The Gang of Five

A few months ago I found a brand called Prismacolor Premier, which I have come to like very much because the pencils give very smooth and very solid colors. They’re kind of expensive, but you can get them here (http://www.dickblick.com/products/prismacolor-colored-pencils/) and here (http://www.jerrysartarama.com/discount-art-supplies/Colored-Pencils/Prismacolor-Colored-Pencils-and-Sets/Prismacolor-Colored-Pencils.htm) for a pretty good price ($0.88 a pencil; a lot better than the $1.99 I spent on the individual pencils I bought).

For Rat_Lady7:
I love their relationship, a literal Love Hate kind thing! ^^ And Oh!!!! Are you making a story or a pic of your OC "girlfriend"? If so, I'd loooooooooooove to see/read it!! Also, a bit off topic and random regarding your name: .......Do you have pet rats?
 

Thank you. The way I see it, if someone's kind enough to give a long feedback, it's polite to give an equally long response! But that's just me.

I always try to make my drawings as accurate as possible. Pretty much, a scene of what can and probably will happen goes off in my head and I can't resist the urge to take a mental 'photo' and try to put that photo on paper. I'm glad it comes off so perfectly!

Hmm, an Ask Me topic, I don't think I'm popular enough to do that ^^ But I like your questions, they're insightful and make me think!

Also, side-note: I love your avatar. It reminds me of the Walking with Dinosaurs Placerias (spelling?), LBT style!

It's still awesome! Sorry I messed up on the topic thing.  :oops I feel like an idiot!

As for the texts, my mom taught me to write my T's like that when attempting to do 'fancy' ways of writing. I blame my mom for making it look like an F :DD !

I couldn't really find any good Domehead references and I couldn't find my LBT movies (eh, my sister probably took them again, the little bugger...). I'm sure it would've turned out better if I had movies 1, 4, and 6 with me. I don't really trust the later designs with the different animation.

I heard about the Troodon option too; my sister thought that, but only cause the two in the seventh movie were so smart and we heard that scientist consider Troodon one of the smartest of dinos. To me, the Rainbowfaces were Gallimimus; I mean, wouldn't Troodon be considered a sharptooth?

The names Tero and Teryx are very similar and in fact, it's kind of a running gag amongst the gang to go "Ter......." Insert a long deliberate pause for both Tero and Teryx to react, usually with impatience. Then finish with whatever name they had in mind. Just a joke to get on their nerves! Tiki and Clubbie (unlike his 'real world' counterpart, Clubbie talks and is quite an amusing little weirdo :lol: ) do it on a daily basis.

(While I was doing so, I noticed for the first time that the three domeheads who attack Cera all look slightly different from one another, which got me thinking about how I could potentially flesh out their characters and write a story centered around them. )

The first time I saw LBT VII, I assumed that the rainbow faces were ornithomimids of some kind as well, however I was perplexed by the fact that they were treated (more or less) as benevolent and harmless, when their closest relatives in the seriesóStruthiomimus, namely Ozzy and Strutówere always depicted as antagonistic nest thieves.

...it has long been popularly speculated that had Troodon not gone extinct, it might have gone on to develop its own technology and civilization, with some…radicalists (inspired by an excessively humanoid reconstruction of a hypothetical Troodon descendant) going so far as to argue that they in fact did survive, developed space travel, and are in fact the creatures commonly described by alien abductees.

(There is at least one shot in which you can see a set of pointed teeth in the female rainbow face’s mouth.)

That’s brilliant! I love that!

Can’t wait to see more art from you!

I tried to put as much efforts as I could with the fonts, since my handwriting tends to be chicken scratch......It's nice it know it wasn't in vain, especially since my self-esteem in general's pretty low.  :unsure:

I did that too! It's posted on FF.net (though I didn't post it here as it's not as popular as my other LBT stories)! I would LOOOOOVE to see another fanfic about them when and if you write one!! And thanks for offering the screenshots; that'll definitely come in handy later, no doubt!!

The first time I saw LBT VII, I assumed that the rainbow faces were ornithomimids of some kind as well, however I was perplexed by the fact that they were treated (more or less) as benevolent and harmless, when their closest relatives in the seriesóStruthiomimus, namely Ozzy and Strutówere always depicted as antagonistic nest thieves.

I know right! I guess they don't generalize based on the actions of one species. The Rainbowface habits are probably completely different. Or maybe they just don't have the concept of species relations; maybe to them, Rainbowfaces aren't related to Egg Stealers at all. But that's just me; I have no idea if they understand species-relation or not.

(I did notice their sharp teeth! They tend to give a lot of characters sharp teeth, I noticed the same thing on supposedly toothless characters like Pterano. Sometimes, I don't know if they're supposed to have teeth or not..... And your explanation makes sense to me. Afterall, Troodon's wouldn't be the only 'part-time herbivore' in the theropod family. With dinosaurs like the Therizinosaurs (which I heard was the only exclusively herbivorous 'sharptooth'), anything is possible!

I read your Troodon/Pachy post on the Domehead topic. Made me take a look myself! It's awesome to have someone so smart about dinosaurs here; I envy your knowledge!

Sorry to hear that. I have self-esteem issues as well, big time. (Again with the similarities!)

I would strongly encourage you to post that fanficóif not all of your LBT fanficsóon this forum. I know they'd be appreciated.

(notably Incisivosaurus, a dinosaur with buckteeth! )

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Sorry to hear that. I have self-esteem issues as well, big time. (Again with the similarities!)

Yeah, being different made me a prime target to get bullied rather severely. My family certainly didn't help.... In fact, it got to the point of when I once utterly despised the entirety of human-kind. If it wasn't for the fact that I eventually found some truely great people, I'd probably end up like Sierra (strangely, that's probably why he's my favorite character) or something. That's kind of a scary thought, but unfortunately very true. Luckily, positive attributes of the human species came in the nick of time for a complete 180 of my hostility and now I practically live to make others happy and can't stand the thought of making anyone angry for any reason.

Sorry for that rant, I just wanted to let it all out.

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I would strongly encourage you to post that fanficóif not all of your LBT fanficsóon this forum. I know they'd be appreciated.

I think I will! Thanks! I mean, I posted up my Ozzy story, why not the rest! I'll get started on that definitely. And noted on the seperate post thing! I don't wanna make another blunder  :oops But I think I'm starting to learn fast on how to do things around here *is still excited bout being able to quote people now  :smile *

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(notably Incisivosaurus, a dinosaur with buckteeth! )

Alright, I definitely have to check that out!!  :lol:

And no worries bout the Pachy/Troodon thing! I love reading your posts, especially since I love dinosaurs (and all other animals) to no end! I'll definitely come to you for information, I'm sure I'll be needing lots!!!

Although it kind of goes against my usual reservations against interspecies romances, I can't help but imagine one developing a crush on Ruby and making awkward attempts to court her.

*prepares to reply when I see that pic and bursts out laughing* Okay, now my sides hurt. That is a very interesting specimen; i never knew a dinosaur like that could even exist! China, huh? Well, I'm not surprised, they always seem to have the weird dinosaurs! I'm jealous of that! He kinda reminds me of something, though I can't put my finger on it.

I wonder if its incisors were forever-growing like a rodent's, or shed and replaced like other theropods.

BTW, sorry if anyone was turned away by my last pic. It really isn't meant to be taken seriously. I know interspecies love doesn't really happen in the real world (except in cases of mistaken identity via imprinting or deliberate interspecies rape by bottlenose dolphins....... though I doubt the latter is done outta love...*shudder*).

Thanks for the link for your Ask Me forum! I'll be visiting that a lot! And all this is a bit off-topic, huh  :lol ? As for my own, since last time, I've come to be a bit more comfortable here. Everyone seems to be very pleasant and welcoming and the newbie feeling is starting to disappear. I'm gonna do it!  :yes

Just one more response before I shut up.

Awww, thank you!! I try my best with them! And yeah, the Ozzy one is fun; a little improvisingfrom my strange mind! Maybe I should do a Caption This with the screenshot!  :DD

The Ozzy one might work as a caption, in my opinion. I'd love to see what people come up with.  But that's up to you to decide. But it sure is funny!

I’ve been terrible about posting in your fanart and fanfiction threads lately.  (Actually, I've been bad about posting in EVERYONE'S threads lately.) I want to apologize for that.  (I will be posting a review of your domehead story shortly after this.)

Another amazing picture. Teryx looks awesome.  His colors kind of remind me of a scarlet macaw, but with purple instead of yellow. Also, I’m guessing it was unintentional, but the end of his tail looks sorta like a hand.

You did a really incredible job on the legs and feet. (I especially admire how you drew his talons partially “clenched” in the same manner as a bird’s. And his head looks really good. Beak, teeth, eyes, crest, everything. The three furthermost feathers on his wings look a little floppy (feathers need to be stiff if they are to be useful for flight), and the one at the very end should be longer than those following it, but still, bird wings and feathers are hard to draw, and I think you did a decent job.

Hatchling Teryx looks pretty cute.  His proportions remind me of either a baby bird or a young bipedal LBT dinosaur like Ducky. Again, I think you did a fantastic job on the limbs. The posture of his legs is terrific; looks just like that of a sitting baby bird.

By the way, it was discovered a few years ago that Archaeopteryx actually had feathered legs, a bit like Microraptor (though the feathers were shorter and only went down to the ankles); feathery “pants”, if you like.

If you need references for Clubbie, I remember that a hatchling clubtail appeared briefly during the storytelling scene at the end of LBT VI

Tero- Hey, do me a favor.
Clubbie- *cautious, knowing this will probably be painful* Sure, what?
Tero- I want you to *insert humiliating act here*.
Clubbie- *still uncertain, knowing that this is just for Tero's amusement* I dunno....
Tero- ......Why not a simple 'Yes'?
Clubbie- *defensively* I have to reserve my dignity!
Tero- *scoffs* Since when did you have dignity?!
Clubbie- ......Oh yeah.... *does the humiliating act without holding back!*
Tero-

He was an eccentric hatchling, always making attempts to become a two-legger

He also climbs (albeit awkwardly) to any high point, then purposely jumps off, just to see how high he can go before he hurts himself.

And along with chasing his own tail, he affectionately named the 'bopper' on the end of it Little Clubbie, whom he talks to and talks for.

There were several attempts from his parents to fix his unusual behavior, none of which succeeded.

A natural trouble-maker (and also quite stupid), he also purposely does the opposite of whatever an elder tells him to do. So when he was taught to avoid other species, he went right on ahead and introduced himself to as many herds as possible. This got him grounded to his nest many times, but he also never learns his lesson....

-Tiki the Rainbowface: She once more finds his antics adorable, but even she is not immune to the confusion his antics brings on. Clubbie considers her a great friend and even lets her hitch a ride on his back whenever she wants, being more than strong and sturdy enough to support her light-weight. In return, she also helps with his troubles as best she can and she also helps decorate him with Tree Sweets....

-Tero the Domehead: Clubbie considers him a friend also, despite the cold welcome received and the hostile actions that continued. Tero finds his weirdness stupid but amusing enough. In fact, he often takes advantage of Clubbie for his own amusement, which Clubbie is well aware of, but keeps his protests to a minimum. Why? He still hasn't forgotten the time Tero broke his leg...... Strange how forgiving this clubtail can be....

-Teryx the Feathered Flyer: This whole relationship can be put into three simple words...."Partner in Mayhem" Teryx is who Clubbie considers his best friend. Together they cause all sorts of mischief, though some of the stuff is just too weird for Teryx, which disappoints Clubbie sometimes...

-Cookie the Twocrest Swimmer: She's Clubbie's second best friend, though she disappoints him a lot more than Teryx. This is because she 'ruins the fun' by trying to keep him from doing his weird stuff and 'safety-fying' the things he does. Like when he's climbing up something, about to do his 'jump-from-high-places' bit, she tries to hastily make a bed of leaves to cushion his fall. But she makes up for it all by helping with his nondangerous quirks, like helping Tiki decorate him with more Tree Sweets....

Anywho, after the final encounter with Tero's angry parents (see the TikiXTero post), his herd had enough of Clubbie's antics, thinking he was giving their kind a bad name, and sent him off on his own. Luckily, Clubbie's friends are always there for him and now he has a new family, who accepts him just the way he is!

What a beautiful character. The picture was drawn very well, though I must say I am more “drawn” to his personality. It reminds me so much of me in my struggle with life. The characteristics that really defined me, especially growing up before I went to a special school for helping me be more normal, I can see in him. Because I am different, I had a very hard time fitting in.

That quote of yours really brought a lot back to me. I too did humiliating things to get attention and to be liked, though the people never did like me, they just used me for entertainment, so I really hope that Tero’s motivation is pure. I’d not like to see a good character abused in the way that I was.

Heh, I used to wish I had four legs as a child so would crawl around all the time. I can relate to wanting a different method of transportation. I too was very eccentric and was really hard to handle. I would run around, talking fast, acting in ways dubbed as bizarre.

I did that for years myself, seeing how many stairs I could skip without getting hurt. I can relate to that.

I assume that, even being in a group of other dinosaurs, he still feels distance, a form of loneliness. Otherwise, he likely wouldn’t have the urge to socialize with himself. I stopped doing this around the time I started getting to know more people. When I had access to things that would talk back to me, I lost my desire to imagine inanimate objects were alive.

Heh heh, oh yeah. My parents would think this is MY profile. My parents tried for years to normalize me, and they never got close. That’s why I was sent to that special school.

