses by posting large comments along with the pictures myself?
I think I replied to every one of them, even though I had seen them before and probably gave you comments a long time ago when you first made them. I can't speak for everyone here as to why comments are few and far between.
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(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/02.%20Struggling%20through%20the%20blizzard.jpg)
They didn’t know how long they had plodded through the snowdrift already. Not only had they lost their bearings but also the feeling for time. But for sure it was already in the midst of night, as it had become even darker in the meantime. They hadn’t spoken a single word since their meeting for they tried to save their strengths for walking on rather than trying to shout at each other over the din of the blizzard. Their feet, noses and ears were nearly unfeeling and they moved on almost mechanically as if somebody else would control their steps.
Both of them had nearly fallen asleep several times. Every time when their eyes closed involuntary they startled and cast them widely open, but the cold wind and the snowflakes forced them immediately to close their eyes to as narrow slits as possible without blocking their sight entirely which didn’t make their struggle against the desire to sleep any easier. Though they fought against it with all their willpower they always relapsed into the drowsy semi-conscious state, they had been in before the startle, within a few moments.
Littlefoot felt a slight push in the side; he nearly didn’t perceive it. A second push hit him so violently that he screamed out painfully and cast the eyes open startled. Apparently he had actually fallen asleep for some seconds. As if through a thin wall he heard Cera’s voice.
She spoke directly into his ear not to be forced to cry too loud.
“Littlefoot! Wake up! You mustn’t fall asleep! Wake up!”
“I’m already awake!” mumbled Littlefoot so quietly that Cera probably didn’t understand the sense of his words. Littlefoot stood up groaning and rubbed his hurting side whereby he cast an angry look on Cera’s horn. Cera put on a pardon mien, but it became grimly one a few moments later.
“What else should I’ve done? Leave you behind? You would not get up any other way!”
Cera shouted angrily drowning out the blizzard’s howling. Littlefoot had to recognize that and cried back: “Sorry Cera. I know you meant no harm. Thanks!”
Cera nodded and her look became more conciliatory again.
I don't comment on the picture right now. Please give me your comments to respond to.
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The expressions on the characters' faces are very effective in this second picture, Malte. Your use of shadow towards the background is very smooth, and this adds life to the image. Good work with the texture in the sky. The snow demonstrates a fairly consistant wind direction, which adds to the realism.
The only thing that comes to my attention is the rigidity of the moving leg of each of the characters. On Cera, this front-left leg's angle seems somewhat squared off, like she's about to drive a nail into the ground with it, and Littlefoot looks a *little* bit like his leg is extending away from him just a touch too far horizontally.
Overall, very nice job :yes I'm not much of a visual artist, but I am impressed both of these pictures so far. Keep it up! :D
Sorry for my lack of response on the earlier picture, Malte. I tend to forget about this forum more than I probably should :rolleyes:
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Thank you very much for your reaction Tim! :)
Though I'm altogether happy with the picture there are a couple of points which I would definitely make different if I were to paint it again.
First of all the business about the legs you already pointed out. Cera is stomping and Littlefoot's right foreleg would appear better the way it is had I chosen a lower "camera" angle for this picture. Also at least Cera's legs (as so often) are too thin and too long.
If I were to paint the picture again you would altogether see not so much of the legs, for that's the next mistake. Cera and Littlefoot are supposed to struggle through a strong blizzard, at night in a landscape with deep snow. However, in this picture it looks like there were just one or two centimeters of snow at best! They ought to be sinking into snow up to their knees at least! They ought to be diging through it rather than walking! The snow is also too bright if one takes into account that this is a picture showing a nightly scene. The snow in the foreground ought to be as dark as the snow in the background is which the snow in the backgrond should gradually flow into the dark sky without a clear horizon line some more falling flakes wouldn't hurt either.
As for the faces I got some inspiration from LBT 6 on how Littlefoot and Cera are looking while struggling against strong wind. Other than that the picture is freehand as all my pictures.
I don't know exactly when I painted the picture (and I can't check out right now as I don't have it at hand), but it must have been in the last days of 2002 or in the early days of 2003 (making it one of the earlier pictures for the story).
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Here is the next one (I'm afraid I posted this one before too, so it is not too new to some of you):
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/03.%20A%20rather%20rough%20reunion.jpg)Meanwhile Littlefoot had reached the end of the spur. For the first time since he had started to run Littlefoot looked back. None of his friends was in sight. He was alone. For a moment Littlefoot thought of the fact that his friends had lost him out of their sight during the blizzard too. Maybe it was better for him not to make running off without heeding the others a habit. Again he heard a long cry for help and he looked incited in the direction from where the cry had come. There was the edge of a leafless wood. At the base of the steep spur was a plain snowfield that had probably been a meadow in warmer days and far back he could recognize the silvery band of a frozen river he had already seen before by overlooking the valley from the slope of the crater wall. The cry for help had come from the wood and Littlefoot just wanted to jump down the spur and run over there when he caught sight of somebody who just broke forth from the leafless thicket of the wood. It was a young longneck and Littlefoot recognized it certainly couldn’t be much older than himself.
The longneck seemed to flee from something or somebody, for it ran as fast as it could across the snowfield, on a route that would lead it directly past the spur Littlefoot was standing on.
It was obvious the cries Littlefoot had heard before had been uttered by this longneck.
The next instant Littlefoot saw the reason for the longnecks panic, as another figure appeared out of the thicket.
It was a sharptooth. A very young sharptooth. Smaller than the longneck it pursued determinedly. Neither the longneck nor the sharptooth had noted Littlefoot. Just this moment the longneck ran past below the spur. Littlefoot had to help or the sharptooth would catch up soon. Littlefoot made ready for the jump and when the young sharptooth ran past below the spur he pounced upon it.
The force of the attack was so violent it tore both Littlefoot and the sharptooth from their feet. The sharptooth uttered a surprised snarl. Littlefoot and the sharptooth rolled firmly interlocked to each other through the snow. From the corner of his eyes Littlefoot saw, that the longneck remained in the midst of a step and looked back.
“Run away! Run!” cried Littlefoot while he evaded a claw slash of the sharptooth. Littlefoot wanted to jump up, but suddenly the sharptooth was over him and with a triumphing grin he lifted, his arm for another slash at Littlefoot’s neck which Littlefoot realized, he would not be able to evade anymore. The two terrible claws of the little sharptooth flashed up in the sunlight. Littlefoot closed his eyes firmly and gritted his teeth.
“Littlefoot!” cried a voice that was familiar to Littlefoot. But he couldn’t remember at the moment whose voice it was.
The claw slash Littlefoot waited for didn’t come. Instead he heard a second known voice, which asked incredulous and a bit frightened: “Littlefoot?”
He opened his eyes again and saw that the sharptooth had remained amidst his movement looking at him with a mixture of doubt and joy. His eyes flashed up in recognition.
And Littlefoot too recognized the sharptooth.
“Littlefoot!” cried Cera and in the very next moment she was there with a leap from the spur and pushed her horn into the sharptooth’s side so fiercely that he was hurled from Littlefoot and flung a respectable distance away. Cera fell back one step pawed with one of her hooves through the snow, lowered her head and rushed forth to attack the sharptooth again.
Littlefoot jumped up immediately and leaped into Cera’s way. The butt didn’t hit him with full force, as Cera tried to stop in the very last moment and hadn’t much swing yet, but still it was fierce enough to push Littlefoot from his feet again. He gritted his teeth and tried to imagine how painful the butt had been for the sharptooth.
“Littlefoot! Are you crazy?” Cera shouted furiously.
“Cera stop it! Don’t you recognize him?” Littlefoot shouted back. “It’s Chomper!”
Cera starred incredulously first at Littlefoot, who got back to his feet, and then at the sharptooth that lay in the snow some steps away.
“Chomper?” she asked disconcerted.
“Ali!” shouted Ducky down from Spike’s back. Spike had just appeared on the spur accompanied by Petrie.
Whirling around Littlefoot remembered wherefrom he knew the voice that had shouted his name first. The fleeing longneck had seemed familiar to him from the first moment.
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It was one of the earlier pictures I made for this story and if it comes to the proportions of characters it is probably (in spite of Ali's long legs one of the better images among the early ones). It comes across perhaps a little to stiff considering the amount of rapid motion that is depicted.
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At last we come to the pictures most of you haven't seen yet:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/04.%20Petries%20fall%20from%20Chompers%20rock.jpg)
“Petrie get away from there!” said Chomper suddenly to Petrie who stood closer than anybody to the edge of the rock. “It is not safe!”
“Why? What do you mean Chom...”, Petrie didn’t finish his sentence, for the very next instant he noticed himself what Chomper meant to be dangerous. A strong gust swept across, tore Petrie from his feet and over the edge of the rock. “Petrie!” Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Ali and Chomper cried like out of one mouth. Spike jumped to the edge of the rock and all apart from Chomper did the same.
“Careful!” shouted the little sharptooth, but his friends seemed to have eyes and ears only for Petrie who fell into the deep shrieking.
“Do fly Petrie!” shouted Ducky and only now Petrie seemed to remember that he was a flyer. He flapped fiercely with his wings caught himself and flew back to his friends. He trembled all over when he landed beside Chomper far, far from the edge of the rock.
“Are you alright Petrie?” asked Ali concerned.
Petrie shook his head but nodded the next moment. He had gotten away with the fright. “Whew, what a luck you’re a flyer Petrie!” said Ducky and Petrie nodded.
