Pictures from the Cold Time

[Malte279]

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.

[Petrie.]

^ 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.

[Malte279]

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  

[Malte279]

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.

[Malte279]

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.

[Malte279]

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.

[Petrie.]

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.

[Malte279]

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.

[Petrie.]

^ Right...not saying the cracks are unnecessary, but they are certainly....parallel.

[Cyberlizard]

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.

[Malte279]

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.).

[Malte279]

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.

[Petrie.]

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...

[Malte279]

You mean this picture I suppose?

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.

[F-14 Ace]

Why does it say "Image hosted by tripod"?

[Malte279]

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 (the picture they also used as a background for this page).