I used to do that as a kid. I was mischievously curious what would happen when doing the opposite of what I was a told. I was definitely a natural at causing trouble. I was punished all the time, but it never did work.

Oi, my father is so like that to me. I get all these grand schemes of things to do and he just sucks all the fun out. “That’s too weird,” “That’s not healthy,” “It would be better/faster this way.” He does so many things to make my actions safer and more efficient, which can really dull things. He makes up for by doing so much for me though.

Gosh. Clubbie and his life are just like me and mine. Looking back, my childhood is just like he is now. You did an amazing job at creating this personality. I really liked how you showed the results of what happens when he mingles with each of the characters. It’s like mixing two colors together and seeing what you get as a result. You certainly know how to add variety. Some of the connections were positive, some negative, and some were a little bit of both. If he got along just fine with everyone in every way, that would make for a boring character.

As for the artwork itself, you did a fine job. It looks great how you colored part of the horns the color of the sweets, as it makes sense for some of the juice to be sliding down them. I don’t see his bopper in two segments for his younger form, but I’m guessing that part doesn’t develop much until he gets older. As for the dark red parts, the plates, I believe, do more layers appear as they get older? I mean, his older form, has four rows on his nose while the younger has three, and the back rows are different in number too. I will also assume they increase with age.

You did an excellent job on every part of this. Thank you for an amusing flash back of my past. I don’t think I have ever in my entire life come so close to connecting with a fictional character as I have with Clubbie. You have a lot of talent, and we all appreciate it you sharing it so much.

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Another amazing picture. Teryx looks awesome.  His colors kind of remind me of a scarlet macaw, but with purple instead of yellow. Also, I’m guessing it was unintentional, but the end of his tail looks sorta like a hand.

A Hand?! :blink: That's AWESOME!! I never noticed!! Now I probably won't be able to get the thought outta my head!  :lol:

Huh, I never thought of using a scarlet macaw for color refence.......Why didn't I?! It would've been awesome to have the yellow feathers!  :bang Oh, well.

My true inspiration for the colors came from a memory of the very first Archaeopteryx picture I've seen when I was little; one archaeopteryx flying in the background and one climbing through the branches of a tree in the foreground. I guess a lot of paintings have that, but I remember the red and blue color scheme and the yellow scales on the legs, hands, and face (of course without the purple feathers, which was an extra thing to keep the patterns of the LBT-style). To this day, I can't remember where I found that inspiring piece of art and ramsacked through my dinosaur books and through Google Images, with no success....  :( In fact, I'm still on the hunt for it even after this pic is done. Any chance you may have seen the pic I'm looking for in one of your dinosaur books?

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You did a really incredible job on the legs and feet. (I especially admire how you drew his talons partially “clenched” in the same manner as a bird’s. And his head looks really good. Beak, teeth, eyes, crest, everything. The three furthermost feathers on his wings look a little floppy (feathers need to be stiff if they are to be useful for flight), and the one at the very end should be longer than those following it, but still, bird wings and feathers are hard to draw, and I think you did a decent job.

Tried to keep to the LBT design and still make him as bird-like as possible!  :D I personally don't like how any of the wing feathers came out, especially the 'floppy' ones you mentioned. I think one of the feathers suffered from 'unsteady-hand-during-outlining' syndrome and I curse myself for it. Anywho, yeah, the leading edge for Teryx's wings should be longer for his flying-style; guess I had the vague thought of vulture wings in my mind when I drew him (I love vultures so much....)!!  :smile

I love back-stories to fit personalities and why they are the way they are. Gives me a chance to exercise my writing abilities to make up for my lack of drawing skills, which is made fun of in my family *again glares towards my artist sister*. It's the positive feedback from you guys here and in DA that keeps me from giving up on drawing altogether....

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By the way, it was discovered a few years ago that Archaeopteryx actually had feathered legs, a bit like Microraptor (though the feathers were shorter and only went down to the ankles); feathery “pants”, if you like.

Oh, dude! I never got that newsflash! That's awesome!! Wonder if it's as useful to them as it is for a glider like Microraptor... To me, it would seem like a bit of a hindrance for a flyer, unless it's used like the Great Blue Windrunner from the Future is Wild.

I’ve been told that I don’t need to apologize for taking time to review, but honestly, how do I manage to forget/procrastinate this long?!  ) Unfortunately it seems that you’re a lot faster at creating stories and artwork than I am at reviewing them (but don’t stop or slow down on my account!), so it’s either going to be a long time before I get around to reviewing all the LBT fanart and fanfiction you have out right now, or I’m going to have to limit my reviewing to only certain pictures and stories.

“……Whoa…Maybe Teryx’s feathers didn’t turn out perfect, but that armor is flawless! ” Okay, strictly speaking I can’t say anything is flawless, but that was what I thought, and the detail on Clubbie’s armor really is incredible! The snout plates, the horns, the spikes, the scutes, the segmentation; everything. I can see some spots where the lengths of the divisions between the plates and the positioning of the scutes aren’t perfectly even, but I swear, it probably would have taken me hours of drawing and tons of erasing to get it looking anywhere near that good if I were making the picture.

It occurs to me that it might be difficult (painful, even), for a LBT Ankylosaurus to have its hind legs in the position that teenage Clubbie’s are in, given the spikes along its sides. I think a more realistic pose would be for the knees to be beneath the edges of the “shell”, with the thighs parallel to the ground at most (as opposed to the 45-degree angle they seem to be at in this picture).

I don’t have nearly as many comments for hatchling Clubbie; all I can say is that he looks great! I love how his horns, left front foot, and left hind leg look, and his expression is excellent as well.

Now that’s a hilarious bio!  Trying to fly and walk on his front legs have to be my favorite crazy habits you described. I think that rumor circulating in Clubbie’s herd about the reason for his behavior might have something to it…  Though turning himself into a walking hors d'oeuvre platter makes sense if he gets hungry a lot.  As usual, I love your descriptions of the character’s relationship to his/her friends. Though my reaction was “yikes!”  to that little detail of Tero having once broken Clubbie’s leg…

Wow…I certainly didn't anticipate that response.  Fortunately, it's pretty much the best one I could have hoped for.

If you like that color scheme, you could always change the character's design.

I can't say I have, unfortunately. You say it was a painting? Was it a more “old-fashioned” picture (like something Charles R. Knight or Zdenek Burian might have made), or did it look like it was by a more recent artist? Anything you can recall about the picture or the book you saw it in would help; I might be able to find it for you.

Lack of drawing skills?… [sarcasm]Seriously, what museum can I visit to see the rest of your family's artwork?[/sarcasm]  Seriously, they’re crazy to be disparaging your work like that. If they expect you to be a better artist, they should be more supportive of your work, telling you what you’re doing right andóin a civil and encouraging mannerówhat to focus on doing better. (That’s my reviewing style, anyway…the “sandwich critique”, someone called it once:  opening with first impressions and overall opinion, a filling of alternating compliments and notes on areas for improvement, topped with an encouraging message that the artist is doing well and should keep at it.)

With the armor of teenage Clubbie, although straight lines and even-ness are not my friends, it was surprisingly one of the easier parts of the drawing. In fact, the armor part's a relief as I remember the other parts beginning to get me a bit frustrated... Color was another issue as I had no idea what colors to use. I ended up settling on a combo of pink, red, and some unknown brownish color of a questionable origin...... :^.^:

The bio was very fun and I had to contain my spazziness to get it done!! I just wanted to put everything all at once; Clubbie's just a very entertaining character to write about!! :lol , yeah, Clubbie's head has taken more impacts with the hard ground than it was meant to endure... I'm surprised he's still living, or hasn't suffered anything more severe.

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Wow…I certainly didn't anticipate that response. Fortunately, it's pretty much the best one I could have hoped for.

It truly was an awesome image placed in my head (Can't....stop....thinking....of....Teryx....playing....video games....with his....tail :lol )!! What response were you expecting?  :)

Yes, it was a painting. I had an extremely vivid memory of it. I saw it in a book of a dim-lighted public library where I first read Raptor Red. The book itself was fairly old and I have two extra memories of what was in the book: A paragraph stating how we didn't know what sounds dinosaurs made and if they were capable of whistling and stuff. Another memory that accompanied that same page was a dark-themed side-pic close-up painting of a one-horned ceratopsian's head (a Styracosaurus, perhaps?), who in turn was dark in color with bright, almost neon, streaks of color along its face and frill. Plus the later pic of the Archaopteryx. I'm afraid that's the full memory I have....

That's why this site in particular is so special to me. You guys appreciate my work more than I can possibly hope for and your criticism is actually helpful. I just can't put it into words how grateful I am to you guys!  :D *hugs!!!!!!!!!!!*

Does your scanner have a tendency to change the colors of whatever you scan? Mine does, and it drives me crazy!

Well, ankylosaurs do have pretty hard heads. 'Course, they're not exactly known for their cranial capacity either.

I'm going to the library this afternoon; I'll see if I can find that book.

"Omg, I'm like a huuuuuuge fan of you, Pangaea!! And of you too, Guido!! It's like I'm meeting two celebraties at once here!! Dear Zotz, I feel like I'm not worthy to be in your awesome presence of awesomeness!!"

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I'm going to the library this afternoon; I'll see if I can find that book.

Thanks for your help!! I hope I'm not being a trouble to you.

Gah…I wish I could express emotion through a keyboard as well as you can. This response is going to seem horribly bland compared to your reactions to a lot of my posts, but suffice to say……………I LOVE THE PICTURE!

you gave my character digitigrade feet like I said I was going to give him! The feet look great, too; exactly how I imagined them!

One other issue I see is that Guido is behind Pangaea, but Pangaea’s feet are higher than Guido’s, so he appears to be levitating.

If this is what your doodles look like, I encourage you to post your doodles in here more often! (Seriously, it usually takes me hours of work to come up with something that good.)

I've made about two drawings to make myself feel better about....yeah.... One's for LBT and the other will be in my general art section. But before that, I must respond (rereading all you guys' comments was very helpful in cheering myself up).

And no worries on the emotion-keyboard thing; I actually think it's a good thing since I tend to get carried away with the emotion typing in that I just type down everything I'm doing and everything that comes to mind. It probably makes me look like an idiot.

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One other issue I see is that Guido is behind Pangaea, but Pangaea’s feet are higher than Guido’s, so he appears to be levitating.

It's official.....Your dinosona has super-powers of levitating awesomeness!! *notices* Hey, my first spazz moment in days. I believe I have you to thank for it, Pangaea! :)

The background is all effort-less scribbles because I hate backgrounds....a lot. In fact, I'll admit.... I'm very disappointed with this next picture. I personally can see almost no redeeming qualities in it. But that's not gonna stop me from sharing; all artists have their 'bad days' and this was definitely during a bad period... :(

And coloring the background almost killed my pencils (another reason I hate backgrounds, besides the fact that they always look crappy whenever I give them try).

I drew this picture to represent their whole relationship. And look!! I even kept to the trend of changing Thud's color at night! I still don't understand why they do that with Thud, but not to any other green character....

I admire the fact that you spent your period of grief working on art and writing; usually when I’m upset or depressed, I just lie around and sleep.

Hardly! I see it as one of the things that adds energy to your posts and makes them so enjoyable to read.

Now how is it that I knew you would say something like that?

Back in middle school, during an artistic phase in which I drew a lot of pictures of marine environments, coloring in the backgrounds was such a pain that for one picture, I used a blue marker instead of a colored pencil

Still, I figure that if you’re going to spend a lot of colored pencil core coloring a background, you might as well try a little bit to make said background look good, so I’ll just offer a few suggestions and pointers on background details

(Shouldn’t the ground be a different color than it is in the daytime, though?)

(Nice job drawing SilkScales' arms crossed. )

Is SilkScales a Deinonychus? I notice she has three-fingered hands and a deeper snout than Screech and Thud (not to mention the feathers). In the lower pic especially she looks a lot like the Deinonychus seen in the prologue of LBT III. (In the upper, her head shape looks closer like Screech and Thud's.) Personally I think her head and neck look better in the lower picture. I love her design; the alternating black and white feathers are a neat idea. (Is it just me, or do you have a thing for black-and-white OCs? ) Kind of a strange name, though; do the LBT dinosaurs know what silk feels like?

Somehow I never noticed (or at least can't remember) Thud's color changing at night. Convenient, though, considering your problems with the scanner.

Sorry if any of my nitpicking in this review was annoying. Again, I honestly do like this picture, and can’t wait to see more.

I erased so many times, I'm surprised that there's paper left in that spot!

I didn't really give much thought to her actual species as I wanted something very unique but still identifyable as a Fast Biter. But since I'm sure Deinonychus is the second largest raptor (I strongly believe Screech and Thud are Utahraptors based on their size), I guess that's her species!! :^.^:

Your nitpicks are never annoying! They're very helpful and I'm just as happy to receive them as I am at getting compliments!! Thank you for both your compliments and your constructive criticism!!

Okay, I do have to admit, that Wasps' marking's are beautiful but the Wasp itself...*runs in fear*

Yes, the white-faced hornet's is so prettily colored, but the wasp is quite an aggressive bugger. You running is a good idea and I probably won't be so smart as to follow your example!! :lol

“rich, hearty, slightly crunchy...

All your art is amazing! The story of the latest picture is great and really cute how Optie tries to demonstrate the size of the creature. It's funny.