“Dear me! Just imagine he wouldn’t be a flyer!” said Cera. Littlefoot shook his head and answered: “I prefer not to imagine that!”
“If the river wouldn’t be frozen...” “...I still wouldn’t jump down here!” Ali finished the sentence Ducky had begun. “You don’t have to”, said Chomper smiling calmingly with, but Ali ignored him. Chomper stopped to smile. He wasn’t in the mood for it anymore.
Again a nipping cold wind howled around the rock.
“I’m cold! Let’s go down! It is nearly dark”, said Cera and went towards the ramp.
“Yes, we should rest now. Who knows what will have to go through tomorrow.”
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In all truth, I kinda like Petrie's forgetfullness of such a thing that should be easy to remember. :lol: :lol
:rolleyes: I swear, sometimes I think Petrie prefers not to be a flyer once in a while.
Anyways, good pic. However, I think a few charcters are missing from the scene as I only see 5 and there are obviously 7 that should be present.
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Thank you for your reaction :)
I swear, sometimes I think Petrie prefers not to be a flyer once in a while.
This may be true in a few cases when the weather is too windy for flying or walking for a character as small as Petrie (LBT 3, and 6), or in another scene in LBT (okay me walk too).
Nevertheless I think Petrie is in fact very proud of being a flyer. The beginning of LBT 7 makes it most obvious, but there is also that look on his face in LBT 6 when he mentions Littlefoot being not a flyer unlike himself.
Anyways, good pic. However, I think a few charcters are missing from the scene as I only see 5 and there are obviously 7 that should be present.
Actually there are six characters (Ducky is sitting on Spike's back). I suppose Chomper would stay far from the edge of the rock when he is the one warning everyone from doing so. The rock would block the sight on him from this angle even if he would stand only a few steps behind.
It must have been a strong gust of wind indeed (:birthday) as Petrie is relatively far from the rocky wall though he must have ended up in the lee of the rock the moment he dropped below the level of the edge.
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Here comes the next one:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/05.%20Birth%20of%20a%20volcano.jpg)
She just wanted to say something when suddenly a slight vibration of the ground could be felt, that grew stronger very quickly.
“What’s that?” Cera asked frightened.
“An earthshake!” cried Ducky, but Ali shook her head. “That’s not an ordinary earthshake.” “What is it then?” asked Littlefoot drowning out a booming and rumbling that became louder and louder. “Run! Run as fast as you can! Get away from the hill!” cried Ali.
She whirled around and rushed away. Littlefoot ran after her immediately. With one leap Chomper was on his feet again and had to fight against the vertigo that set in immediately. Cera ran off with an outcry. She too had understood what was about to happen. She ran into the forest, but in another direction than Ali and Littlefoot.
Ducky jumped onto Spike’s back. “Go! Run!” But Spike looked helpless first in the one direction where Ali and Littlefoot ran and then in the other direction into which Cera ran.
He couldn’t decide for one direction. Suddenly a terrible stench like rotten eggs was in the air. “Hurry little brother!” shouted Ducky desperately from Spike’s back.
Like most of the others she recognized the danger that came from this hill.
But Spike was still unsure in which direction he should turn. Finally it was Petrie who took the decision for Spike. “Follow Petrie!” he shouted and flew off. He flew neither after Cera nor after Littlefoot and Ali, but between the directions in which they ran to keep the distance to all of them as small as possible. Chomper followed Petrie as fast as he could.
He understood that it was high time to get away from this hill. But Spike set in motion only very slowly in spite of everything. This changed however when a deafening detonation could be heard behind him and a big boulder from the top of the newly born volcano struck on the ground very close behind him. Now Spike ran at such a tempo that he outran Chomper even before they had reached the edge of the forest. Glowing boulders whizzed through the sky like comets, and the sky itself seemed to darken more and more from the dense smoke. Just when Chomper reached the edge of the wood the first torrent of lava welled out of the burst top of the hill.
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Wow! (Not even this: :wow , describes what I'm feeling here.)
I can see that you even captured Cera screaming, which is one thing I believe to be quite an accomplishment in art. Brilliant use of color, though your sketching of the charcters does need work. Quite a piece of work and captured the scene nicely.
Tell me Malte, how long have you been working on art anyways?
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Thank you pokeplayer :)
I can see that you even captured Cera screaming, which is one thing I believe to be quite an accomplishment in art. Brilliant use of color, though your sketching of the charcters does need work.
Cera is very far in the background what looks like an open jaw in the small can is actually one of her legs I think. Altogether this is a picture I'm quite happy with. The main exception are Littlefoot's legs, the left (from Littlefoot's point of view) foreleg in particular. You can see making kind of a leap from the fright that boulder right behind him gave him. This is one of many pictures I made in summer 2002 (July 17th to be precise).
Tell me Malte, how long have you been working on art anyways?
If it comes to LBT pictures I drew scetches from December 1998 (when I rediscovered LBT) on. I practiced by scetching characters right from the screen into a scetchbook (sometimes there are characters very similar to characters from movie scenes in my pictures, but not in this one). I may well have been drawing LBT stuff when I was still a member of the main target audience (six or seven years) but I don't quite remember.
As for painting and drawing in general I have drawn and painted occassionally ever since I remember.
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Here is the next one:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/06.%20Floe%20jumping.jpg)
Right in front of her was the river, but many thin and thick cracks were running through the sheet of ice that lay over the water.
The ice broke to floes everywhere and began to drift downstream faster and faster. But Cera saw something more. On the other bank were Ducky, Petrie, Spike and Chomper looking very grievous. Cera was relieved about Chomper’s presence and shouted to the others:
“Ducky! Spike! Petrie! Chomper! I’m here!” They all looked up jerky. Spike saw her first, uttered a shout of joy and cut a joyful caper.
The next moment Ducky saw her too and shouted loud: “Cera!” She pointed at her with one hand. “There she is! It is her! Do you see her? It is her!” she shouted and hopped around fiercely with dither. Petrie and Chomper had seen her too now and Petrie flew towards her while Chomper shouted: “Hurry up! The river will soon be as it has been before. Then you can’t come across anymore!”
Cera agreed with him, for it was already perceptible that the stream of the river had to be very strong, and the ice grew less and less. One could see it melting. Close to the bank the ice had already thawed out. Cera sized up the distance to the next floe shortly and jumped. When she landed on the floe she cried out frightened for it inclined sideward immediately below her weight and only because she managed to shift her weight to the other side immediately she could prevent the floe from turning over and dropping her into the water.
Cera felt how the staggering floe set in motion below her feet and began to float downstream. She didn’t waste time, but jumped to the next floe nearby immediately.
Again Cera lost her balance and almost fell into the water. The next leap brought her on a bigger ice field, that didn’t stagger as much. But it grated loudly and for a moment Cera feared to break through the ice like Ducky had back then in the Great Valley. Cera didn’t brake in, but after a few moments the part of the ice she had landed on broke loose from the remaining ice field and Cera had to jump off again, before she was floated too far away.
She landed safety on the big ice field, but slipped and clapped down so heavily that stars seemed to dance in front of her eyes.
“Cera you alright?” Cera looked up to Petrie who flapped in the air directly in front of her. She nodded and stood up slowly. “You hurry up Cera. Not much time is left.” Petrie was right; Cera felt how the ice melted away behind her. She ran over to the other end of the ice field hasty. Just the moment she arrived there a single floe floated past on the river that was apart from that nearly free of ice in the meantime.
Cera hesitated shortly and then she jumped. This time she didn’t land on the floe exactly but only near its edge. Because of her swing the floe drifted towards the bank, but it was even harder for Cera not to overturn back into the water. She tried to come closer to the center of the floe with one leap, but she miscalculated this time. Cera landed at the opposite edge. The floe inclined forward and this time Cera couldn’t hold on to the smooth as mirror ice; with a short shriek she tumbled forward into the water. It was as if innumerable small pointed needles would prick at her when she dipped in the icy cold water. Strangely it didn’t even seem to be so unpleasant to Cera after the heat in the burning forest. A strong vortex pulled her into the deep, no matter how much she struggled against it, while the current pulled her downstream. Cera struggled as fierce as she could and suddenly she felt sandy ground below her feet. With all her might she pushed of and for her big surprise she broke through the water surface immediately. She swam towards the bank and then she felt the sandy ground again while her head was still above the water. She clawed firmly to the ground and leaned against the stream. She made to find save foothold and to approach the bank slowly step by step while the undertow still pulled on her legs. Completely out of breath Cera reached the bank where she was welcomed jubilantly by Chomper, Ducky, Spike and Petrie, who had stayed close to Cera while she had been in the water. Cera lay down and closed her eyes for a moment.
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The picture I posted last is one of those I'm quite happy with. There are no characters copied from the movie, they are all freehand. The only thing I'm not quite happy with is the "smoke" of the fire. It is really a very thin haze, not giving enough "credit" to the huge fire that is going on in the background. Maybe melting snow turned a lot of that smoke into steam, but that would be a sorry excuse as I definitely didn't have it in mind when I painted the picture (July 20th 2002). I probably just wanted to have some background elements such as the new volcano and the edge of the walls of the Valley in which all this is happening.
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(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/07.%20Before%20the%20jump.jpg)
“How could they possibly escape?” asked Littlefoot with a hopeless mien. “Nobody can survive in this”, said Littlefoot and pointed at the burning treetops again.
Ali just wanted to reply something when they heard a loud cracking from the ramp.