I honestly love the way Optie looks here! Love the way her tiny flippers are raised, love the angle of her face, she just looks adorable

About the rest of the picture:
I like the vast difference in size between Optie and Lio, it really emphasizes Optie's 'tininess'. The shadows you've put under them are a nice touch. They make it seem like the characters actually occupy their environment instead of just sticking on top of it.
One thing though, I think Lio should be in the shadows more, with just a little bit of highlight on his back. It would make him look like he's deeper underwater. Unless they are in shallow water.
How deep in the water are they? Seeing how bright they are it looks like they are close to the surface.

I hope my crit is okay; I actually like this picture.

This picture is really good. Like FreckledOne said, the shadows you've added really emphasize the presence of the characters, especially the darker set of shadows under Optie. The colour schemes and patterns on the characters are good too.

I really like the story between these two characters as well. Lio sounds (and looks ) pretty cool, a truly nasty bad guy

Hey this is awesome art! I really like all the OC's you have here. They're all unique and beautifully drawn.
Did I mention I love the colors? Cuz i do, they are all so bright and eyecatching and amazing!

Will this be your new fanfiction? I know your on a new story but I'm not so sure.

If you do write a story with them, expect me to read it

So happy to see new art in this thread.

Love Lio and Optie. I agree with you; the Walking With Dinosaurs colors look really good on them. These days the black and white Liopleurodon pattern feels rather clichÈd because practically every artist since then has illustrated it that way, but I still think it looks good in this picture.

That's a really interesting relationship you came up with for those two. To me, it actually seems like the kind of one-off symbiosis that you could actually find in nature, like those cases of lionesses adopting baby antelope, or the little fish that follow sharks and other predators for protection and food scraps. Though I feel bad for Optie if she ever finds a friend and brings them home to meet her "Daddy", and if and when she eventually comes to realize that Lio isn't her father and only values her as bait.

Whoa, another freaky coincidence.  When I first saw Walking With Dinosaurs, I became obsessed with the marine reptiles episode, too, and wrote and illustrated a story (called "Island Brouhaha" ) based on it. And one of the characters I created was…a Liopleurodon named Lio.  Besides the name and design, he wasn't much like your Lio; he was a considerably friendlier guy. The characters in my story found him beached after a storm, just like the Liopleurodon at the end of the WWD episode (I was such a copycat back then ); one of them, a Tyrannosaurus, chased away the Eustreptospondylus that were about to scavenge him, and then they pulled him back into the water. Afterwards, another character (a walrus) gave him an Aspirin; Lio thanked them, gave them a tour of the nearby islands, and joined them on their trip across the sea, protecting them from other giant marine predators. (A final scene at the end of the story showed the three Eustreptospondylus whom the T. rex had scared off returning to the beach where Lio had been stranded, finding him gone, and thinking, "Darn, that big meat-eater ate him.") …Yes, my stories back then were EXTREMELY strange.

Hideous and poorly drawn? Seriously?  Okay, I'll agree that the background isn't that great, but at least you actually tried to draw one. I'm too lazy to even bother with backgrounds  (Also I hate wasting my colored pencils filling in all that negative space.) Regardless of background, your characters are the best part of any picture you draw, and they look fantastic. All of the expressions and body postures are excellent; you can pretty much tell what's on all of the characters minds from them alone. I especially love how you drew Tiki; her proportions and details are near perfect, and her straining and desperation to loosen Tero's hold on Teryx are so evident in her pose and face. Tero's head and facial expression are also exceptionally well done; it's disturbingly clear how much he's enjoying asphyxiating an Archaeopteryx (Sorry, couldn't resist the chance to alliterate those particular words. )

I have to say, I sputtered with laugher the first moment I saw Teryx being strangled by Tero.  Of course I also feel sorry for the poor guy. Yeesh, Tero's insane.  I feel I must quote Sid from the latest Ice Age movie in regards to Tero here: "Two words: 'anger management.'"  (Remind me and Guido to keep out of grabbing range when we meet him in the RP.)

I couldn't help but think "C'mon, Clubbie! Knock Tero with your tail or something and save Teryx! Of all of your friends, you're the one he can do the least damage to!" Still, I suppose having had his leg broken by Tero in the past hasn't done much for his inclination to be a hero. Thank goodness for Tiki and Cookie.

By the way, is it me, or do you seem to like writing extremely rude domehead characters?

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So happy to see new art in this thread.

Me too!! I'm hoping to make it a bit more active, perhaps by drawing out scenes from my stories or something *shrugs*

The relationship was something I couldn't help; I've always had a special interest in cross- species interactions, especially when a predator 'adopts' a prey species (I remember that lioness-adopting-an-antelope story; it was so sad the little one didn't make it :cry ). And I love how insightful you are! You already brought up a couple of the major points in my frequent daydreams of them! I'll probably be writing a story about it soon, so if your interested, you can check it out when I get to it! :DD

*cracks up, especially on the Island Brouhaha part!!!* I guess Lio is very common name for liopleurodon :lol Certainly the easiest to come up with! A walrus with asprin!!! That is pure epic pricelessness!! I think I wanna draw that!! And those poor Eustreptospondylus; I can imagine the looks on their faces when they have that thought!! That story sounds hilariously awesome!! I'm still dying of laughter here!

Yes, Tiki was drawn well!! I was wondering how to get her pose right and I had to get rid of some eraser marks that decided to mock me when I drew her! And I don't blame you for the alliteration; it was practically given to you!! I'm especially trying to work on my Domehead pics, since I'm planning on making an AMV for my Guilty Until Proven Innocent story and for that, I have to draw the Domehead trio a LOT! So hearing I got something, anything, right on Tero is giving me a much needed boost in confidence!

I had TONS of fun with Teryx, especially his face and eyeball!! :lol I think he was the highlight on why I drew this pic in the first place; I just couldn't get it out of my mind!

It's weird how you said Tero's insane, because as soon as Teryx caught enough breath and saw Tero return with Clubbie, he said exactly that...whilst also yelling "WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?!?!" Yeah, anger management would do Tero good, although I have a feeling that there will be a great deal of yelling and ramming done in the process.  :D

Yes.....yes, I do :lol  :lol  :lol  Even before I started writing Guilty Until Proven Innocent, I've always tended to make Pachycephalosaurus a very aggressive dinosaur! Although Tero ain't nearly as....well...horrible as Cepher, Pacia, and Rus. But I do have a REAL Stygimoloch OC (not the one that eventually became Tero; that OC has long since been removed from history :DD ) that differs from my usual trend. Being much smaller than her cousins, Stygia is much more mild-mannered and actually pretty frightened of the larger Pachys. It might have something to do with an imagined (in no way cannon with any of my stories....yet :p ) encounter with the before-mentioned trio (whom is so speciest, that they'll attack Domeheads of a different kind :blink: !). I outta draw her eventually!

Anyway, it's been so great getting reviews from you again! You've definitely made my day, buddy! *huggles!!*

Nearly every story I've ever come up with has had interspecies friendships of one kind or another.

Did I mention the story was also fully illustrated? All of my stories back then were done entirely in a program called Clarisworks (it doesn't exist anymore, which is sadly probably the reason I stopped creating art on the computer). The illustrations weren't very good; I just had clip art of each of the characters in a few different poses, which I would just paste into each picture (sometimes adding a few modifications), with a background that was usually not that much more elaborate than that of your latest drawing above. The stories themselves weren't much better. I have a hard time even looking at them anymore without feeling embarrassed for creating them. Nonetheless, some of the jokes and concepts I came up for them I am still fond of, and the stories I am currently working on (read: think about from time to time ) are fundamentally still set in a massively revamped version of the same universe.

So, yes, there already exists an illustration of an enormously fat, goofy-looking walrus on a boat offering a slightly oversized orange pain relief tablet to a colossal, friendly pliosaur. But you can recreate it if you like.

And you thought the "Island Brouhaha" title was that funny? Well, it is one of those things I came up with for my old stories that I'm still proud of.

I might add that Tero's head and neck look a tiny bit small for the rest of his body, and his right knee and ankle joints might be bent a little too sharply, but other than that his anatomy looks almost as good as Tiki's, and I would say he's the second best drawn character in the picture.

Someone needs to get Tero a punching bag (a non-biological one, I mean).

I'd like to see a picture of Stygia. For as long as I've known about it, Stygimoloch has been my favorite pachycephalosaur.

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Nearly every story I've ever come up with has had interspecies friendships of one kind or another

Hey, me too!! I just LOOOOOOVE it whenever we find more in common! If you're not my clone, then you must be my long lost twin brother of something!!! :DD

You have it illustrated...... SHOW IT TO ME!!!!! I WANTZ TO SEE IT!!!

I must recreate it! It calls to me!!! If you do show me the illustrations, I want to see that one first and foremost!!

Stop giving me drawing ideas!! My brain can't handle the awesomeness! :D

Stygia survives the encounter by running into a female Gastonia named Toni (her kind'll probably be called a Spikey Clubtail, despite the absence of a club....as far as I know anyway :unsure: ), but she's now terrified of her larger cousins. She befriends Toni and together they go adventuring!

She and Toni do run into my four of my five other OCs (Tiki, Teryx, Cookie, and Clubbie) and they were about to join up with them when Tero came on the scene. Although my Pachycephalosaurus OC did absolutely nothing to intentionally frighten her (he was confused, if anything), Stygia was so shaken by his mere presence, she left entirely.

Seems her Gastonia buddy will remain her only companion for a long time....

Anyway, I drew and outlined it in less than 15 minutes (it was done during a break at work). It was colored on Photoshop, as usual, and those colors and design is based off Jurassic Park: Warpath. I LOOOOVE the coloration they made for Stygimoloch, now I can hardly imagine a Stygi of a different color!

I hope you like it!

The bizarre thing is that I've seen your photos in the "Show us a picture of yourself" thread, and can tell you that we look nothing alike.  Is there a mental equivalent of convergent evolution? Maybe that's it.

Hoo boy…you want to see my old shame? What I have I gotten myself into?  I suppose I could show you the pictures (some of them, at least), but I think I'm too embarrassed to share the text  (If it's okay with you, I'll just describe what's going on in each picture, and tell you an attenuated version of the story). When I get the chance, I'll see about scanning the pages to my computer so I can e-mail them to you. I already have several other pictures relating to our current e-mail conversation lined up to show you, so once we've gone over them, I'll show you the story pictures. Does that sound okay?

As for the specific picture of the Liopleurodon and the walrus with the Aspirin, I'm actually rather curious to see your interpretation of the scene before I show you the original illustration. If you absolutely can't wait to see it, though, I can send it to you in my next e-mail.

You ought to make a list. I started doing that recently; I have a special notepad that I keep with my art supplies (plus a few word documents on my computer) where I write down my ideas for pictures and characters. It's very helpful, especially since I come up with new ideas far faster than I can draw them.

I've checked my sources, and I'm afraid it turns out that Gastonia's tail didn't have a club, just a lot of sharp-edged plates. (For a time in the '90s it was believed that polacanthids did have small tail clubsóhence the knob-tailed Gastonia in Raptor Redóbut the fossil that supposedly evidenced this turned out to be just a chunk of tail vertebrae, ossified tendons, and armor plates that had been misidentified as a club.) If you want to find a more accurate species title…Darkhououmon came up with "sharptail" for Gastonia in one of her fanfics; you could probably use that (you can double-check with her to be sure it's okay if you like). Otherwise, someone came up with "shieldback" for Nodosaurus; perhaps Gastonia could be a "spiky shieldback"? (For the record, I personally like "sharptail" better.)

That's a real shame.  I wanna give Stygia a hug!

Holy moley, you're a fast artist!  So basically, you drew this just because I said I wanted to see a picture of Stygia. That's so nice of you! Thanks a ton!

The pose is a little human-like, but besides that she looks good! The feet and hands are terrifically drawn (even if the left foot looks a little like the toes are webbed or something), and her head is soooo spiky!  (Yikes, I'm starting to talk like you, Sparky.  I think you're contagious.)

I was going to say that I thought you gave her an interesting pattern. I like dinosaurs with bands and stripy patterns.  Somehow her colors remind me a little of a pronghorn antelope.

I drew the Flyer trio again, but in a different (a little more realistic) style! Don't mind the scaling, I had little information on it (just lengths on wings span, and my general knowledge of who's bigger than whom).

Hehe, even in a different form, Pterano's still standing tall in his egotistical pride!! Sierra's snapping at him for something (though whether that snapping involves teeth or words is open to interpretation!). And Rinkus is like 'Not again....'

I drew this with reference from an old dinosaur book of mine and I'm not too sure if I'm pleased with this or not... :unsure:

Awwww, no need to be ashamed to show your piccys! I know for a fact that I'm gonna love them. If it makes ya feel better, I have tons of crappy works myself, so I can't judge yours! But yeah, just send me the stuff your comfortable with, I'll be happy either way! :DD

Ooooooo!! I sense a comparison experiment!! Okay; I'll finish my pic first and then we can see what we both got!! Squeeee! This is gonna be fun!

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You ought to make a list. I started doing that recently; I have a special notepad that I keep with my art supplies (plus a few word documents on my computer) where I write down my ideas for pictures and characters. It's very helpful, especially since I come up with new ideas far faster than I can draw them.

Hey, that's a great idea!! *starts making a list ten-miles long!!*

I knew it!! No clubtail for you, Toni! It's a good thing I followed my instincts and drew her without the club! Thanks for the info, Pangy! You saved me a lot of anxiety! I like the name 'sharptail' better too! Once I get the chance, I'mma ask DH about it!