They looked in the direction surprised. Where the rocky ramp disappeared into the primeval forest the treetops quivered as if something big made its way up the ramp. Ali’s face lightened up, her inspiration seemed to prove right, and Littlefoot too stood up and looked down at the ramp expectantly. A big silhouette that was not exactly recognizable in front of the dazzling fire and the flickering air broke out between the treetops and stormed up the ramp. Littlefoot and Ali strained their eyes, but when they could recognize the stooped figure it had almost reached the top of Chomper’s rock already. Littlefoot and Ali cried out in the same moment, for it was a sharptooth, a huge grownup sharptooth. Only because of their horrified yells the sharptooth noted Ali and Littlefoot. It looked up, spotted them and began to run faster.
Its eyes flashed.
Ali had the presence of mind to jerk around, while Littlefoot stood there paralyzed with fear and starred at the sharptooth. Ali pushed him fiercely and cried: “Come on Littlefoot!”
Then she ran off. It was as if Littlefoot would awake from a dream. Nearly another second passed before he followed Ali, but he caught up with her soon. “Where shall we go Ali?” called Littlefoot drowning out the roaring of the sharptooth behind them.
“I don’t know!” Ali cried back after she had made sure with a hasty look around that here was no shelter, nor any safe place. Suddenly Ali skidded to a halt with an outcry. Littlefoot jumped aside not to run into Ali’s back. In the very last moment he too came to a standstill. In front of them was the abyss and far down the river meandered along. They both cast a look back over their shoulders. For a short moment Littlefoot’s look met the sharptooth’s. The sharptooth seemed to be surprised, but the next moment it continued to ran towards them with far reaching steps. Littlefoot and Ali exchanged a short look. And it was as if they would speak. They could see what the other one thought. They couldn’t run away anymore and they both had the same idea. They jumped down the cliff in the very same instant yelling as loud as they could. The sharptooth was only few steps behind them.
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I don't remember this picture from years past....
The look on (Ali's?) face is pure terror. :D I can see why she yelled "Come on!"
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The look on (Ali's?) face is pure terror.
Ali is the right of the longnecks (right from your point of view). You can differentiate her from Littlefoot by her slightly more reddish color and her blue eyes, while Littlefoot has brown eyes. Their terror can be seen only for the fact that their eyes are opened wide (which in another context might be understood as a sign of surprise, though here I suppose they have meanwhile "gotten over" the surprise of seeing a sharptooth rushing towards them). They are not screaming or so in this picture. They probably did instants before when reaching the edge of the rock. Is is the very same edge of rock from which Petrie fell before and on which they commented: “If the river wouldn’t be frozen...” “...I still wouldn’t jump down here!” Ali finished the sentence Ducky had begun.
Now because of the fire the ice on the river running past below that rock has melted away. Nevertheless it still is a very scary jump. Littlefoot and Ali agreed on jumping just with that look (the apparent alternative to jumping was probably helping to make a quick decision :lol).
The smoke is not as hazy in this picture as in the last one, but still it is rather thin considering how very high the flames must be if they reach over the edge of the rock (in fact if they were that high Littlefoot and Ali would have probably been grilled on top of that rock no matter the direction of the wind). I probably exaggerated unconsciously for the sake of sensationalism ;)
I don't remember this picture from years past....
I don't remember for sure which pictures I sent you already Adam. This one is the last I painted for "The Cold Time". It dates from July 8th 2003.
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Malte279 how come I can't post up LBT images and you are?
I like the artwork but I have to give links now to my site to let them see it and then I am not sure if they go on it is there any way to post it up as a link from my site?
but all in all the drawings are creative :)
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Hi Wayne! :)
If you have hosted your pictures elsewhere you can enter the url of the picture in your message, then mark it and hit the image button (IMG) which you will find above the window in which you enter your message.
It should be made sure that the pictures are small enough so they won't require a horizontal scrollbar to be viewed completely. Once one of my pictures couldn't be displayed into my message like that and to this day I don't know why that was.
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This one is titled sign of hope and I think it is my personal favorite:
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/08.%20Sign%20of%20hope.jpg)
The gloomy mood hadn’t passed. Littlefoot didn’t really understand the cause for it, but he noted that it had affected everyone. They were struggling up to the top of a very high mountain to, as Littlefoot had suggested, look out for a suitable sleeping place from up there. It was an exhausting climb through deep snow, although the mountain was not very steep. Ducky had taken seat on Spike’s back again, as the snow here lay higher than she could handle. Cera wasn’t exactly helping in terms of lifting their spirits.
“How do we know at all, that it is warmer in this direction? We are so long on the move since we’ve left the Great Valley, but still it is not any warmer.” Cera pulled a face.
“We’re nearly on the top”, said Littlefoot just to change the topic.
The sun was not far above the western horizon anymore, when they reached the rocky summit a short while later. The view from up there was great. The snowfields glistened and shone in blinding bright where the dwindling light of the sun fell onto them, while the every place in some mountain’s shade and the steep snow free slopes seemed to be very dark, almost black. If the mountains hadn’t blocked the sight in every direction Littlefoot had not been surprised if they had been able to see their parents from up here. Behind the mountains to their rear a column of black smoke rose to the sky and showed roughly the position of the valley they had left behind. Suddenly Ali jumped up and stared at the horizon. “What’s the matter Ali?” Littlefoot asked surprised. “Over there! Do you see it too?”
Nobody knew what Ali meant. “Do you mean the rainbow?” Ducky asked finally.
Far ahead in the direction in which the sun had its highest stand during the day, dark clouds had gathered and when they looked carefully they could recognize a colorful rainbow that vaulted from the clouds down to the earth.
Ali nodded. “Yes, of course I mean it.”
“And what’s so special about it?” Cera asked irritated.
“Did you ever see a rainbow without rain?”
“Yes! Two even, at the waterfall in front of the cave to the land of mists.”
Ali rolled her eyes impatiently. “Yes, but there was water in the air too.”
Chomper seemed to understand suddenly what Ali was aiming at.
“You mean...” Ali nodded again. “Exactly.”
“Would you mind telling us what’s up?” Cera required angrily.
“If you’ve never seen a rainbow without water in the air, and if you now see a rainbow over there, what does that mean to you?”
“That there’s bad weather ahead?” Cera asked bored.
Petrie suddenly jumped up and fell down from Littlefoot’s head where he had sat so far.
It seemed he too had picked up the point.
“That it is raining over there!” said Ali, and now it was her who sounded impatiently.
“And if there’s rain over there, then it means that it has to be warmer over there.”
Nobody spoke for a moment. Then Ducky uttered an exulting cry, jumped on a small boulder that towered out of the snow aside Spike and hugged her “little brother” as far as possible. Petrie made his way out of the snow into which he had dropped and flew in circles and loops on the sky until he was done up and landed on Littlefoot’s head again. Littlefoot embraced Ali and Cera romped wildly around in the snow with Spike, forgetting all about her previous defeatism. The low spirits were gone without leaving a trace.
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As I said, this one of my favorite pictures. I like the mountain landscape and the little color contrast in the black and white that is added by the rainbow. One tiny detail that may by overlooked easily is the dark spot on a rocky wall on the lower left side. It marks a cave of which you are going to get an inside view in the next picture I'm going to post.
As for criticism it is striking that Spike is slightly smaller than Cera in this picture (he is distinctly bigger). Also there is a total absence of footprints in the snow. Other than that I'm quite happy with this picture, but always most eager to read your opinion (plead). :)
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Sorry, again the link of the picture isn't working to bring up the picture :( If you want to take a look at it you'll have to use this link:
Petrie's narrow escape (http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/09.%20Petrie's%20narrow%20escape.jpg)
Petrie was aroused when somebody shook him out of his sleep fierce and roughly. Even before he had opened his eyes he had grasped that he had to be fallen asleep in the eggeaters cave and that those who shook his shoulder had to be one of them who had just discovered him. With a frightened outcry he cast his eyes open and looked for his boundless relief into Ducky’s face. “Be quiet!” ordered Ducky and looked at him dismayed. “What are you still doing here? You wanted to fly back to the others.” Petrie made a helpless gesture, shuffled Ducky’s hand from his shoulder, jumped up and said quietly: “Me must fly! Maybe it’s not to late yet!” And he ran towards one gap between the stones. But Ducky kept him back: “Stop! They’re already awake, oh yes they are!” “Petrie must sneak out very silent. Maybe they’ll me no see!” Because of his dither Petrie spoke nearly even more wrong than usually. In this moment instant they heard the voice of the eggeater with the scratched nose saying: “I’ll take a look what our little grasseater is doing!” Ducky’s and Petrie’s hearts stopped beating when they heard the approaching steps of the eggeater. They held their breath and when the hands of the eggeater seized the flagstone Ducky saw how every muscle in Petrie’s little body strained. Bright sunlight fell from the cave entrance in to them when the eggeater shove the flagstone aside. But in the next instant the eggeater’s shadow lay above them. Petrie seemed to have waited for that moment when the face of the eggeater with the scratched nose appeared over them. Like being shot from a sling Petrie pounced vertically up into the air and inflicted a fierce strong beak peck on the scratched nose when he flew past it. The eggeater howled up, began to hop wildly around and waved his arms wildly around in the air, before he pressed both hands on his nose. It was a funny sight. “Stop him Strut!” cried the eggeater, but Petrie had already flown past the other eggeater and had reached the cave entrance. Ducky didn’t dare to imagine what the eggeaters would do with her when they would have recovered from their surprise. She had to escape as long as the eggeaters paid no attention to her. With one leap she was on one of the stones that lay around her. But Ozzy pushed her back with one of his fingers and she landed so heavily on her back that she couldn’t breathe for a while. She didn’t dare attempt another escape, when she had regained her breath. Ozzy blasted because of his nose and although she hardly dared to stir with angst Ducky felt malicious joy. But then Ozzy did something that bewildered Ducky completely. He laughed. Ozzy laughed with might and main and didn’t seem to be able to stop at all. Whatever Ducky might have expected, it was not that. This eggeater had to be annoyed and not happy. Ducky’s fear ceased and instead of it she became angry. Had this eggeater become crazy? Also the other eggeater looked at his brother as if he would have doubts about his reason. “Ozzy he has escaped”, he said finally low spirited and seemed to expect any punishment, but Ozzy laughed even more. “Is everything okay with you Ozzy?” Strut asked even more dejected. “Of course!” Ozzy called happily. “Everything goes according to our plan. Apart from that...”, he added yet with an angry voice, “...I haven’t planed to let this flying mini grasseater peck at my nose.”
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This picture of Petrie's spectacular escape dates from August 1st 2002 ("Sign of hope", the previous picture February 16th 2003). Altogether I'm quite happy with this one. Ozzy's arms are perhaps a bit too long, and Petrie is difficult to make out in front of the dark background. However, I like the effects of light and shadow and the expressions, respectively posture of the characters, all of whom are freehand. Petrie has (barely visible in the scan) gritted his teeth flying as fast as he can to ge out of the cave. Ozzy looks a bit like he was trying to shoo away insects (which may have been what I had in mind when I drew him). Strut is looking utterly perplexed. He will not be an obstacle to Petrie. Ducky is cowering to jump onto one of the rocks which make her prison for her doomed attempt to make an escape.
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Here is the next one... And again for some strange reason it won't be linked to this page so I can only give you the link to open it yourself. I really wonder why the board won't accept all pictures. They don't differ considerably in size or the like :angry:
http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/10.%20Oz...rrow%20miss.jpg (http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/10.%20Ozzy's%20narrow%20miss.jpg)Petrie trembled with coldness in his coverage behind the rocks above the cave. To go into the cave itself he didn’t dare anymore. He wasn’t here for very long, for the slight snowfall, that had stopped meanwhile had hindered him. On his way he had seen nothing of Littlefoot or Ducky and he had already given up the hope that they could have escaped. The eggeater who had just returned into the cave carrying some boughs of conifers and some frozen grasses had dispelled even his last doubts concerning that. But at least he knew now that Littlefoot and Ducky were still alive; for whom else should the eggeater have fetched the green food?
Petrie knew actually what he had wanted to find out, but he stayed there nevertheless.
Before he would fly back to the others he wanted to wait in the, as he had to confess to himself, probably vainly hope to set his eyes upon Ducky and Littlefoot yet.
He waited vainly for a while and became colder and colder. He was already nearly about to fly back to report the others what he had seen when he was startled by the sound of steps.
The next instant the eggeater with the scratched nose came out of the cave closely followed by Littlefoot. First at the second sight Petrie recognized that the eggeater had tied one end of a liana around Littlefoot’s neck. The eggeater held the other end firmly in one hand.
On Littlefoot’s head flaunted an ugly bump, but apart from that he seemed to be well according to the circumstances. Now also the second eggeater came out of the cave and he clinched Ducky in one hand. It appeared as if the eggeaters wanted to go a long distance. Petrie was surprised that they let Littlefoot and Ducky out of the cave at all. Littlefoot and Ducky should know that he and the others were nearby thought Petrie. It would surely encourage them a bit. He loosed from the shadow of the rocky wall and let himself drop. Immediately he spread his wings and set on to a glide above the heads of the eggeaters.
Not only Ducky and Littlefoot but also the eggeaters would see him surely, but what should they do? They couldn’t fly. Ducky in Strut’s fist saw Petrie first. She uttered a surprised yell that directed the attention of Littlefoot and the eggeaters on Petrie too. Ozzy reacted quickly as lightning. He bent down and snatched up some stones with his free hand. Littlefoot recognized immediately what Ozzy intended and that he wanted to hit Petrie with a stone in the air. And that he was able to hit him was out of question for Littlefoot. He had experienced Ozzy’s accurateness by himself. “Look out Petrie! Fly away!” Petrie hadn’t recognized the danger himself, but he reacted at once. He began to climb steep upwards. That way he gained highness, but he became slower and was an easy target. A stone whizzed closely past his beak. If he would have started to climb only fractions of a second later, then the stone would have hit him and he would have precipitated surely. Petrie flapped quicker with his wings to come out of range. Ozzy had already lifted his arm for the next fling and he simply couldn’t miss Petrie who hung seemingly motionless in the air. Littlefoot threw himself to the side violently and felt how the noose around his neck tightened smarting and tied off his breath, but Littlefoot had gained the wished success. Ozzy stumbled. Only very slightly, but the stone he had hurled in that moment whizzed past Petrie’s wing. A stone thrown by Strut couldn’t have missed further and then Petrie was too high to hit him. “Petrie! We go where the bright circle stands the highest!” cried Littlefoot as loud as he could before Ozzy silenced him by pulling violently at the liana. Petrie saw this with apprehension, but he knew that he alone couldn’t do anything for Littlefoot and Ducky at the moment. He nodded at Littlefoot, as a sign that he had understood, and disappeared in a wide bow behind the next mountain’s ridge. Ducky and Littlefoot looked after him as long as he was recognizable without paying attention to the eggeaters. Littlefoot didn’t listen to Ozzy’s now following tirades and he nearly didn’t notice how he pulled violently at the liana several times. He smiled slightly at Ducky. They had played a trick on the eggeaters and they hadn’t caught Petrie. That was everything that counted.
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As my scanner is smaller than the size of the canvas I made these pictures there is always a thin stripe from the pictures missing in the scanned versions. This one is the only where it truly matters. If it wasn't for that missing stripe you would see the stone whizzing past Petrie's right wink (it's what he is looking at). Also you would see Littlefoot's feet.
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Does anyone even realize I'm posting these? :(
(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/11.%20The%20avalanche.jpg)
“Get ready!” said Cera and everybody took position behind the boulders they had placed providently at the edge of the shelf. When the eggeater would arrive there down below, then a real hail of boulders and stones would patter down on him. Cera looked again over to the eggeater who went on slowly, but purposively. “He probably doesn’t want to get a too big start his brother”, thought Cera, Littlefoot went, just as if he would anticipate anything as far apart from the eggeater as the liana allowed. So he and Ducky wouldn’t be in danger to be hurt by the “hail of stones” they had earmarked for the eggeater. “Everything goes like clockwork”, thought Cera satisfied. The time and with it also the eggeater seemed to advance plainly as slow as a snail. Finally only a short piece of way separated the eggeater from the rocky ledge. Chomper grinned and whispered quietly to Cera: “That’s great. That with the scratched nose waits probably already impatiently for us.” “Or he is getting hungry now”, whispered Cera back quietly grinning likewise. “Or maybe he ponders already if we might have taken another way that doesn’t lead into his ambush”, whispered Ali chuckling. “Or maybe he already ponders whom of you he shall eat first!” Cera’s, Spike’s, Petrie’s, Ali’s and Chomper’s hearts stopped beating for a moment. Their blood seemed to freeze in their veins and they could neither breathe nor speak and it cost all their strength to turn round. It had been Ozzy who had spoken and his face appeared not only because of the scratched nose, but far more because of the bestial triumphing grinning sheer disfigured. “How…?” gasped Cera and tried to regain her breath. “You should better not be so loud if you eavesdrop on us at night”, said Ozzy and sparkle maliciously at Petrie who starred back like being paralyzed. “And if you’ve to cry around, then you shouldn’t do that when we are nearby and can hear you. Especially if you leave so distinct tracks behind, but why do I give you advices anyway? You won’t be able to follow them anymore!” Ozzy guffawed and waved at Strut. “I got them Strut! They’re up here”, called Ozzy. “No!” cried Littlefoot and Ducky desperately like out of one mouth. Ozzy stepped towards his victims whose only way of escape was cut. They couldn’t do anything but screaming. Screaming at the tops of their voices as loud as they could. They screamed so loudly that it resounded dull from the mountains. And for their surprise this seemed to impress Ozzy anyhow, for he stopped and snapped: “Be quiet! Shut up! Stop crying or there’ll be an avalanche!” But it was to late. A loud pealing and rumbling like of distant thunder sounded and then the snow above on the steep slope set in motion. A giant snow slab detached from the blanket of snow and slid, driving a big cloud of drizzling powdery snow ahead, down the slope and towards the shelf on which Ozzy, Ali, Chomper, Petrie, Spike and Cera were. “Ozzy look out!” called Strut and starred terrified at the snow banks that slid towards his big brother. Strut had let the liana go with fear, but it didn’t occur to Littlefoot at all to run away while an avalanche slid towards his friends. He himself, Ducky and Strut were safe for they weren’t in the way of the avalanche. “Behind the rock!” shouted Ali and ducked behind a small rocky cone that was tightly connected with the shelf below. Cera, Spike and Chomper followed her. “Fly!” cried Cera at Petrie who still starred at the eggeater and the snow banks that tumbled at them behind him like being hypnotized. Petrie began to flap fiercely with his wings, but he came maybe because of his hurt wing, maybe because of the fright not as fast away from the ground as usually. Ozzy jerked round and looked out for a cover feverishly, but nowhere was a rock or anything else that would have been big enough to offer him cover at least nothing that was near enough to reach it before the avalanche was there. And then it was there. With huge force the avalanche swept Ozzy from his feet, down the shelf and buried him below snows. Petrie had only just escaped the most violent scope of the avalanche, but the force of the drizzling cloud of powdery snow that crimpled in front of and above the avalanche was enough to tear Petrie along and to hurl him on the ground, fortunately not into the way of the avalanche. Chomper felt unpleasantly remembered to the tidal wave, that had them separated him from his parents when the snow tore him from his feet. The snow swept on both sides around the rocky cone that had taken away the force of the first impact, but offered no cover now anymore. Cera, Chomper, Spike and Ali were simply swept along. They fell some meters, but then their bounce was softened by the snow that had slid over the edge of the shelf shortly before them. Further snow banks buried them below. But despite its effect it had been a comparatively small avalanche. The snow slab that had detached from the upper steep slope had decomposed to a mass of loose snow that stopped sliding on the plain stripe of ground already after a few meters and came to a standstill.