Yes, this was a very fast piece of work and I'm surprised it came out good enough to be praised by you! And yeah, I made it just for you!! I had tons of fun, especially with the coloration. And I never thought of the pronghorned antelope coloration! Cool!! Does it help that the sound Stygi makes in the game is that high-pitched, eery sound of an elk call?

Now I want to see that walrus and aspirin picture too; my curiosity has been piqued :blink:

Oh, I love that new picture! Incidentally, I saw it on your DA account this morning, and thought, “Oh, I hope she posts that on the GOF; I want to review it and tell her how good it looks!”

I think this also demonstrates why most flyers in LBT are around the same size; I doubt that as many people would have thought of Sierra and Rinkus as quite so threatening if they had been that much smaller than Pterano. This is especially true of Rinkus; look at him, he’s so cute! Even so, if these characters had appeared this way in a more realistic version of LBT, I think Sierra would be a force to be reckoned with. Look at those teeth. (Honestly I think the real-life Cearadactylus was even scarier looking than Sierra, even if those jaws were most likely used on fish.) Come to think of it, considering real pterosaurs couldn’t hold things with their feet, I don’t think poor Ducky could have survived being picked up by anyone besides Pterano. On a more humorous note, I imagine that Rinkus and Pterano’s “why are you hitting me?” scene would have been considerably more painful for the former with that size difference.

Just out of curiosity, what’s the name, author, and publication date of that pterosaur book you used as a reference?

andókudos to youóyou made all three of them fuzzy! For anyone reading this post who may not be familiar with this fact, it’s been well documented from fossil impressions that pterosaurs were covered in hair-like filaments (technically known as pycnofibers), not scales.

I’m sure you’d appreciate some more pterosaur anatomy tips, so here you go: Sierra’s nostril should be at the very front of that triangular “window” in his snout. A general rule of thumb with animals is that the fleshy nostril opening is (#1) much smaller than the naris, or bony nostril opening, and (#2) as far forward in said bony nostril opening as possible. I also think there should probably be more of his right wing membrane visible, and based on what can be seen of his right arm behind his body, it looks like it is bent very strangely. I don’t blame you, though; folded pterosaur wings are hard to draw!

For the record, I still draw a lot of pointy-winged critters when realism isn’t that relevant, or when I’m emulating a certain art style.

Thanks for your understanding. You’re so nice. *hugs*

Alrighty then, that's what we'll do!

Fantastic! What’ve you got so far that I’ve helped you come up with? The walrus giving the Liopleurodon an Aspirin…Slasher the deathgleaner tangled in wind chimes…c’mon, I know there’s more!

Hold on, you have a picture of Toni, too? I'd like to see it!

Thanks again. I’m glad you had fun drawing it. I’m not sure what sounds pronghorn make, but now that I think about it, elk calls would actually work pretty well for a pachycephalosaur. I know exactly the sound you’re talking about; in my opinion, it’s one of the coolest-sounding animal calls.

Having brought up the subject of elk, I can’t resist mentioning this: do you know that the American elk is also called the wapiti (pronounced “WOP-ih-TEE”)? I just love that word.

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Just out of curiosity, what’s the name, author, and publication date of that pterosaur book you used as a reference?

The book is called Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures (that's not an overused title at all :lol ), by John Malam and Steve Parker. It was published in 2002, so I was about 11 or 12 when I got it. It's weird, because the book is so outdated now (Therizinosaurus was still a carnivore; Microraptor was completely incapable of aerial activity; Acrocanthosaurus is considered a Spinosaur :blink: ). But the art is pretty decent enough (though a bit sloppy on some dinosaurs) and the pterosaurs were especially well drawn in a variety of poses. It was a real help!

Okay! The Cearadactylus picture I used for reference had the nostril in the middle of the 'window', so I didn't really know any better! :lol:

And I knew I should've added more wing membrane! I wanted too, but couldn't really make it look right with the pose (a lifted wing with the flight-finger expanded, as if he's going 'Don't step on my wing!'). I guess that didn't go too well either, sorry! :smile  :oops And yeah, I NEVER expected pterosaur wings to be difficult. It certainly looked much simpler than a bird or bat wing! I guess appearances can be deceiving!

I should've looked at the references more carefully!! But I'm just so used to pointy pterosaur wings because I usually draw pterosaurs under those very circumstances!!

Yayz!! But a realistic Liopleurodon is a lot more difficult to draw than I anticipated!!  The walrus is surprisingly cooperative, but your Lio isn't going to be drawn without a fight and it's really stalling my progress! :smile I'm thinking of settling with a LBT style pliosaur (perhaps a bit more cartooonish); it should be a bit easier! But I'll make a few more attempts at the realistic style before going with that option! :yes

:lol Well, some of the idea you gave me wasn't intentional! Some of the things you said in some responses gives me inpiration. Perhaps the strangest is Teryx's tail sporting a glove Mickey Mouse-esque hand, playing video games! But others are meant to be surprises :p

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Hold on, you have a picture of Toni, too? I'd like to see it!

Yup! I was originally gonna color it after my current photoshop project, but since you showed such interest, Pangy, I made it my first priority to finish! It'll be on the end of this post, so it doesn't interrupt the responses!

For the color, I again used Jurassic Park: Warpath, this time using my favorite version of Ankylosaurus. It reminds me of a turtle!! :p I also used the same book I used for the Flyer trio to help me with the placement of the armor spikes. I hope you like it, Pangy!

I like the evil smirk on Tero's face in that group picture, and if you ever want to redo it I think that you should restage the picture so his face is the focal point 

Stygia is cute, but her right thigh is a little short. That shade of orangey-yellow is a favorite of mine! It's also neat to see a more realistic flyer trio.

Hmm…I looked that book up on Amazon so I could see what its cover looked like, and I’m pretty sure my youngest brother owns it. Don’t know where it is, though.

Incidentally, the size and position of the nostrils in dinosaurs (and presumably pterosaurs, too) has been the subject of much revamping in recent years. Where many dinosaurs used to be drawn with a huge, gaping nostril in the center of each naris, the new and (presumably) more accurate style is to give them relatively tiny nostrils at the very front. Even the nostrils of sauropodsólong restored as being high up on the foreheadóare now believed to have been much closer to the front of the muzzle.

(That’s all I’m going to say for now in case you don’t want your interpretation of the scene to be influenced any more than necessary.)

Surprises, huh? Can’t wait to see them!

Have I mentioned before that you’re awesome? Yes? Well I’m repeating it anyway!

Looks cool!  I like the combination of yellow and black (Those colors seem to work well for ankylosaurs, for some reason). I’m not certain as to the accurate size, shape, and placement of Gastonia’s armor plates and spikes, but since this is LBT style anyway (hardly the most scientifically accurate style out there ), I don’t think it matters much. On that note, I think this is a really good LBT-style Gastonia.  I really like how you made her similar enough to a clubtail (especially in the arrangement of her armor) that one can easily tell that she’s a closely related species, but she still has a unique design, rather than having the same body model of an existing LBT dinosaur with a different color scheme and one or two modified features. One detail I do think could use improvement is the row of eight small plates closest to the edge of her “carapace”; it looks to me like it’s too tightly squeezed between the two rows of big spikes on either side of it. You could remove them, but I think it might look better if you moved them and the back spikes higher up.

"So you guys are wanderers?" Toni asked as she settled on the soft, comfortable ground next to a sleeping Stygia, careful not to get too close so her spines won't accidently injure her friend. Tiki nodded as she in turn settled by a sleeping Cookie and blissfully spread herself out in the Bright Circle's warmth, allowing a sigh to escape her beak as she gave her verbal response to the inquiry.

"Pretty much. We're kinda like Far Walkers, but without any particular destination. The original plan between Tero and I was to set up our own territory, but we're too much of a restless bunch to stay in one place, especially when the others joined up." She nodded specifically at Clubbie, whom was in the middle of attempting a back-stroke...whilst on land... Yeah, he wasn't really going anywhere fast...

"Tero?" Toni asked, tilting her head as she glanced about. "Am I mixed up? 'Cause I only see four of ya."

"Oh, he's out scouting our next route, no doubt trying to find sharpteeth to pick fights with." Tiki told her jokingly before muttering under her breath. "I keep telling him to just use Teryx as a scout since it'll be easier, but he refuses to accept help from him..."

"It's only because he knows that I can get everything done better than he ever could." the mention Feathered Flyer piped up whilst he groomed his wing feathers. Hearing this, Tiki rolled her eyes with a soft laugh as she continued.

"He's, -how should I say it?-, kinda like the leader of our group."

"Yeah, the self-proclaimed leader..." Teryx continued to mutter, his crest twitching in aggravation as he was certain that he deserved that role, especially since he can beat Tero in a fight if he really wanted to... :rolleyes: . Toni immediately sensed that there was some kind of animosity between Teryx and this 'leader' of theirs and wondered why Teryx was still hanging around if that's the case. Perhaps she'll figure it out later when-

"Ah, here he comes now." Tiki exclaimed, sitting up to lift a hand. "Hey, Tero! Come meet our new visitors!"

Hearing this and seeing Toni, Tero froze for a moment, taking in the sight of this strange new dinosaur that he's never encountered. It looked like a Clubtail, but... "Clubbie, what've they done to you!? They turned you into a walking Ground Prickly!" He exclaimed in mock-horror before immediately turning deathly serious and dashing towards the new dinosaur to investigate and evaluate this potential new member. He never was too fond of newcomers and he was hoping this'll just be temporary; but if not, he might as well see who he's dealing with.

Finally seeing the nature of Tero, -specifically his species-, Toni tensed up and casted a glance at the sleeping Stygia next to her. The young dinosaur felt the footfalls even in her contented state as she opened her eyes to look over at the source. Toni's body was blocking the way, but soon enough, another dinosaur appeared into view.

In an instant, time seemed to stop as Stygia let out an alarmed scream, her wide eyes already filling with tears as she hastily stood up to run, Toni barely moving her sharp-edged tail out of the way in time to avoid tripping and hurting her friend. Tero certainly wasn't expecting a second dinosaur and hearing the loud scream and seeing the fast-moving critter, he immediately skid to a stop and jumped back a few paces in one fluid motion, thoroughly startled and confused by this seemingly random scene.

Retreating a distance, sobbing and screaming at the same time, Stygia could only just barely stop herself from flat out fleeing entirely as she remembered Toni. Turning back to see the larger Domehead, she whimpered and trembled heavily, keeping low as she paced anxiously, wondering why Toni wasn't running with her. Doesn't she remember how dangerous this kind of Domehead was?! Maybe Toni was going to fight him off like she did with that trio...

But there was only stillness as the others watched her with shocked looks on their faces, Clubbie still on his back and Cookie now fully awake. Only Toni seemed to have expected it and her expression grew in sympathy as she watched her fear-ridden companion cower in her spot. Looking from one of the surprised group to another, she finally turned her full attention to Tero. He was a young Domehead, still in the Age of Great Growing just like the others, and only a just over half the size of the Domeheads that instilled trauma into her companion a while back. But size didn't matter to Stygia, apparently, as the Spiky Domehead began to call out to her in the form of several bugles.

"What was that about?!" Tero finally exclaimed, glaring at the little creature that startled him, but making no attempt to approach the obviously frightened creature.

"I'm so sorry." Toni apologized, finding it odd as she hardly apologized to anyone and truly mean it; what she does, she does for a reason and that's nothing to be sorry for. But she felt this situation warranted a genuine one, since it wasn't her actions she was apologizing for. "Stygia... She's terrified of you."

"What for?" Teryx asked, tilting his head. "I mean, I know Tero's uglier than a sharptooth, but there's nothing to be afraid of." Only then did the Flyer notice that Tero's glare had shifted to him and there was silence before Teryx sighed in resignation. "Here it comes...."

In an instant, Teryx was on the ground quite a distance away, having been charged and rammed by the angry Domehead (this earned an especially frightened bugle from the still-pacing Stygia nearby). Immediately, Cookie rushed to aid him as Tero returned his attention to Toni.

"So, what for?" he repeated Teryx's question as if nothing happened, crossing his arms.

"For just that, actually." Toni responded, surprised that that attack hasn't stirred much a reaction. She guessed such a thing happened rather frequently... Looking at the bashed Flyer as Cookie helped him up, she saw that he was actually pretty alright for what just happened (she half-expected him to be dead after an impact like that) and reasoned that Tero's attacks never actually intends any fatal harm. Kids... "A trio of your kind tried to kill her and would've succeeded if I hadn't interfered." She shook her head and looked back to Stygia. "She's been traumatized since then. It's not really personal..."

"Toni!" Stygia sobbed shakily. "I wanna go now! Please!"

Feeling her heart sink, Toni looked over at the others. She's never been in a herd before and always wanted that sense of belonging practically all her life. And now that she's finally getting that chance... But Stygia... Although the conflict in her instincts and her desires was powerful, she knew what she had to do as she stood up.

"It was a great pleasure meeting you all. You have no idea how much talking to you meant to me..." Expertly holding back her tears, she offered a smile before turning away and walking towards Stygia, leaving behind her last hope of fulfilling her dreams of joining a herd.

After reading her bio, I already really like Toni  (and, if it's not already clear, I like the picture as well ). Have you written or planned any stories about her and Stygia? Or is it just their general backstory that you've plotted out so far?

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Have I mentioned before that you’re awesome? Yes? Well I’m repeating it anyway!