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Does anyone even realize I'm posting these?
I have a bad habit for not stopping by the fanart board very often, so I often forget that you consistantly update this section :slap
This one is titled sign of hope and I think it is my personal favorite
I Very much like this one, Malte. I must say, it's one of the most beautiful works of yours I've come across :)
I have little critisism with this picture, mate; you've done an excellent job at capturing the moment here. As far as my experience goes, you have taken great care in maintaining the personalities of the characters in your story. I am very happy to see that :yes
Petrie's narrow escape
I have to say it; I love your use of colour in this one! :D Fantastic atmosphere in the background and foreground. Petrie is slightly hard to see in all this heavy colour, but aside from that, this picture has a lot of life about it. Well done :wow
Narrow Miss
The characters are clear and true-to-life, which I like very much! Ozzy and Strut's shadows are very believeable. Your use of texture and colour in the background really brings it to life. Like the others, I have few criticisms to offer about this one. It clearly shows what is happening, and the entire scene is lively. :)
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As for your latest pic: It's unfortunate that the characters needed to be made so small, but for such a wide perspective, there isn't really a way around it. At first glance, I didn't see exactly what was happening, but upon reading your portion of the story, the oncoming avalanche becomes clearer in the image.
The perspective of this image had me just *slightly* confused at first, but it may because I only had 4 hours of sleep last night :p I didn't realize how the mountain was built until I read the story and understood the context of the image. Now, it is very clear. I now find it hard to describe what I saw before I read the story, because now I see it for what it is, and actually it is well done :P:
My eyes were probably just playing tricks on me.
Despite the characters' small size, you managed to capture good detail. I am impressed :)
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Thank you for your reation Tim! :)
As for your latest pic: It's unfortunate that the characters needed to be made so small, but for such a wide perspective, there isn't really a way around it. At first glance, I didn't see exactly what was happening, but upon reading your portion of the story, the oncoming avalanche becomes clearer in the image.
You are perfectly right about this one. In the scanned picture it is even more difficult to identify the avalanche for what it is, but the original is also not too clear on this. The characters are tiny on the one hand to capture the large scen (including Strut with Ducky and Littlefoot some distance away). I made planing sketches for all my drawings. Most of them look very much like the outlines of the pictures I'm posting here, which is why it would make little sense to post them here at all. However, in case of this picture I had one alternative draft which showed the whose scene from "the avalanche's point of view". I decided against that draft as the character's were even tinier in that one and also it would have been a very white picture with not even a thin stripe of blue sky.
The perspective of this image had me just *slightly* confused at first, but it may because I only had 4 hours of sleep last night I didn't realize how the mountain was built until I read the story and understood the context of the image. Now, it is very clear.
This is not for lack of sleep Tim ;)
What I meant to show there is a steep slope with just a small rocky crest peeping out from under the snow. That crest looks very much like some distant mountain chain, which sure is confusing. The ledge on which Cera, Ali, Spike and Ozzy are also appears kind of "attached" not quite like it belonged to the slope.
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I will never understand why in some cases the pictures show up just fine while in others I have to post the link instead. Do you have any idea Roger?
http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/12.%20Oz...9;s%20offer.jpg (http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/12.%20Ozzy's%20offer.jpg)
Ali shuddered when she felt the claws on her back. Chomper climbed on her head and she felt as if her neck would break below the weight, but still she made with all her strength to crane her neck far up to whereby she had nearly lost her balance. Chomper made to grasp the edge of the ledge, but with his thin arms he had big difficulties to pull himself up. Ali shoved him on as well as she could, then she let herself down on her four legs. Chomper had made it. Ali ducked behind the boulders that were of course not approximately big enough to conceal her. When Ozzy reached the end of the gorge a few seconds later he discovered Ali immediately. A malicious grinning was on his face when he approached exaggerated slowly towards Ali who had no chance to escape. But when Ozzy stood in front of her and looked around searching the grinning made room for a furious, hateful and threatening look. Slowly he bent down to Ali, who fell back even closer to the rocky wall upon that, and hissed: “Where is the other one?” Ali believed to hear a dragging sound as if stones would be dragged over another. “Who?” she stuttered and tried desperately not to look up to the rocky ledge. Every muscle in her body seemed to astringe convulsively and it was an effort for her to breathe. “Don’t pretend to be so stupid!” snarled Ozzy and made a leap towards Ali so she thought in the first instant that he would assault; she receded even closer to the wall. “Of course I mean the sharptooth”, growled Ozzy. “Besides I can really be only ceaselessly speechless that you associate with this dregs.” He wiped over his nose with the back of his hand. Ali remained quiet. Again she believed to hear the dragging noise, but Ozzy didn’t seem to notice anything. Whereat did Chomper wait? And did he wait at all? What was he going to do? Was he going to do anything at all? Thousands of questions flashed through Ali’s mind and prevented her from conceiving a clear thought. “Where is he?” The tone of Ozzy’s question let Ali understand without doubt that Ozzy would make short work of her if she wouldn’t answer at all. “He is gone”, she said elusively and since her answer obviously didn’t satisfy Ozzy she added hasty: “We have separated.” Ozzy sighed quietly, shook his head and advanced another step towards Ali. Ali touched the rocky wall with her back when she tried to fall back one step. “No”, said Ozzy calmly. “That’s not true. We eggeaters don’t have as shrivelled senses as you leafeaters. I know the sharptooth is nearby. I could smell him if my nose wouldn’t be so injured at the moment.” Ali gulped. She shuddered. Again she believed to hear the dragging sound. The eggeater would kill her. What would Littlefoot say and the others? Why did Chomper nothing? Or… wasn’t he nearby at all anymore? “It appears that the sharptooth has forsaken you?” said Ozzy and his voice sounded pretended compassionate. “That’s how sharpteeth are. You’re only useful as food for him or to help him to reach warmer regions or…”, now Ozzy grinned again, “…to scarify yourselves for him while he flees.” “That’s not true”, said Ali very quietly. She hardly dared to admit to herself that she almost believed what the eggeater said. Simultaneously she didn’t want to give up the last hope and admit that
Chomper had really fled. “You know it’s true”, said Ozzy who was sure now to have found a sore spot by Ali. Ali kept quiet. “But now about you”, said Ozzy suddenly with a completely different tone. Ali thought her heart would stop beating when Ozzy began to click with his claws threatening. Ali’s stomach seemed to change to a heavy stone suddenly. “I make you an offer”, said Ozzy and advanced another step. Ali leaned against the rocky wall as if she would hope that the rocky wall would give in behind her. Of course the rocky wall didn’t give in, but Ali lost her balance and fell hard on her back; Ozzy was over her immediately. She closed her eyes. Ozzy sniggered. “Don’t you want to listen to my offer at all?” Ali opened her eyes again. Ozzy stood over her and bent over her. His face with the injured nose was only a tiny distance from Ali. Again she heard a dragging from a seemingly endless distance. “Do you see my nose?” asked Ozzy. Ali became sick of his bad breath. She nodded only. “The sharptooth shall rue for it. And that is for the instant more important to me than to kill you.” Ali didn’t say anything. Did the eggeater mean what she thought what he meant? “Tell me where the sharptooth is, then I’ll let you go for this time.” Ali opened her mouth to say anything, she didn’t know what. She thought of the promise she had give to Littlefoot. Chomper hadn’t done anything to help her, it would be no more but fair if she would betray him to survive herself. Them she would be able to go back to go back to the others, to Littlefoot. But would the eggeater keep his word at all? And would she be able to look Littlefoot ever into the eyes again? Would he understand if she would tell him what had happened into this gorge? And had Chomper really forsaken her? “No!” answered Ali all this questions to herself and only a moment later she became aware of that she had called out this answer loudly. Just as well. Every trace of a smiling or grinning disappeared from Ozzy’s face that suddenly looked like being petrified. “Well”, he said and his voice sounded cold and cutting. “Then say goodbye!” Ozzy raised his head and lowered his arms instead. He spread the claws and moved his hands towards Ali’s neck. Ali closed her eyes. “Littlefoot that’s it”, she thought when she felt Ozzy’s claws at her neck, “I’ve kept my promise.” She heard a hollow knock and opened her eyes. Was it already over? But Ozzy stood still over her. His arms sank down strangely slack, without the claw grating her neck. His face had lost every feature. He reeled. Ali rolled herself to the side with a surprised outcry and made barely to come away in time before Ozzy’s heavy body impacted on the ground. Down from his head slid a big boulder that had obviously hit Ozzy with its full weight. Ali looked at it with wide opened eyes. Then she looked up to the rocky ledge where Chomper just spitted in his hands grinning broad. “So much concerning better senses”, said Chomper. “I’ve already feared that he would hear how I have shoved this pebble there in position.” By these words he Chomper pointed at the boulder that lay aside Ozzy and for which “pebble” was a boundless understatement. “I’ve heard it”, said Ali and she sounded pretty tired. “But I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know that it was you.” Chomper looked at her surprised and jumped down from the rocky ledge onto the highest boulder. He bent in his knees slightly and climbed down to Ali then. “So…”, he said and smiled by it, “…you didn’t betray me although you didn’t know if I would do anything for you?” Ali nodded. Chomper became a bit more earnest: “So you have not believed me before?” Ali shrugged. “I don’t know”, she admitted. Chomper nodded. “Chomper. I want to apologize for some things I’ve said.” Chomper nodded again. “Yes. I want too.” And suddenly the ice was broken. Both had to laugh. “What about him?” asked Ali and pointed with her head at Ozzy who still lay there unconsciously. Chomper went over to him with a few steps. “He’ll recover”, said Chomper after he had examined Ozzy shortly. “We should make that we come away from here.” “Yeah”, mumbled Ali still a bit faint and turned to go. What they had experienced had worn her out pretty much yet. “Wait!” called Chomper after her. Ali stopped and looked back. Chomper grinned a bit sly. “I want to give him a lesson!” with that he lifted one of his arms, spread the claws and slashed at Ozzy’s nose. Ali shuddered a bit by that view but she shared Chomper’s malicious joy too. Now they hurried to go in search of the others.
From there Ali and Chomper were friends. There are some things you can’t experience together without becoming friends. And what they had just experienced is surely one of these.
On this picture I got the most embarassing feedback ever. When my aunt (who doesn't know anything about LBT) saw it she said: "He looks like he means to rape her."
Of course that is not what he means to do and of course this is not what I had in mind when I made that picture! Nevertheless I must confess I see where my aunts spontaneous impression came from (we are lacking a blushing smiley here).
It might have looke less ambiguous if I had had Ozzy standing beside rather than above Ali, but that would have contradicted the text. I probably had the LBT 2 scene in mind where Ozzy is standing in exactly that way over Littlefoot. Well, not quite exactly for in the movie they had the correct size relation between Littlefoot and Ozzy while in this picture Ozzy is way too small. Small as he is it appears almost comical that he should be so intimidating to Ali, it looks like she could just knock him over if she meant to. In a pencil draft I made for this picture I had Chomper pushing the boulder by leaning against it with his back. I prefered this version though which allowed me to have Chomper look grimly at Ozzy as he listens to how he tries to convince Ali that Chomper left her in the lurch.
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I will never understand why in some cases the pictures show up just fine while in others I have to post the link instead. Do you have any idea Roger?
I do....rename your pictures before you hotlink to them. Spaces seriously make a difference in determining if your file will load or not.
For instance your last picture:
12. Ozzy's offer.jpg
If you rename this to 'ozzysoffer.jpg' I can bet you'll have no trouble. Avoid . and ' in picture names as well as spaces.
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Maybe it has to do with the ' every picture with a ' in it's title doesn't show up while a spacious title such as 03. A rather rough reunion didn't cause any trouble. Thanks for your help Roger. :)
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(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/13.%20Cera%20flees%20with%20a%20broken%20leg.jpg)
All in all her prospects where not as gloomy as they had appeared initially at all. Cera drew a deep breath and wanted to set out when she froze in motion all of a sudden. Along with the air she had sucked in a strange smell as well. Cera knew this smell. She has had it in her nose often enough. And then there was this pond in front of which she stood. Looking more carefully she noted again the strange longish shape of the deepening in which the water had gathered. The one side was round shaped while the other tapered in three points. Her whole optimism vanished without leaving a trace when Cera discovered the rows of deepenings that that all looked exactly like this one and that led along the river bed to the gorge through which her further way should have led. She was afraid for in her present condition she wouldn’t be able to shake off a sharptooth if it hunted her and that the deepenings were sharptooth tracks was out of question for Cera, although the footprints were not very deep in the stony ground. Although the smell that seemed to be mere distinctly in the air with every second came doubtlessly from a sharptooth. Cera knew this smell really well enough. Suddenly she felt a slight shook running through the ground and she saw the vibration on the water surface in the footprint in front of her. Another shock ran through the ground, a bit more distinctly this time than the first and Cera could hear the clacking that was caused by small stones vibrating from the shock.
The sharptooth came back!
Cera jumped up as fast as she could and tried to bring with her strange “hop gait” as much distance as possible between herself and the gorge from where the sharptooth had to come. Cera’s fright could not be expressed when the sharptooth appeared instead in front of her between the rocks. A giant dark green beast that seemed to be as surprised at Cera’s view as Cera herself, but of course it was not in the least frightened. Cera uttered a shrill yell, jerked round and leaped away with a speed she would have taken for impossible few instants ago; still she was of course considerably slower than usually and her closely drawn left foreleg began anew to hurt; Cera ignored it. She could hear how the sharptooth behind her started the pursuit with rumpling steps. But she made to reach the entrance of the gorge, maybe she had a tiny chance to shake off the sharptooth there. Within seconds she brought her new gait to a perfection as if she would have never walked differently. In the gorge were several branching and Cera soon left the broad riverbed and ran instead through the narrowest chasms she could find, to make the pursuit as difficult as possible for the huge sharptooth. Nevertheless she still heard its steps behind. With the time she heard them more and more quietly and when she didn’t hear them anymore at all she dared to stop and to rest for an instant. She had hardly any feeling in her overstrained right foreleg. Breathing heavily Cera looked around. She was at the moment in an a bit broader gorge whose ground was sandy. At warmer times a river floated here too probably and had deposited the sand. Suddenly Cera felt again a slight trembling of the ground. The sharptooth closed up. Cera jumped onto her three legs and ran off as fast as she could. But for Cera’s surprise the trembling of the ground seemed to become fiercer the further she ran. And then she got after Ozzy and the sharptooth a third time a shock she wouldn’t forget so soon. Again a sharptooth appeared in front of her although she had expected it behind herself. It was not the same like before. That one that appeared now in front of her was far brighter than the other. Probably it had been tracks of this sharptooth she had discovered before at the stream. Nearly mechanically, without pondering Cera jerked round and leaped away. She panted and her heard beat up to her throat while she ran back through the gorge through which she had come before. But Cera’s run of ill luck didn’t end. She had not even the energy left t outer a cry of fright when the other, the darker sharptooth appeared now in front of her. In the corner of her eyes she saw a side gorge. It was the last, the only loophole for in front of her was the darker and behind her the brighter sharptooth. Cera rushed into the side gorge. “Maybe…”, she hoped, “…the two sharpteeth will go at each other and fight for the prey.” Then she would at least win a lead once more. But there were days on which everything went awry. The side gorge ended in a small box-canyon without any way out. The walls rose perpendicularly on all sides; Cera had run into a dead-end.
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I'm not sure if this last one was done much later than the rest.....but the progress is amazing....the legs don't look so blocky anymore (as some of the very early stuff showed).
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Err... don't they? Personally I considered this one one of my worst examples for overlong and thin legs. I remember I made the first draft for this one during my students exchange. The final picture is basically a mirored version of that first drawing. It dates from August 13th 2002.
What I do like about this picture are the red and blue "stains" on Cera's broken leg and also the look on her face.
I'm not happy with the look of the sharptooth in this picture.
Thank you very, very much for your response Adam! I really do appreciate this a lot! :yes
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(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/14.%20The%20end%20of%20the%20cold%20lands.jpg)
[...]suddenly Ducky uttered a surprised call from Spike’s back at the head of the column. “What’s the matter Ducky?” asked Littlefoot immediately. “Come on, come on!” called Ducky and waved at them. “Look at this!” The others followed her invitation curiously. Spike had reached the highest point of the gap that was at the same time the end of the rocky labyrinth through which they had erred since the morning. In front of them lay a long snowy slope that led down into a pretty big valley whose ground was largely covered with a dense mixed forest of conifers and bare deciduous trees. At the ground of the valley lay distinctly less snow than up here and at some spots they could even see the withered grass. A small stream came forth from the mountain. For their surprise it was not frozen. “Finally!” sighed Ali relieved. “I began to fear we would never come out of this awful rocky solitude.”
“Don’t be unfair Ali”, rebuked Littlefoot gently. “Had it not been for this rocky solitude the eggeaters surely would have caught us.” Spike starred like being hypnotized at the green conifers and the others too noticed now that they could hardly remember their last meal. “There is water!” called Ducky charmed when she noted the small stream. “I can even swim there!”
“You no be silly!” croaked Petrie. “Water certainly far too cold for that.”
“We are on the right way”, mumbled Littlefoot dreamy.
“Not all of us”, Chomper reminded him gloomy. “Don’t forget Cera again!”
“We sure will not!” called Ducky. “No, no, no, we will not!”
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This again is one of my favorite pictures of the series. To create the forest with the different color patterns to show the growing but incomplete foliage I didn't use a brush (which would have inevitably produced "strokes" which I didn't want to have), but took a wet paper tissue and placed it on the color to dissolve the pigments without creating strokes.