Wow, I'm usually the one saying that line! It's certainly nice to hear (or read :p ) it directed at me for once!! Thank you so much! *glomps!!*

I've been debating on whether to model her more closely to the Clubtail design in the LBT, and I also considered making her look a bit like an overly-spiney Nod. But in the end, I decided to make her more unique than that!! I'm glad you liked the design! I especially like her head, it's cuter in my opinion!!

I attempted to fix 'em in my photoshop, but it was actually making the whole thing worse. I simply cannot draw using digital means... Stupid shaky mouse <_<

"Stygia... She's terrified of you."

"What for?" Teryx asked, tilting his head. "I mean, I know Tero's uglier than a sharptooth, but there's nothing to be afraid of." Only then did the Flyer notice that Tero's glare had shifted to him and there was silence before Teryx sighed in resignation. "Here it comes...."

In an instant, Teryx was on the ground quite a distance away, having been charged and rammed by the angry Domehead (this earned an especially frightened bugle from the still-pacing Stygia nearby).

"It was a great pleasure meeting you all. You have no idea how much talking to you meant to me..." Expertly holding back her tears, she offered a smile before turning away and walking towards Stygia, leaving behind her last hope of fulfilling her dreams of joining a herd.

So I introduced Teryx to video games and he catches on fairly quickly. What he doesn't understand was that since he's my OC, I am his GOD and with just a wandering thought fleeting through my mostly-empty brain, his tail sprouted a hand! Teryx is not freaked out by this at all! :lol

You know, Teryx should consider himself lucky. Real-life Archaeopteryx (and other feathered maniraptorans, as far as I know), had their primary wing feathers attached to their second finger, so it would have been even more awkward for them to play a video game.

That makes me think of this comic I found on DA.

http://ewilloughby.deviantart.com/art/How-...aries-287545900 (http://ewilloughby.deviantart.com/art/How-...aries-287545900)

That reminds me, have you seen my art thread lately? I updated it with a new* picture a couple of days ago, and I'd love to hear what you think of it if you had the time and interest.

* Technically, it's a rather old picture, made at the turn of the decade. But it's new to the thread.

Yeah, I have the same problem. A pencil is the only drawing tool I can use with any degree of competency, and even then my hands are so unsteady and my mind's eye so blurry that I make tons of mistakes while drawing and have to erase and re-draw all the time. I used to draw pictures on the computer using the mouse a long time ago (all of it simplistic and much of it sloppy), but when the program I used was discontinued and I got a new computer, I pretty much gave up on digital artwork.

Oh my gosh, I can't stop laughing at that. Oh Teryx, I think you kinda disproved your own statement there (about there being nothing to fear from Tero). You're right, he does need to learn to keep his mouth shut.

Aww…now I want to hug Toni, too. (Sure, it could potentially be painful, but I think it would be possible to avoid her spikes.)

I can see why she’s so scared of Tero’s kind; she’s a lot smaller than I expected.

Poor Teryx doesn’t look as impressive by comparison, though you did a good job drawing him from the back like that; I don’t think I’ve ever drawn a dinosaur from that angle. Teryx’s snout looks a little too deep, and his eyes are kind of far back, and I guess his wings are a little simplistic (but hey, we both know what a pain it is to draw a lot of feathers). In any case, you more than make up for any shortcomings with Teryx in this picture with your next one.

I thought his tail already had a hand; it just looked like feathers.

Oh great, it's self-aware. Now Teryx is going to get into fights with his own tail. *imagines Teryx's hand-tail, bopping him on the head, slapping him, eye-poking him, strangling him, etc.*

On the other hand (gah, unintended pun! ), I can imagine Teryx sneaking up on Tero and whacking him, then pointing to his tail and saying "he did it".

You know, Teryx should consider himself lucky. Real-life Archaeopteryx (and other feathered maniraptorans, as far as I know), had their primary wing feathers attached to their second finger, so it would have been even more awkward for them to play a video game. However, at least one dromaeosaur, Bambiraptor, had an opposable third finger that could fold back to meet its thumb, so it could have pinched small prey between two of its claws. (Unfortunately, from a human perspective it would look like it was flipping you off every time it picked something up. )

Anyway, back to the picture. This is probably the biggest picture of Teryx you’ve done since you introduced him in this thread, and it looks pretty good, especially the face. I gotta say, he looks rather ferocious with his teeth bared like that. You clearly put a lot of effort into drawing his mouth, and it shows. Also, this is just me, but I think the giant sweatdrop may be a little too much; his expression is so telling that I don’t think he needs it (reptiles and birds can’t sweat, anyway).

Is his crest supposed to be raised up in surprise? I imagine Teryx would look hilarious with all his head feathers standing on end. (…Oh great, now I’ve got the image of Teryx electrified with his crest sticking straight up and his feathers all frizzed out. )

Me- Um...Tero? I don't think you quite understand the concept of Roast Chicken...
Tero- What makes you say that?
Me- Well first of all, I'm pretty sure the chicken's supposed to be dead, plucked, and...you know...an actual chicken.
Tero- Details. :rolleyes

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That reminds me, have you seen my art thread lately? I updated it with a new* picture a couple of days ago, and I'd love to hear what you think of it if you had the time and interest.

* Technically, it's a rather old picture, made at the turn of the decade. But it's new to the thread.

Yup, I've posted up a 'review' of it earlier today! I'm sorry it took so long; I was attempting to make it as insightful and thoughtful and awesome as your reviews. I'm not sure if I pulled it off :oops I admit, I'm not too good at criticizing and I usually lack the confidence needed to leave feedback of any sort, but since your a best buddy of mine, I decided to give it a shot! I hope you like what I had to say!

Yeah, Teryx was more of an afterthought in the picture, although I did have fun experimenting with the back-view perspective. I remember having a hard time figuring out what was wrong with Teryx, as he didn't look right even before I inked it, and I couldn't put my finger on it. But now that you've pointed it out, I can see it clearly now :yes . Shame when that happens, but thank you sooooo much for telling me what's wrong, Pangy!! You've settled some frustrations I was having looking at the pic and wondering why Teryx looked so 'off'.

Pffffft,  :spit Okay! Now you know I have to draw Teryx fighting with his tail!! That is PRICELESS!!!

Something about that new position of feathers (attached as far up as the second finger) is so cute; I'mma probably draw a realistic Teryx later!! Really, the wings of a 'resting', non-airborne Teryx was inspired by Guido's wings. It seemed like a logical choice!

But would it be that difficult to play video games? Since the maniraptors had their hands facing inwards and the feathers were positioned underneath, I don't think it'll be too difficult to hold a typical game controller, which requires inward facing hands to begin with. Though the lack of opposible thumbs can be a problem. Eh, don't listen to me ramble, I dunno what I'm talking about! :^.^:

You think he looked ferocious like that, you should see him when he's angry! Then you can certainly see how he's basically just a tiny, feathered sharptooth!!

Since making my previous pic of Teryx with video games, I decided to start drawing a series of pictures based on my OC gang interacting with the modern world, namely my house. This series will include Tero's punching bag and Teryx's first encounter with an electrical outlet.

Anyways, the background's still crap, but crap based on something. That something is my actual kitchen. Of course, a highly simplified version. Meh.

Don't worry; you did an awesome job. I loved your review, and will be responding to it soon. Thank you so much.

Here's one idea: how about Teryx with his tail clamped around his throat while he attempts to strangle his tail with his hands (failing to consider that it's kinda pointless to strangle something that doesn't even have a windpipe ). …You know, I just realized that I was probably subconsciously inspired to come up with that idea by the "skull puppets" scene from Ice Age 3 ("He's strangling his own foot!").

Makes sense to me, too. Unfortunately to say, LBT dinosaurs are rife with anatomical inaccuraciesófeatherless fast biters, theropods with pronated hands, elevated nostrils on longnecks, etc.óso if you're trying to emulate the show's style as accurately as possible, you may have to deliberately incorporate inaccuracies into your dinosaurs.

Ooh, I'd love to see a realistic Teryx! Don't forget to give him mini leg-wings (sort of like Microraptor's, but much smaller and only extending down to the ankle joint) and small sickle claws; Archaeopteryx is now known to have had both of those characteristics. His body feathers should also be poofy, such that his legs above the knees are completely hidden, his neck appears thick and relatively straight, and his body overall looks plump and fluffy. Just like modern birds, feathered dinosaurs were a whole lot fluffier than their skeletons alone would suggest, with most of their body contours hidden beneath poofed-out plumage.

Sorry…I don't mean to tell you how to draw Realistic Teryx, I just thought you might appreciate the tips.

Hmm…I'm not sure. I guess it might depend on the kind of console they're using. The smaller the buttons, and the more of them there were, the more awkward it would be. I don't know a whole lot about the range of motion theropod fingers had (it almost certainly varied between species and families), though I'm guessing most of them were limited to flexing straight back and forth. If there was any digit that had a wider range of motion, it would probably have been the thumb, though I'd assume it wasn't nearly as flexible as the human thumb. Their claws would probably give them some trouble, too: a raptor's game console would probably become rapidly pockmarked with holes.

Yes, I have never relished the prospect of an angry Archaeopteryx latched onto my face. Though it is an experience I have fantasized about inflicting on my characters, sadly.

Oh boy, I love this concept. Is Tero going to be wearing boxing gloves in the punching bag pic? (Then again, maybe he doesn't use his fists much when he beats on Teryx…) If you had already introduced Tero to art materials at the time, would he have drawn a picture of Teryx on the bag? Ooh, ooh! You should also draw Cookie encountering a box of her namesake (and probably consuming the entire contents ).

Aw, poor Teryx. He really does look terrified. You did a really great job drawing him, though: his eyes and face convey his terror perfectly, and all the little details of his crest, legs, hands, tail feathers, and even the ropes binding him are excellently done. Tero is great, too. He actually looks genuinely hungry for a chicken (or Archaeopteryx) dinner (no wonder Teryx is so frightened). His hands and forearms look absolutely perfect holding the platter, although the line forming the top of his shoulder curves back a little too far, I think. And the toque looks awesome. The little folds in the…puffy part at the top are so realistically detailed. The whole chef's outfit looks surprisingly good on him. The hat sorta complements the ring of bumps surrounding his dome.

Simple, yes, but looks pretty good in my opinion. Did you use a ruler to make the lines? They're impressively straight. (A little slanted, too, but I'm guessing that's just because of how the picture was scanned.) The only real problem I can find is that the angle of the drawer beneath the oven does not match the perspective of the oven itself, so the oven door looks a bit like it is hanging off its hinges.

By the way, I got your e-mail with the "Pillrus" picture attached, and sent you a response. You received that, right? Just checking.

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Sorry…I don't mean to tell you how to draw Realistic Teryx,  I just thought you might appreciate the tips.

Awwww, it's no problem. I really do appreciate those tips, as I would certainly need as much help as I could get. Plus..... I love the notion of fluffy-ness.

I think it's pretty awesome that we're seriously discussing raptors and similar dinosaurs playing video games!!  My life is almost complete now!! (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_laugh.gif)

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Yes, I have never relished the prospect of an angry Archaeopteryx latched onto my face. Though it is an experience I have fantasized about inflicting on my characters, sadly.

Just like your poor dinosona!! (http://i5.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/laugh.gif) Except it was from a whole bunch of angry Archaeopteryx!!

Most of the lines were hand drawn, but in the case of the countertop that's closest to the viewer, I had a little help from MS Paint (it finally proves useful for something (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_tongue.gif) ). And I totally agree that the oven part didn't look right. But when I was drawing this, I thought it was the door itself that's the problem and I kept erasing it and trying to make it look better to no avail before I finally just gave up. Looks like I've been focusing on the wrong thing the entire time (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_oops.gif) Thanks for pointing out the true source of the off-ness (again! (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_laugh.gif) )!!

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By the way, I got your e-mail with the "Pillrus" picture attached, and sent you a response. You received that, right? Just checking.

Yup, I did get your response. I've just been avoiding my yahoo account lately...

I got the punching bag picture done today!! It's not too good as its primary purpose (other than having some fun with the concept (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_laugh.gif) ) was to practice drawing a Domehead from a different angle (I really am hard-set on practicing for my AMV, now that my Guilty Until Proven Innocent story is complete).

Tero is SEVERELY pissed off, moreso than usual at least. Nobody knows why (though the fact that he just got home from an Anger Management session probably holds a clue; aren't those sessions supposed to be helping him with his problems (http://i5.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/unsure.gif) ?!).

And look at that in the corner. Yup, a punching bag graveyard. Tero goes through a LOT of 'em. I had him wearing boxing gloves cuz everytime he uses his hands, it's not to punch, but to slash the bag right open. But alas, even with the gloves, Tero still destroys the bags via his nose-horns.

And yes, that picture of Teryx's face was drawn and colored by Tero himself!

Anyway, I drew this without any references during my lunch break and my 15-minute break at work. I'm not particularly pleased with it, but it's certainly better than my other attempts!!

Plus, in my desire to keep both characters completely within the boundaries of the paper, I've made Tero's tail a bit too short. I don't like it dry.gif

Hope you don't mind me cutting into this two-way conversation, but I've got a fanart idea I think you might like, FBS. Inspired by a scene from one of my Bionicle books, it's basically a chance for Teryx to finally get his revenge on Tero.

Here's the scene I've thought of: Your OC gang is clearing away a rock slide. One of them complains about how heavy the rocks are. Tero scoffs and says "These rocks aren't heavy. Not to me, at least." Teryx happens to be on a ledge above Tero, and he notices a large rock right on the edge. As soon as he hears what Tero said, Teryx gets a mischievous idea. Due to the rock's size, he is barely strong enough to push that rock off the ledge, which then lands on Tero's head. The impact against his tough head causes the rock to fragment, but the unexpectedness of it is enough to make him grunt in pain. Teryx laughs and says with sarcasm, "Sorry, I didn't think it would be that heavy."