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^ It looks like you did that on the rocks as well. :) I like that look....so the light isn't hitting it all at the same angle, plus it gives realism.
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Thank you! :)
As for the rocks, the right side looks slightly brighter than the left. The sun is standing very high, but slightly to the left. According to the story they are moving towards the equator. So if the Great Valley is located in the northern hemishphere the light of the picture suggests that it is shortly before noon, if it is located in the southern hemisphere it suggests that the picture shows a scene shortly after noon :lol:
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(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/15.%20Duckys%20decision.jpg)
When she saw Strut’s face above herself she cast her mouth open as if she wanted to cry, but uttered nothing and seemed to be about to faint again. Strut shook Ducky slightly to keep her awake, so she became pretty dizzy and he said again and again enthusiastically: “You life! You life! You still life!” And with a sudden grinning he added: “Yep, yep, yep!” Now Ducky was far to amazed to faint. The eggeater’s behavior was a single big riddle to her, but it also took away nearly all of her fear. Nevertheless she didn’t dear to speak until the eggeater himself addressed her and answered her most important question immediately: “I won’t hurt you! You don’t have to be afraid!” “Where is your brother?”
“Over there.” Strut pointed back over his shoulder. “He’s sleeping. Are you alright? I thought already that you would be…” Ducky shook her head. Not only that this eggeater wasn’t going to hurt her, he even seemed to be sincerely worried about her. “It was only the fright”, she said. “Your brother”, said Ducky. “If he finds me…” “You must flee!” Strut interrupted her determinedly. The imagination that Ozzy could find her, maybe even find out that he helped her was terrible. “Where are the others?” asked Ducky to know in which direction she should flee. Strut didn’t answer and didn’t look at her. “I mean my friends”, insisted Ducky, who didn’t understand what was the matter with the eggeater. “In which direction should they be?” Strut didn’t answer. “You have not caught them!?” cried Ducky suddenly. “Oh no, no, no, no, no!” And she seemed to be about to burst into tears. Strut calmed her hasty: “We haven’t caught them! Haven’t you heard us talking before?” Ducky remembered too now that she had eavesdropped herself that the eggeaters hadn’t caught her friends. “They should be anywhere this way”, said Strut and made a far-reaching movement in one direction with his arm. “At least that’s what I think. But Ducky…”, Strut hesitated for a moment and Ducky looked at him asking. “…don’t go to them!” Strut finished his sentence with a nearly imploring voice. “What?!” asked Ducky, for who Strut’s request was probably the most impossible on the world, frightened. It was visibly unpleasant for Strut to speak on, but he continued nevertheless without looking at Ducky: “Tomorrow we’ll catch up with your friends. They can’t escape us any longer. Tonight we nearly caught them, but even if they escaped us once more, tomorrow we’ll catch up with them. We are faster than you are, and there is no labyrinth of rocks in front of us anymore in which you can hide.” Ducky looked at Strut with big, dark eyes but she didn’t answer. He said the truth. “If you are with your friends tomorrow, then neither I nor anybody else can rescue you once more.” Strut gulped. “Ozzy is very furious.” Ducky breathed deeply. This eggeater, she felt that, was really sincere about her. But what he requested was completely impossible. Ducky shook her head. “No!” she said and shook her head again. “Oh no, no, no, no, no! I will go to them! I must go to them! Oh yes I must!” “Why?” asked Strut with deeply grieved voice. “They can’t escape us! If you go to them, then you are lost too!” Ducky kept quiet.
“Do you want to die?” asked Strut and he sounded nearly angry. How should he save this swimmer if she seemed so keen on not being saved. Ducky shook her head. “Of course not, no, no, no! But they are my friends, they are! And if you catch them and I would have to life knowing I did not do anything that might have saved them, to survive myself… Oh no, no, no!” Ducky fell silent and looked down. Strut fell silent too and for a long while nothing could be heard apart from the usual sounds of the nightly forest which had frightened Ducky so much before but that were in a strange way calming now. At last Strut sighed and shook his head slightly, but when he spoke then his voice sounded not only sad, but almost reverently. There was a kind of melancholy enthusiasm in his voice. “You want to scarify yourself for your friends? Die together with them?” Ducky shook her head again. “No I do not want that. But what makes you actually so sure that you’ll really catch us tomorrow? So far we have always outwitted you!" Strut looked at Ducky, who managed something like a sardonic grin, disconcerted. He didn’t really know if he should laugh about Ducky’s words and finally he tried to look offended, but he didn’t make that either. From where the little swimmer took her optimism was beyond him.
“Why are you doing that?” asked Strut again sadly, but this time she didn’t answer but only smiled slightly tired and shrugged her shoulders. “Do you never do anything without really knowing why?” Strut shook his head. “Then tell me why you help me!” Strut opened his mouth, but he couldn’t think of an answer. He shrugged only with his shoulders and when he noticed how similar his “answer” was to Ducky’s he put on a broad grinning that had certainly only few likeness with Ducky’s smiling. Ducky cast a look up and recognized for her relief through the sparsely leafy branches of the trees that the sky was still completely dark. Nevertheless she had to hurry to reach her friends before dawn. “I have to go now, oh yes, I have to!” said Ducky and looked up to Strut. He answered with gloomy mine: “Good luck!” “For you too!” answered Ducky and she felt pretty silly. Sure enough Strut was not the one in need of luck at the moment. “Thanks for everything said Ducky, and with that she turned round and disappeared in the darkness in the direction in which Strut supposed her friends to be. Strut sighed deeply, turned round then too and returned to the resting place where Ozzy still slept sound and profound.
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Not too much I can say about this picture (titled "Ducky's decision"). Ducky's foot is a bit too small, the forest ought to be very much denser and darker, with more ferns and the like growing between the trees, and maybe I ought to have made Strut a bit darker. I like the character's looks though in this somewhat declamatory scene.
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(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/16.%20Mighty%20allies.jpg)
Cera stepped menacingly towards the eggeaters and hissed: “I advice you the nice way. Run! Get away or…” “Or you’ll become really mad! Won’t you?” said Ozzy and concealed with feigned fright his face behind his hands and stepped around Cera so she was now between her friends on the shelf and the eggeaters while the eggeaters had the gorge in their back now. Strut followed Ozzy but seemed to be completely irresolute. Cera stood in front of the shelf as if she alone could prevent the eggeaters from getting near it. Ozzy eyed her scornfully and said, now with an angry voice: “There is no need to square your shoulders like this! We’ll see if it will be of any use for you or your friends!” While he spoke Ozzy stepped towards Cera, who fell back going backwards until she touched the rocky wall of the shelf with her back. Cera cast a short glimpse back. Ozzy made use of that short inattention immediately. With one leap he stood aside Cera and before she could react he had given her such a kick in the side that she tumbled and landed on her back. Ozzy was immediately over her so she didn’t find any time to stand up again. “Cera!” cried Littlefoot, Ducky, Petrie, Ali and Chomper frightened while Spike howled up loudly. With a malicious grinning Ozzy bent down to Cera and set his claws to her neck. “Anything left you have to say?” asked Ozzy spitefully and he didn’t see that Strut behind him covered his eyes with his hands. Petrie swung himself up into the air and wanted to dive down upon Ozzy to maybe rescue Cera, but then she did something that surprised himself and everybody else, including the eggeaters, so much that he forgot to dive down. Cera bawled. But it was no usual bawl but far more a roaring like of a sharptooth. But although the roaring was very loud it didn’t really sound threatening, but nearly gentle. It was probably mere surprise that let Ozzy jerk back. Her friends on the shelf looked at Cera open mouthed, but nobody seemed nearly as surprised as Chomper whose name Cera had uttered in the tongue of the sharpteeth. “Cera?” he stammered completely amazed. But Ozzy grinned already again. “How cute!” he said ironically. “Am I expected to be scared now?” Suddenly they felt a slight trembling of the ground. Then Littlefoot, Spike, Ali, Ducky and Petrie cried out loudly, up on the shelf. Strut looked back and shrieked: “Oooozzzyyyy!” Ozzy jerked round and grew pale. Two sharpteeth had appeared from behind the turn of the gorge and now rushed with long steps towards them. Chomper snarled something that sounded very pleased. Both eggeaters shrieked and rushed up the slope leaving Cera simply behind. Chomper threw his last stones after the eggeaters without hitting either of them. Within a few moments they were past the rocky shelf and rushed on up the slope. Now the two sharpteeth had left the gorge behind and ran after the eggeaters past the shelf up the slope. Chomper snarled something after them. Then he looked at the others and burst with laughter by the sight of their horrified looks.
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About the one where Strut holds Ducky...he must've grown really really big eating those leaves because Ducky should theoretically be a lot larger than that compared to him. ;) That's about all I could offer for that one.
Second one, um, I guess if the rocks could've looked more like the ones in the picture before the one with Strut--the one I liked so much. I think the cracks actually hurt more than help in this case because it doesn't look dimensional enough, just flat.
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Thanks for your response! :)
About the one where Strut holds Ducky...he must've grown really really big eating those leaves because Ducky should theoretically be a lot larger than that compared to him.
Probably. The problem is that in the movie the size relation between the main characters and the eggeaters is varrying very much. One time Littlefoot seems to be more than half as tall as the eggeaters, another time they seem to be much larger. Ducky sometimes reaches up to Littlefoot's knee and sometimes she can sit comfortably on Littlefoot's head (same case as with Littlefoot and his grandpa). I guess I overdid it in this picture by making Ducky little taller than a finger of Struts. This somewhat contributes to the impression that if he meant to he could just squeeze her in his hand. Ducky's proportions in itself are definitely wrong in that picture; her feet in particular are too small.
Second one, um, I guess if the rocks could've looked more like the ones in the picture before the one with Strut--the one I liked so much. I think the cracks actually hurt more than help in this case because it doesn't look dimensional enough, just flat.
The problem with the rocky walls in this picture is that there are several separate "layers" which had to stand out from each other. The shelf, the rocky wall behind, the entrance to the gorge; it all had to be recognized for what it is. Also I was worried that trying to do something like I did in the other picture you mentioned I might have ended up with a huge, empty, grey (boring) space with nothing really to look at. I certainly exaggerated with those cracks and rather should have thought of a more elaborate and less "prominent" pattern than this grid of cracks.
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^ Right...not saying the cracks are unnecessary, but they are certainly....parallel.
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Why the hell do they keep changing the sizes of the characters?! o_O At least little kids don't care. Their little minds can't pick up size changes.
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I suppose it depends, among other, on what they need the characters to do. In LBT 2 we see Petrie is able to only soften Ducky's fall when he graps her, in LBT 4 we see him comfortably carrying her several meters upwards. I suppose it is easier for the artists not to draw any of the dinosaurs too small while in certain scenes they have to appear smaller than usually (e.g. when a threatening effect needs to be shown by the sheer size of whoever is threatening, or when Ducky needs to take a seat on Littlefoot's head etc.).
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(http://mitglied.lycos.de/malte279/17.%20Down%20the%20glacier.jpg)
Ali looked back and smiled at the others encouraging, just not to have to look ahead anymore. Suddenly Spike howled up. “What’s the matter Spike?” asked Ali frightened. Ducky answered for him: “We have forgotten to eat something up there.” Ali sighed relieved. “Well if that is Spike’s only worry…” There ran suddenly a so fierce shook through the trunk that Ali had almost lost her hold and would have fallen down. Littlefoot, Ducky, Petrie and Spike shrieked frightened and Ali looked jerky forward again. The trunk must have slid over any bump or another obstacle. Frightened Ali noted that the trunk had become faster and still became faster and faster. “Slow down! Slow down!” Ali heard Littlefoot cry behind her. “How?” she called back without turning round. Littlefoot moaned quietly and looked back. Cera was the only whom hadn’t cried but Littlefoot recognized with one look that it was not because she was not afraid. Her eyes were as big as plates; she gritted her teeth convulsively and seemed to have forgotten how to breathe. “Cera, breathe deep!” called Littlefoot. In every other situation Cera had certainly given an angry or offended answer, but now she simply starred at Littlefoot and gasped by jerks for breath. Spike seemed to be vacillated between the desire to press his hands against his eyes and to cling to the trunk as firmly as possible. They became faster and faster and Petrie, who clung to Cera as firmly as he could, recognized that he could not even in a dive reach such a speed. But the worst was still to come.
“Look out, hold on!” cried Ali. Everybody followed that order there and then. And Littlefoot cast his head forward again. An icy-cold wind caused by their huge speed hit him in the face, made it impossible to breathe and drove tears in his eyes so he couldn’t recognize what of Ali had warned. Even before his eyes had accustomed to the wind the loud crunching that had been audible uninterruptedly during the whole glissade so far, fell silent suddenly. Littlefoot felt how they became even faster, suddenly he felt extremely light and perceived a pretty pleasant crawling in his belly. Only a split second later he became aware that they were flying. They had to have slid with huge speed over a ground wave or something similar and been catapulted into the air along with the tree-trunk. Littlefoot cried out and so did everybody else including Cera. It was strangely lightening to cry now, as if they would have a lot of surplus energy. But also apart from that they had all reason to cry for the tree-trunk inclined again and towards the earth, in unusual steep angle as it appeared to Ali, and they had the feeling that the tree-trunk sagged away under them while they themselves flew on through the air. Cera had to claw with all might to the tree-trunk not to be hurled down from it. She ignored the pains the huge burden caused in her left foreleg and she felt how the rotten wood gave in a bit below her hooves. Ducky couldn’t hold herself, was hurled back, bounced heavily into Spike and clung immediately as firm to him as she could. Petrie’s claws dug deep into the wood. Then came the bounce. The tremendous impact took the breath away from all of them and they hit the wood painfully. Fortunately the tree-trunk had at least lost some of its speed by the bounce and it took it up again only slowly. “Are you all still there?” pressed Ali out. “Yes”, gasped Littlefoot. “I am!” snapped Cera. “Petrie not is so sure”, moaned the little flyer. “Neither am I! No, no, no!” answered Ducky. And Spike, on whose neck Ducky hung, whereby she nearly chocked him, howled up. “Anybody hurt?” asked Ali curtly. She didn’t look back since she didn’t want to risk noting any obstacle to late to prepare the others for it. “I guess not”, answered Littlefoot. “Not yet!” called Cera. “Not really”, lamented Ducky. Ali uttered a sigh of relief, but already the next moment her breath stopped. Directly in front of them was a big snowdrift from which for Ali’s fright the sharp edged peak of a rock towered. Probably there was a bigger rock below the snow and when they would collide with it, then they wouldn’t get off with an adrenalin shook and some black and blue marks. She had to find out within the next few seconds how to drive the tree-trunk or they would bounce frontal against the rock and all would be lost. Ali did the only thing that occurred her, leaned to the side and called to the others: “Leaning to the side! Lean to the side!” “What?” called Cera amazed. “Do it!” cried Ali. The tree-trunk lurched a bit, but it kept its direction and would hit the rock in a few seconds. Desperately Ali looked back and saw for her amazement that everybody leaned in a different direction. “Lean all in one direction!” cried Ali nearly hysteric, leaned to the right and looked forward again. Obviously the others had followed her order for only a few seconds later the head of the tree-trunk turned sluggish to the right. But Ali recognized immediately that it was to slow and that they would bounce against the rock nevertheless. “Other direction! And draw on your legs!” shrieked Ali, leaned to the left and drew her legs on. She would have liked to close her eyes firmly, but she had to see what happened. Surprisingly fast the tree-trunk swung around and raced now to the left. Still they didn’t come past the snowdrift completely. The tree-trunk sank some centimeters down into the snow and was slowed down a bit by it. The next moment Ali heard a hideous scratching and felt a trembling that ran through the trunk and out of the corner of her eyes she saw something dark that grazed along the right side of the trunk. She heard an outcry and prayed that it didn’t mean what she feared. The tree-trunk still turned left and suddenly she heard a loud bursting cracking and such a shook ran through the tree-trunk that she would have fallen to the right down from it if she wouldn’t have leaned instinctively against the impulse to the left. Apparently at least some of the others had done the same for the tree-trunk made a jerk leftwards. In the snowdrift the trunk had lost much of its speed and Ali hoped already that it would come to a standstill, there the snowdrift ended. Directly in front of them it went for a short distance almost vertically downwards. “Everybody hold on firmly! Hold on!” cried Ali. Cera wanted to give and irritated answer, as they didn’t do anything else since the tree-trunk set in motion, but she didn’t find the time for it. For the next moment the tree-trunk tilted forward and darted with polyphonic shrieking nearly vertically down a short distance before it came slowly into a more horizontal state again. In front of them was now a long, pretty smooth slope and Ali risked a look back. The rock they had just passed was not completely covered by snow on this side and it was far bigger than Ali had feared. The almost vertical part they had so to speak fallen down from the rock. “Is everybody there? Are you unhurt?” asked Ali panicky. “I guess so”, stammered Cera finally. She and everybody else had lost the pleasure of jokingly or cynical answers. Ali’s jar sagged down when she saw the tree-trunk behind Spike for there was no tree-trunk anymore! The end of the tree-trunk mast have hit the rock yet and been shaved off by the huge impetus of the bounce for behind Spike was only a tiny morsel of completely splintered wood. And when Ali looked down at the right side of the tree-trunk she recognized a deep crevice that drew along the whole length of the trunk where the rock had scratched past. Everybody had followed her instinctive inspiration to draw on the legs in time; otherwise they would have been simply torn off. Ali looked forward again. “You can let your legs hang again”, she said and let her own legs dangle again she had drawn on so far. Everybody had already sat upright again to the tree-trunk slid down the slope straight again. “Thanks!” said Ali. First now she realized that they had maybe just been nearer to the end than ever during the passed days.
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That one's cool....I like the shading...its hard to see on the bodies but I can tell its there. :) :) Reminds me a bit of that really old surfing picture I found with the LBT characters a long time back...
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You mean this picture I suppose?
(http://krazyscartoon.tripod.com/LandBeforeTime/LandBeforeTime/land-gang7.gif)
I see why my picture reminds you of it, though I'm positive I didn't have the surfing image in mind when I made that picture. It is the last, so far, I made for the Cold Time. That one's cool....I like the shading...its hard to see on the bodies but I can tell its there.
That problem is extreme in Petrie's case. Tiny, brown, brown background (wood)... It sure is difficult to recognize him between Spike and Cera.
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Why does it say "Image hosted by tripod"?
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Yesterday it didn't. Dunno exactly what their linking policy is. The picture is hosted on a tripod page. You can take a look at the picture here (http://krazyscartoon.tripod.com/LandBeforeTime/Gang.html) (the picture they also used as a background for this page).