How do you like this idea?

Lol I LOVE that pic of Tero about to cook Teryx, the expressions were wonderful and I love your style of Domeheads^^
also, I like the Punching Bag one, you had a good perspective going there, and I like the whole theme...
I am now very afraid of Domeheads with boxing gloves... I must perfect my side snap kick to defend myself^^

I often try to keep the characters/creatures I draw completely on paper a lot of times as well. A trick I learned with dealing with the tails, to keep them from going off the paper, is by having the tail be pointed in a different direction, either towards the 'camera' or away from it, more into the distance.

Another method I heard, but never used myself, is taping another piece of paper onto the picture you're drawing so you can have more room to draw. I saw this method used in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2nBsLHENSU&feature=plcp (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2nBsLHENSU&feature=plcp)

Well, I’m glad to hear that. Thanks. Here’s a couple more tips, then, in case you want them: remember that Archaeopteryx had a rather thin and pointy snout. I’m still unclear on what’s the correct way to reconstruct an Archaeopteryx skull, though I’m guessing that this picture is a fairly accurate example. (This artist draws some exceptionally adorable archies, even if they aren’t completely up to date.) As for the wing and leg feathers, this picture provides a pretty good reference.

It’s great that you love fluffy dinosaurs, because evidence suggests that a lot of them were even fluffier than previously thought. For example, here’s a page that discusses how to accurately feather a Velociraptor; this has been my model for feathering raptors (allowing for differences between species) ever since I first saw it. (On the same blog there’s a post warning paleoartists of how not to draw Archaeopteryx, but unfortunately it doesn’t go into much detail on the right way to do it. The author does have his own reconstruction of Archaeopteryx here.)

Agreed. One thing I love about talking with you is that we have these kinds of wacky conversations. And yet no matter how goofy and random they get, we still discuss them with (at least some degree of) logic and scientificness, the same as any serious-minded discussion. We've got spazziness down to a SCIENCE!

Now how is it that I almost forgot about that? My dinosona got off easy: those Archaeopteryx were just mobbing him, trying to drive him away, not do him any real harm. However, I think I’ve envisioned a scene in which my walrus character (the same one from the “Pillrus” picture), while dealing with a scared and grounded archie, becomes the unfortunate wearer of a live Archaeopteryx mask.

Uh-oh, have you been having problems with your e-mail account? Do you think you’ll have to get a new one or something? (If you do, you could always try Gmail; my brother has had both Yahoo! and Gmail accounts, and he tells me Gmail is much better. The emoticons are vastly inferior, though.) Sorry, just being panicky. I really want us to be able to continue our e-mail conversations!

Hoo boy…I saw that picture on your DeviantArt account earlier, and positively cracked up. Upon closer inspection, I decided that the picture was a mix of terrifying and gut-bustingly hilarious. Now that you've described the situation in detail, though…I'm not sure I should be laughing at all. Geez, Tero is frightening. I don't think I'm gonna need a reminder in the RP not to tick him off; when Tero shows up, I'm hiding behind your dinosona (and taking Guido with me).

(I'll tell you one thing: if I had to choose between dealing with those three on a good day, or dealing with an angry Tero, I'd choose Tero.)

Now here's one for the imagination: what if the other attendees at Tero's anger management group were all bad-tempered characters from various movies, cartoons, books and the like: Sierra, Ozzy, Lord Shen, Rattlesnake Jake, The Lizard, Goth, Raptor Red’s sister (not villainous, but certainly temperamental; she attacked ice, for crying out loud ), the aforementioned domehead trio, Captain Gutt from the new Ice Age movie, maybe even some of your other OCs. One thing's for sure: putting all of them in one room would be like holding a Fourth of July party in a gunpowder factory.

And poor, poor Teryx. I didn’t even recognize him at first; when I saw him, I wondered, “Who’s the speckled yellow lizard in the corner there?” (I always feel really bad for animals in cartoons that lose their fur or feathers in some way, even if it’s played for laughs. I feel even worse when this happens to real-life animals.)

Hmm…do you have any knitting supplies in your house? Maybe Tiki could make Teryx a sweater to wear until his feathers grow back. (For some reason, I can very easily imagine a rainbow face using a pair of knitting needles. ) Perhaps Clubbie could help by standing nearby with balls of yarn stuck to his spikes? (For some reason I also envision him rolling one ball of yarn back around on the floor between his forefeet, like some sort of giant, armor-plated kitten. )

Is Tero going to need a glove for his nose now? Or, in perhaps the ultimate example of irony for a creature whose skull is adapted for headbutting, a helmet? (Doubly ironic in that the helmet wouldn’t be to protect Tero, but the punching bag, though it would have to be strapped to his snout rather than his head proper.)

I think the lesson we can take away from this (besides the obvious “NEVER get on Tero’s bad side”) is, “if you invite Tero to a birthday party, don’t let him have first go at the piÒata”.

*sigh* If only Tero could channel his rage into making artwork instead of beating up other dinosaurs… I’d be afraid to look at his drawings, but at least he wouldn’t be physically hurting anyone. (Though I imagine he’d create a lot of confetti if he ever got frustrated while drawing. )

No references at all? Because this picture is really good! The punching bag and boxing gloves look very realistic and are easily recognizable (for some reason I find myself mildly mesmerized by the knot in the cord holding up the bag). The picture of Teryx taped to the punching bag is exactly what I imagined Tero would have there, and the feathers around it are really, really well done. (Honestly, I can’t express how accurate they look, especially the red ones.) Even plucked Teryx is surprisingly well drawn. And though I agree that Tero’s torso could be improved, I think you did a great job drawing him from this angle. I especially like the look of his head and foot (his whole lower leg, really). His pose is very dynamic; it feels like he’s moving in to hit the bag. As for improvement, I’m not sure how to help you with this one, as I’m completely clueless on how to draw dinosaurs from this kind of angle. My suggestion would be to look at references (if you can’t find suitable views of domeheads from the back, try other bipedal dinosaurs in LBT), focusing on any creases or other details that indicate curvature of the spine and give the body three-dimensionality, since I think the main issue here is that most of Tero’s back looks like a single broad, flat surface. I’d also look at how the hind legs attach to the body from this angle; I would expect that more of Tero’s right hind leg would be visible where it connects to his hip. I could be wrong, though.

*clicks the link and....* OMG!! He's drawing Toothless!! And wow, this guy's an AWESOME artist!! blink.gif Thanks for showing me his videos, DH!! His tips could certainly come in handy in future drawings!! *hugs ya!!*

Oh!! And I keep forgetting!! I typing up a One-shot for Stygia and Toni and I was wondering if it'll be alright if I use your chosen LBT name for a Gastonia. smile.gif

:lol: You should definitely be afraid of a Domehead with boxing gloves... I mean, a Domehead in general is to be feared, but a Domehead with boxing gloves?! *insert horror music here!!*

Oooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for all the reference pictures!! The reconstruction of the Archie skull is soooooo CUTE!! And that one where the birdie's flying above the viewer with pterosaurs in the back ground.... :wow It's gorgeous!!

Poor walrus!! I can see it in my head:

Walrus: Hi there!
Archie: Get away from me!!!
Walrus: Awww, but you're so cute. And maybe I can hel-
Archie: *goes Facehugger on poor Walrus*
Walrus: AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a couple of things, really. Mostly my dad's been sending me TONS of nagging e-mails and we all know how much I like interacting with my dad <_< And my laptop's also freezes rather unpredictably if I go on my yahoo account. I have several e-mail accounts, but I don't really visit them very often.

And you'll have no worry in the RP. Tero's gonna be in a pretty decent mood when we meet him, although naturally, he ain't gonna be liking us (really, when does he ever like anybody but Tiki?). He'll have to be convinced my dinosona's not a sharptooth (if there's anything Tero hates more than Teryx, it's sharpteeth of any kind), and you and Guido he ain't gonna be fond of because you two are covered in feathers and thus reminds him of Teryx. But he ain't gonna hurt you or be any more hostile than he always is with new dinosaurs!!  :D

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Now here's one for the imagination: what if the other attendees at Tero's anger management group were all bad-tempered characters from various movies, cartoons, books and the like: Sierra, Ozzy, Lord Shen, Rattlesnake Jake, The Lizard, Goth, Raptor Red’s sister (not villainous, but certainly temperamental; she attacked ice, for crying out loud ), the aforementioned domehead trio, Captain Gutt from the new Ice Age movie, maybe even some of your other OCs. One thing's for sure: putting all of them in one room would be like holding a Fourth of July party in a gunpowder factory.

...............................................................................................................

You see that silence? Yeah, you just made me die of sheer AWESOMENESS!! Originally, yeah, it was just gonna be a bunch of humans, but..... I soooooooooo LOVE YOUR IDEA BETTER!!!!!!!

And oooooooooooooooooo!!! You know of the Lizard?!

I was thinking a modified muzzle of some kind, but that image of a glove/helmet on Tero's snout!! *dies laughing* Although, in any case.... Tero's not gonna be too receptive; I hardly got him to agree with the boxing gloves....

You know, I wasn’t consciously thinking about this when I suggested drawing Tero with boxing gloves, but you know those old images of kangaroos wearing boxing gloves? From the late 19th to early 20th century, there were traveling shows that actually put boxing gloves on kangaroos and challenged people to fight them. The reason they had the kangaroos wear the gloves was to prevent them from latching on to their human opponents and eviscerating them with their hind feet.  (As it was, the humans usually got their butts kicked…literally or otherwise.) It occurred to me that your reason for putting boxing gloves on Tero is almost the same: to protect the thing he's attacking.

For the record, it is apparently not known what the hands of real pachycephalosaurs looked like, though they probably had four or five fingers like their relatives the ceratopsians. Stegocerasóone of the few pachies known from fairly complete remainsóis known to have had very short arms, so I would assume that its hand claws probably weren’t too formidable (Most pachy reconstructions give them stubby fingers and blunt claws, so evidently most paleontologists think the same). So if you were dealing with an angry pachy in real life, the hand claws would probably be the least of your worries.

That's actually extremely similar to how I envisioned it,  except that the Archaeopteryx didn't talk (or rather, the walrus couldn't understand his language).

I'm really sorry to hear that.  Do you want me to re-send those last two messages of mine to one of your other e-mail accounts so you can respond to them from there? You can send me the alternate address by PM.

Sorry I'm so avid about continuing our conversations; I just really miss talking to you. Plus, I want to know what you thought of what I thought of your "Pillrus" picture, and what you thought of my version (the original).

Uh-oh, I might have a bit of a dilemma then.  If Tero starts showing aggression towards Sparky, my character will feel compelled to assure him that she's not a sharptooth, thus drawing attention to himself. He'll also have to worry about Ozzy saying or doing something stupid that makes Tero angry…that could get ugly real fast.

Yeah, I thought that'd be an image you'd like.

Is that really a surprise given how much I talk to you?  Yeah, I have some familiarity with Spider-Man villains. I've only seen the first three movies (though I do plan to watch the 2012 reboot when it comes out on DVD), never the TV shows or comics. Actually I think I originally found out about the Lizard from browsing the Deviantart page of a guy who drew lots of dinosaurs, but also some very cool Lizard fanart.

Maybe if Teryx discovers glue (…well, he'll probably first try using it to stick his feathers back on, inevitably creating a mess ), he could get back at Tero by gluing one of the gloves to his nose while he's sleeping.

Gaaah, I still haven't responded your your review in my art thread!  I'll get to that right now.

It was no use! No matter what Teryx did to shake off the predator, he was being matched. As a smaller Feathered Flyer, he was more maneuverable in flight than his non-feathered counterpart, but this sharptooth was faster and his flight more effortless. Plus, the Sharptooth Flyer was no quitter. Food was just getting too difficult to come across and the energy needed to catch this fluttering, arrogant little morsel was well worth it!

Darting through the barren landscape, Teryx put everything he had into his tiring wings. Ugh! Of all times to meet a carnivore he couldn't fly away from, it had to be when he was running low on biological fuel! Panting heavily, he still felt like he wasn't getting enough air and he knew he'll collapse from exhaustion soon. He had to find his friends!!

Luck was with him, it seemed, for he caught sight of movement on the horizon. Not bothering to figure out the identity of the dinosaur, he made for it, practically feeling jaws snapping at his tail. Instinctively darting higher to avoid the faster Flyer, he felt the turbulence as the sharptooth soared by just below him. He circled around in a dodge as the sharptooth turned to lunge for him and resumed his kamikaze flight towards the source of the movement.

Finally coming close enough to see who it was, he felt great conflict happening in his head. No WAY was he going to go to him for help! But did he really have a choice? The Sharptooth Flyer was closing the distance fast and he'll be dead in a few minutes! But what if Tero's hatred for him is so strong that the Domehead's willing to let him die? Well, he'll just have to hope for the best as he pulled in his wings and dove for the foraging Leaf Eater.

He couldn't believe what was about to come out of his mouth but- "Tero! HELP!!!" In his panicked exhaustion, he had forgotten his Leaf Eater words and the plea came out as a bird-like shriek. Luckily, it still had the desired effect and Tero looked up at him.

Meh, it's just Teryx and.... It only took Tero a second to figure out what was going on and he needed no further prompting to act. Yes, he hated Teryx with a passion, but the feathery bundle was part of his herd and as leader of said herd, he had to offer protection from scenarios like this. Crouching down, the Domehead judged the trajectory and timing perfectly before he leapt into the air, whipping up a small cloud of dust.

The Sharptooth Flyer had managed to catch up with his prey once more and had just enough time to sink his teeth into feathers. But when he caught sight of the Domehead leaping for him, he dropped Teryx with a screech of panic. But it was too late and he was going too fast to change course.

The collision between Tero and the Flyer as well as Teryx and the ground happened simultaneously. Crashing into the dirt, Teryx's coat hardly absorbed any of the impact and he barely had enough of his senses left to cringe at the horrid crunching sound when Tero smashed the sharptooth into the hard and unforgiving earth. The little bird then fell limp, just on the verge of unconsciousness.

Tero stood up and glared at the body of the stupid predatory Flyer, exhaling a cloud of disdain before turning away and wandering to the motionless Teryx. Was he still alive? He couldn't find a stick to poke him with, so instead, he nudged him with a foot.

Teryx opened his eyes at the small push and looked up at his rescuer. Well....this was a strange situation he found himself in. He supposed he should thank the Domehead....maybe.... But there was only silence between them as he couldn't find the energy to voice any word of any kind at the moment. So instead, he closed his eyes again as unconsciousness finally took hold.

The Domehead glanced around before contemplating his next course of action. Coming to an easy decision, he picked up the pile the feathers lying comatosed at his feet and made his way back towards his friends.

Me: “WHOA!” *between chuckles* “Whoa… Oh my gosh… Oh…my…gosh…” “I believe that’s what TV Tropes calls a ëCrowning Moment of Awesome’.”

As with the last image, I felt a bit remorseful about my initial impressions after reading the story excerpt and realizing the fairly dark context of the scene, particularly in regard to the sharptooth flyer being killed by Tero’s attack. I feel sorry for it, too.

The anatomy of all three characters is extremely good. Tero is virtually perfect (his hind legs might be a tiny, tiny bit small in proportion to the rest of his body, but it’s almost unnoticeable). You really have these character designs down pat, seeing as you can draw them this well without any reference whatsoever.) In some of your pictures, Tero’s tail comes off looking a bit short, but here it looks like the perfect length to me. And whenever I look at this picture, my eyes seem to instantly gravitate to Tero’s head; I can’t get over how well you drew his head and facial expression. Even when you draw closed eyes, they look fantastic!

I have to commend you on how good Teryx looks in this picture, even though we’re mostly seeing just his back. I think you did an exceptional job drawing his wings and tail here, specifically the feathers. I know you have trouble drawing feathers, and I’ll admit that in several of your pictures, Teryx’s wings are a little awkward-looking (in some cases there are only a couple of feathers on each wing, or all the feathers appear to be of equal length). Not so in this picture, and I thought that deserved some praise.

Even the sharptooth flyer (who to me looks most like a LBT Cearadactylus ) is pretty impressively drawn, especially given his unusual position and the angle we’re seeing him from. His fate in this scene notwithstanding, I love his expression (that eye is just fantastic ), and you did a good job giving his right wing that “windsock effect” to show that he’s being pushed through the air by Tero. I’m also impressed at how many teeth you managed to fit in his mouth. And although you can’t see much of it, I think you did really well drawing his hind leg at this angle.

The only real nitpicks I can find with this picture are that Tero’s thumbs should be outside his clenched fists (otherwise he’ll risk breaking his thumbs when he punches someone ), the flyer’s lower jaw ought to be pointer, and the flyer’s hand looks a tad angular. Part of this last issue is that the claws (the white part) cover too much of the fingers, appearing to grow directly from the finger joints rather than the tips).

Oh, and I also think you did a great job with the dust cloud. I love the swirliness of it.

In my daydreams earlier today, I imagined what would happen if a 'talking-sharptooth' scenario really did happen at the end of this scene. The Flyer is of course broken, but somehow manages to stay alive. Tero's about to end its suffering when the Flyer hastily tries to recall what few Leaf Eater words it knew (Remember my theory on Flyer language and them having to learn how to speak Leaf-Eater or sharptooth? Yeah (http://i5.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif) ). The little sharptooth manages to choke out a highly-fragmented plea for life, basically telling Tero as best it could how sorry it was and how it was only trying to get food cuz its practically starving to death. Tero (after getting over some initial surprise) doesn't seem to buy it, but he spares the 'talking' Flyer, leaving it to whatever fate may happen.

Then, some time later, Tero's scouting alone when he's ambushed by a pack of Fast Biters. Of course, he starts kicking butt and taking names, but he's outnumbered and seems about to fall prey to the pack. Suddenly, the Flyer reappears and rescues him, feeling like it owes him its life. It ends up losing that life, but now Tero has a new respect for sharpteeth because of that little Flyer's actions, so its sacrifice was not in vain!

Well, his fists isn't really being used to punch someone, is it (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_tongue.gif) (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_laugh.gif) ? But yeah, I agree as I remember having a hard time drawing that part (fists and crossed arms are not my friends). In the end, I just stared at my own fist, and my fist naturally take up the thumb-under position :smile

Surprisingly, Redclaw does look a bit more worthy of his 'biggest and meanest sharptooth' title when drawn like this! (http://i5.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/ohmy.gif) At least to me anyway. I can see why that random person wanted to see it done, so let's give some props to him/her/it! (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_laugh.gif)

Hehe, now everytime I write any fanfic including Redclaw, this is how I'll envision him! :yes

Awwwwwww!! I'm so very GLAD that you had such an awesome reaction!! You even added a TV Trope to it!! Squeeeeeee!! It's always fun reading your enthusiastic first reactions!! And thinking back on what you said about you having a hard-time expressing your emotions on keyboards, I think you do a wonderful job sharing your excitement!!

It was originally starting out as a basic plan of an electrocuted Teryx (which is surprisingly hard to draw and I'm struggling a bit at the moment, but it will eventually be submitted!)

WOW!!! Redclaw looks fantastic!! seriously, MUCH much more menacing than he looks in the cartoons. He looks so much sleeker and swift, and terrifying!!
AWESOME!!

Just looked through your thread- awesome! So much energy, and so many great concepts and expressions! Good stuff, keep it up 
Love that threat progression for Teryx, too- fierce!

Hmm…on one hand, I think the whole scenario of Tero saving Teryx's life is more poignant without the distraction (apologies for the negative-sounding word) of the flyer speaking to Tero and convincing him to spare its life, but on the other hand I do like the idea of Tero getting some character development out of it in the end…I can't decide!

I just figure that even if Tero’s not punching someone right now, he would tend to clench his fists in the same way he did when he did use them for punching. Granted, punching’s probably not one of his chief means of attack, but LBT domeheads seem to clench their fists a lot during threat displays, and with those claws of theirs I’m pretty sure they would learn quickly that it’s much safer to make a fist with your thumb outside.

if you look at him in the TV series, Red Claw’s body has almost Chomper-like proportions that made him look a bit more “cuddly”. (Just don’t tell Red Claw I said any of that ).

but more importantly, the way his upper lip is arched gives his entire upper jaw a slightly hooked appearance.

I particularly admire how you drew only the end of the middle toe visible behind his inner toe; usually when I draw three-toed feet from the side, I draw the middle toe visible along the entire top of its length. Unfortunately this results in many of my dinosaurs looking like they have ostrich feet (one huge toe with a smaller toe next to it). The way you drew Red Claw’s foot here looks much more realistic. (See, you just [inadvertently] gave me a drawing tip! Giving feedback is mutually beneficial! )

You know, minus the functioning eyes, I think this is how I’m going to be envisioning Red Claw in the RP from now on, too!

(Was there any particular kind of bird you were thinking of when you drew this?)

Honestly I think the wing feathers on Teryx #2 look even better than #1’s. His expression is also great (even with the snout that I agree looks a bit shortóbut still good! ), though somehow I’m only noticing now that his eyes are the exact same shade of yellow as his snout, and it looks a little odd. His posture is rather uprightónot that it looks bad, but somehow I imagine his “circling” posture being more hunched, maybe with his wings lifted up to maintain his illusion of looking bigger than he really is.

Another potential issue is that, although you did a great job drawing his wings from the front, I don’t think the viewer should be able to see the red coverts on top of his wings and the undersides of his blue feathers below his wings at the same time; the blue feathers would have to be very strongly curved downwards for that to be possible

I think I might finally have a use for the Chomper-replacement character... (yeah, I almost forgot my OCs were originally replacements for the Gang of Fiv- er....Seven) :p

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I just figure that even if Tero’s not punching someone right now, he would tend to clench his fists in the same way he did when he did use them for punching. Granted, punching’s probably not one of his chief means of attack, but LBT domeheads seem to clench their fists a lot during threat displays, and with those claws of theirs I’m pretty sure they would learn quickly that it’s much safer to make a fist with your thumb outside.

That is very true! (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_laugh.gif) I'm sure now, I'll be thinking of a scenario where Tero learns that lesson!! Thanks for giving me another potentially humorous idea, Pangy! (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_happier.gif)

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if you look at him in the TV series, Red Claw’s body has almost Chomper-like proportions that made him look a bit more “cuddly”. (Just don’t tell Red Claw I said any of that ).

:spit Just wanna let you know, that 'Chomper-like proportions' and 'cuddly' part almost made me choke on my coconut juice, especially when one thinks about it being applied to a full-grown Tyrannosaurus Rex!

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(Was there any particular kind of bird you were thinking of when you drew this?)

Yes, I was specifically thinking of an owl while drawing Teryx #1!

YES!!! The wing feathers was a success!! I think that's the new official way for Teryx to hold his wings whilst on the ground!

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Another potential issue is that, although you did a great job drawing his wings from the front, I don’t think the viewer should be able to see the red coverts on top of his wings and the undersides of his blue feathers below his wings at the same time; the blue feathers would have to be very strongly curved downwards for that to be possible

I knew it!! The extra wing-part underneath was the result of a nagging afterthought!! I shouldn't have listened to it! (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/in-frustrated.gif) (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_laugh.gif) Thanks, Pangy! I think it's nothing a little erasing can fix, though I am a bit reluctant to switch the pic...Hmmm, oh well! I'l do it when I next get the chance (aka, after I'm done with all my other stuff that's currently being colored on Photoshop)!

I love those two too much, I really ought to give attention to the other OCs! (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/Dino_grins.gif)

This....is just too cute, at least to me! Whilst Tiki's knitting Teryx up a new sweater :p , Clubbie decides to play with one of the balls of yarn. There isn't really much to say about this pic actually, which is disappointing, I know. I simply made it because Pangy's idea was just too darn adorable!!

Ooh, who's the Chomper replacement character? I don't recall you sharing anything about him/her yet.

Ooh, sorry about that. Just to be safe, maybe you should be careful not to be eating or drinking anything when you read one of my comments. I don't think I could live with myself if I unwittingly killed you for real.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised…owls are the masters of the "feather fluff bluff".

You mean the pose in picture #1 or #2? I know a real Archaeopteryx would most likely have its wings folded at its sides (a little more like #1), but #2 would be pretty good for when he was bringing an arm forward to gesture or grasp something.

Yeah, they’re just too much fun. I agree, though. I’d love to see more pictures of your other characters. I especially think you should draw a few more pictures of Cookie. When I was drawing your star day card, the only reference I could find for Cookie’s appearance and colors was the “Typical Day” picture. Which reminds me: even though I drew a picture of Cookie nomming on a cookie, I’d still like to see you do a version of that concept. Maybe Cookie caught in the act of emptying an entire cookie jar.

Oh, hold on…I just had another idea for a picture that led to a whole explosion of ideas. It would be a scene of the entire band in the kitchen baking cookies: Clubbie has stuck balls of cookie dough to his spikes in place of his usual fruit (perhaps he has placed some of the dough balls onto baking trays and is attempting to use his club to flatten them out, resulting in dented trays ); a moment earlier, Teryx managed to stick an entire bowl full of cookie dough on Tero’s head, and Tero (now with the bowl over his dome like a hat and cookie dough oozing out over his head) is now retaliating, having trapped Teryx inside an upturned metal pot (perhaps with his tail sticking out) which he is now banging on with a spoon; meanwhile Tiki, momentarily distracted by the pair’s antics, turns back to see one of the other bowls of cookie dough empty and Cookie with her cheeks full attempting to look innocent. (I also imagine at least one of the characters wearing an apron, which perhaps you could use to your advantage by using it to conceal those annoying-to-draw legs. )

I agree, Clubbie is extremely cute here. Better not stand behind him, though, or you could get knocked out.

Most of the “flaws” I can see in this picture involve inconsistencies in symmetry. (Before I go on, let me say: AUGH! I hate how hard it is to draw a symmetrical picture! ) For instance, his left nostril is slightly lower, his left eye is slightly higher, and his upper left horn is a completely different shape compared to their counterparts on the right side of his face. Likewise, the spines on the left side of his tail do not match up with the spines on the right side of his tail. (My recommended solution would be to, in the future, draw the segmenting of the armor on his tail first, and then add the spines alternately one at a time, so you can focus on making sure each spine’s shape, size, and position matches that of its twin.)

Other than the symmetry issues, the only thing I would suggest would be to try to make the “diagonal” rows of white scutes on his back more equidistant (to use a perhaps overly-scientific-sounding term) from the row of scutes going down the center of his back and the rows of spikes on his sides. To put it another way, if the spikes represent a 0 degree angle and the central scute row represents a 90 degree angle, then the scutes between them should be angled 45 degrees. As it is, they look like they’re somewhere between a 25 and 35 degree angle. (Aw, great, now I sound like a geometry teacher. )

Awesome to see another picture from you, and hope more will be coming soon.

I have NO idea what species he's supposed to be. He's the same type of sharptooth as those that made a brief cameo in the beginning of LBT 4. They looked kinda like the raptors that also appeared in the same movie's intro hunting a ceratopsian, but they had stripes, was a darker tone of blue, and a close look showed they lacked a 'killer claw' on their feet. So they were some other small, pack-hunting predator... *shrugs*

Ooooo! I saw an owl a few days ago!! It was like 5 in the morning, I was sitting on a bus-stop bench when this beautiful barn owl flew by, probably about 10 feet in front of me! It was soooooo friggin' AWESOME!!

I do have an old sketch of Cookie, you know back when I was making my character's debut pictures. But I never finished it (outlining and coloring has yet to be done), and even if I do finish, it isn't very well-drawn and my confidence in the pic is pretty low. :unsure:

And you can definitely count on me doing that cookie jar picture! Even if I suck at drawing Swimmers, it's just too cute to pass up on! Epecially since that star-day card is such an inspiration!

O....m....g.... I HAVE to draw that!! It's up there with my still-in-the-making group zoo picture! In fact, I'mma start on it now! I especially wanna do Tero with a bowl on his head and I can already see how I'm gonna do Cookie's expression! And an apron sounds genius!!

........................ Yeah, okay. I'll admit it, I had to look up what "equidistant" means. (http://i5.ifrm.com/html/emoticons/laugh.gif) But I can still understand what you're saying! I don't really have access to a protractor (I believe that's what the measuring-angles tool is called; please correct me if I'm wrong!) but I think I can measure the angles via the naked eye now that I know what I'm looking for! :yes

I meant picture #2, but you do bring up a good point. If only they showed a perching archie in the LBT, then it'd be a bit easier for me! :lol I bet Teryx would look adorable with his wings folded to his side.

And OOOOOOOO!! I think I really am getting better at drawing birds! Sure, I still see mistakes (like I know I screwed up on the leg-feathers, but since Teryx really doesn't use them for powered flight, I guess it can be excuse-able :p ), but it still came out a whole lot better than I expected!

You know...this is my first time thinking about it and I dunno why I haven't brought it up before when I'm emphasizing Tero's hate for sharpteeth and Teryx being a mini sharptooth but... yeah, it's probably behaviors like this that contributes Tero's hatred for Teryx. Aside from the fact that their personalities are far less than compatible, Tero knows Teryx is a sharptooth whose size is the only thing keeping him from being a real threat worthy of being chased off and/or killed. But what if Teryx were to come across a newly-hatched baby Leaf Eater? Fortunately, Teryx isn't interested in hatchlings as food.

Squeeeeeee!! I still can't believe how well this turned out!! Thank you so much, Pangy!! Those pics you showed me and the tips you supplied were a HUGE help!! I have no doubt this pic would've turned up having a LOT more anatomical inaccuracies if it wasn't for you! *glomps*

You're definitely right! Symmetry is pure EVULZ!! Especially on the face! I've seen some methods on how to fix it, but I'm not too sure how to make it work for a non-human character with a muzzle and horns and plates.

I’d like to see that Teryx display sequence animated . . .

You know, a lot of times I deliberately avoid drawing perfectly symmetrical pictures on purpose because the books I have on animation advise against “twinning” drawings, as they call it. Also I’ve noticed that drawings tend to look more dynamic if they are not twinned, but of course you can draw your characters however you want to, just sharing some information.

Wow, I love this pic of Teryx^^ the pose is perfect and it ha that suspenseful, frozen-in-time feel^^
Awesome!

Oh my gosh, did it really take me a week to write this response? Sorry about that.

Hmm…no offense to Biter or your own art skills (which, as I hope I have succeeded in conveying time and again, I have unending respect for), but I think he would look better if his design were a little less like Chomper's. As soon as I saw the picture (and before I looked at the description) I started making guesses as to what kind of theropod he was supposed to be, and I automatically assumed that he must be one of the large varieties, like a carnosaur or megalosaur. (Dang it, I wish LBT had come up with more sharptooth hatchling designs than just Chomper, “The Lonely Journey”’s Acrocanthosaurus, and “The Great Egg Adventure”’s fast biters. ) His hands, particularly, look a bit too small, and his body and tail may be a little too bulky. I have no idea whether this would work, but perhaps you could try giving him proportions more like Ducky’s in the original LBT (I specify the first movie because her in the sequels her proportions are more “stubbified”), given that she’s a bipedal dinosaur whose design clearly indicates that she’s very young, but also gives a sense that she’s capable of quick and nimble movements (at least compared to Chomper: he tripped on his first step; Ducky chased a butterfly through a log before she was even fully out of her egg ). I’m sorry; I realize this was a fairly “doodlish” drawing that you made mainly to show the concept of a character, not a planned-out, finely detailed, labor-intensive portrait; I shouldn’t be so harsh with my critique.

I do like Biter’s colors, though. And his toothy little grin is cute. Somehow I get the impression of him being insatiably curious, with his preferred tool for examining the things he’s curious about being his mouth, and that he’s about to leap up and bite the nose of whoever’s looking at him. (Maybe that could also be his favorite way to greet other characters…though that could cause problems with Tero… )

Have you thought about how your gang first encounters Biter? Perhaps he could be a more precocial type of sharptooth hatchling, gravitating towards a parent or group of siblings, but able to fend for himself pretty well. Rather than being constantly with the group, perhaps he could sort of shadow them, traveling alongside or behind them, but staying out of sight most of the time, so that he benefits from both the small prey that the larger dinosaurs stir up, and relative safety from the smaller, solitary sharpteeth that might otherwise threaten him, without constantly provoking the ire of a certain sharptooth-intolerant domehead. And of course he could “join” the group every now and again, if he’s looking for a warm place to sleep, seeking safety from a predator, or just feeling particularly social.

I guess if you don’t have any means of fitting this character into your stories (Gack! I just realized that there’s still a ton of fanfic and fanfic chapters of yours that I really ought to review!), then there’s no real need to use him. If you can think of a way for him to bring some character development to Tero, though, that idea sounds great! I do think this character has potential, though it might also be good to not introduce him to your gang right away; better to have plenty of time to explore and develop the relationships between the main five characters before throwing a baby sharptooth into the mix.

Hmm…Yeah, I know the dinosaurs you’re talking about. For some reason, whenever I looked at those little guys, I always thought “Saltopus”, probably because of the way they were bounding across the river in that scene (Saltopus means “leaping foot”). Saltopus isn’t considered to be a true dinosaur anymore, though, and even if it was, neither it nor any small theropod I can think of had ashort, blunt, blocky snouts. No small theropod that I can think of off the top of my head had those proportions. Honestly, even I don’t know what those little guys were supposed to be.

(Incidentally, those raptors are the basis for one of the characters in my own group of “gang substitute” OCs. )

Cooool. I've got a couple of neat owl stories myself. Remind me to tell them to you sometime.

It's okay, you don't have to share it. I’m just curious to see more pictures of Cookie, since she’s the least drawn of all your characters.

Hmm…here’s a thought: Recently I came up with an incredibly silly and random idea for a picture of Teryx and Tero. Rather than suggesting it as an addition to your already long list of picture ideas you have for those two, what if I took a crack at drawing it myself, and in the process, demonstrated my idea for Teryx’s folded wing design?

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever drawn an Archaeopteryx that accurately (though admittedly I haven’t made many attempts at drawing super-accurate dinosaurs, and I don’t recall Archaeopteryx ever being one of them).

The feather detail on this is seriously amazing. I particularly love how you did the feathers around and underneath his hand; it’s hard to put it in words, but there’s something especially realistic-looking about them. The tail feathers don’t end too early, or taper excessively towards the base. His leg is almost entirely hidden above the knee, but you have those little delineations of fluff showing that the leg is still there. All of these details set this picture above a lot of Archaeopteryx drawings you can find on the Web.

You also did a nice job making Teryx expressive despite his realistic design. His eye in particular makes him look intent and stealthy, and I even get a sense that he’s ready to shut it the instant he hits his prey, so that his eyes aren’t damaged in the subsequent struggle. I also love the little patches of pluffed-out feathers on his chest, shoulders, and knee. For such a relatively simple picture (as in, not an ultra-realistic, John-James-Audubon-esque painting with a million layers and every detail accounted for) you did astoundingly well making his feathers look dynamic, like they’re shifting and ruffling with his movements.

As far as potential improvements, I would make his neck a bit thicker and fluffier, with straighter lines (especially on the underside of his throat). His toes look a little short, although it may simply be that the divisions between them do not extend far back enough. The length and shape of his snout might be slightly off, but I myself am so unclear on the correct shape of Archaeopteryx’s skull that I couldn’t tell you how so. I can say that the lines forming the inside of his mouth (both on the upper and lower jaw) are perhaps a bit too straight.

Finally, a note on the teeth that applies to pretty much all theropods: Surprisingly enough, those teeth shouldn’t extend that far back in the mouth. Turns out, when you look at a theropod skull, whether it be an Archaeopteryx, a Deinonychus, a Tyrannosaurus, an Allosaurus, a Baryonyx, or a Carnotaurus, the last third or so of the mouth is empty of teeth. In a life restoration, most of that last third is usually covered by the soft tissue that forms the cheek (or at least that pink cheeklike membrane in the corner of the mouth), but as a rule it seems that no theropod has teeth directly under its eye socket; the tooth line always ends in front of the eyes. (It also seems that the upper teeth usually extend slightly further back than the lower teeth.) This is yet another mistake I’m sure I’ve been making for a long time, and a good one to keep in mind when drawing theropods.

Oh, riiiiiight…One more thing about Archaeopteryx that I completely forgot to mention before: Apparently it’s believed that Archaeopteryx couldn’t raise its wings above the level of its back (and as a result it could only flap its wings downward, not upward, so it may have been more of a flap-assisted glider than a true flier). Sorry, my bad. But what the heck: this picture is so awesome that I don’t care if Teryx shouldn’t be able to adopt this pose in reality.

EDIT: Holy crimony this is a bleepin' long post.

He is a very curious little guy, as I attempt to portray in that previous pic of him interacting with an angry generic beetle. And the running gag with biting as a hello is genius and can even serve as a way to introduce his name too!! And no worries, as long as Biter doesn’t do it to him or Tiki, Tero probably, maybe won’t mind. I imagine he’ll definitely enjoy it if it’s done to Teryx… given that no real harm’s done, of course!

Nah, I haven’t really gotten too much into his story. All I know officially for his character is that, unlike Chomper, Biter’s an orphan forced to take care of himself. Your concept of him shadowing the gang sounds like an excellent idea to introduce him! And it’s friggin’ adorable! Especially this image I’m getting of a lonely Biter coming over to Tiki or Cookie while they sleep and snuggling to them!! D’awwwwwww!!! And he’s even picking up a couple of Leaf Eater words in his constant trailing of them! Thanks so much for the cuteness, Pangy!!

I did get this idea to alter my previous idea for Tero development. But instead of the sharptooth Flyer, it’s Biter attempting to rescue Tero. But of course, being a hatchling, it’s in total vain. Luckily, before either of them could be killed, the rest of the gang arrive and scare off the Fast Biters. Tero gets his development and Biter can probably gain full membership into the group afterwards. But that’s all just speculation right now and I dunno whether to make it official or not.

Oh! And before I forget: I’m not pressuring you to review my stories. Yes, I very much look forward to your reviews, but they’re well worth the wait, so take whatever time you need, buddy!

Why is it that all I can think about is how hilarious the name Saltopus is!!!

Please, share the stories of owl-ness (if you still want to, of course)!! Since falling in love with the Silverwing series, I’ve been loving owls!

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It's okay, you don't have to share it. I’m just curious to see more pictures of Cookie, since she’s the least drawn of all your characters.

I’ll probably scan it as is and post it here sometime. Just don’t expect a good pic, kay?  (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_tongue.gif)

You wanna draw Tero and Teryx? OMG, AWESOME!! I would LOVE to see this silly and random pic of yours when you get around to drawing it!  (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/in-yes.gif)

ZOMG!!!! I is sooooo very glittery-eyed!! I never thought this pic would get that kind of compliment! My efforts have not been in vain!! Actually, instead of being torturous, the wing feathers were pretty fun to draw!! I guess the fun-ness came from my enthusiasm in drawing it for this thread!! Squeee!! Thank you so much for such kind, an awesome, and kind words!!!!

The snout part, I think I remember focusing a bit on that when drawing. I’ve been paranoid with: “Oh man, too big” “Great! Too narrow”, so the crits with that is completely understandable!! I do wonder why the reconstruction on the head is so tricky for people to do. Don’t we have lotsa complete skeletons on our little half-birdie?  (http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_happier.gif)

I’m very curious: Don’t most, if not all, of a flapping flight’s power come from the down-stroke? Would the inability to raise the wings over the back really be detrimental to Archaeopteryx’s movements? I be sooo very interested to know!!

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EDIT: Holy crimony this is a bleepin' long post.

(http://i5.ifrm.com/1676/156/emo/dino_laugh.gif) That’s reviewing two pics for ya!! I personally LOVE your long posts! They’re so interesting to read and this extra-long one was extra-fun to read!!

She's a quick learner and now she doesn't even wear protective gear anymore! Show-off.