But...who builds all of this?

I got back from a revision retreat through the SCBWI last week. That's Society of Children's book Writers (and Illutrators). (Parenthesis are a personal observation ;) )

The first question out of anyone's mouth after either reading the story or looking at the illustrations from my BFA project is always So...how do animals make all this?

The short answer is: Griffins do.

It's one of those questions that hits at the sweet spot between fantasy, science, art, and writing that is World Building. So you've got an awesome concept: how does it work?

If you're a super geek, and want everything in your world to really work, you need more than the short answer. Sorrek here has the beginnings of my solution: I'd already branched out from the classical eagle-lion hybrid by making him more the size of a large lynx, and giving him the 'flying squirrel' flaps along his sides to help hold up that heavy cat part of him while flying. I'd decided years earlier that Dumarian griffins were smaller (about the size of a large lynx) and more omnivore than eagles or hawks. In keeping with the omnivore diet, I could swing the design toward less 'talon' and more 'finger' than your average eagle, and a semi-opposable hunting talon/thumb. But would this really work?

(Sorrek, 2010)

(Detail)

As time went on, I thought: would eagle hands really have that kind of dexterity? I wanted a solution that would be a little more unique to Dumaria, and to make them more of a cohesive creature instead of just a mashup. During a visit to the natural history museum in late 2011 with a good friend, I found something that perked my interest.

(Image from This Post)

Iguanodons had quasi-opposable pinkies! Of course, the artist in me really wanted to let my griffins keep their hunting talon, so they got both.

The new solution, doodled out.

Of course, now, the question was: how would having 2 thumbs work? Since I wasn't aware of any natural parallel to this new solution, I did what any sensible geek would do: I tried it out. For a whole week, I tried grabbing things as if my pinky went the other way. Uncomfortable at times, but under the excuse that their pinky would be built to do opposable digit things, unlike my human pinky (which is not built to do opposable-digit things) I could now confidently say that this hand model would work fairly similar to ours.

And let them build all manner of cool things for me to draw and write about.

Have you ever faced a similar challenge? I'd be interested to hear how you solved it! Feel free to post to relevant articles on similar issues in the comments.

Senior Show now on display

My senior show is now on display in Rexburg, ID, showing on the third floor of the Spori building of the BYU-Idaho campus. If you're in the area, come take a look, and say hi. If you're not, it's online now, too, at erikastudio.com Be sure and check it out, as there's a great deal that's never been displayed before.

Additionally, you can now read chapter one online! (I'll warn you though, the text on some of the character sheets is somewhat spoiler heavy) The novel itself is in its last round of editing before being subjected to the publishing gauntlet; which is an whole different beast entirely.

Reader draft of War-sky Rising is DONE!

For the two of you out there that follow this blog: After a nice, round, ten years in the making, I just finished the umpteenth draft of War-sky Rising (who's title may still change)

It topped out at 163 pages, single spaced; 79,945 words.

Because it's way beyond 'second draft' or any other sort of counting, I've just titled it the 'reader draft' meaning: other (select) people may read it and offer insight for final edits before I start trying to market this suckah.

Woo!

Dumarian Instruments

The finished Dumaria instruments! from top right, clockwise, are a 'howl dish,' a harp, a guiro/huiro, and some hanging chimes. This is what happens when you read too much Diontopia. Oh wait, there's no such thing as too much Dinotopia.

Sorrek's Hut

This was actually done before the last environment I posted, but needed a lot of revisions before I could call it done. Both are inhabited by griffins: two posts ago was the villainous one, this one is the 'good' griffin.

This was the first of 7 'environments' that later turned into 7 'huge illustrations' ... meaning, eventually this will have Sorrek himself in it as well, rather than just being empty.

This one was a good testing ground for how far I can take revisions without redoing something. The class critique on the original version of this was quite lengthy, but it (of course) improved it a great deal. I may fiddle with it a bit after critique round two, but for now, the revisions list is all crossed off!

The project as a whole is still underway. I'll post periodic updates on it until April (when the whole thing will go up on my website.

Inshee's Lair

A sneak peek at what I've been working on recently; one of the digital paintings from my BFA senior project. The project is a fairly large one, and will include full illustrations (such as this one, though as yet incomplete), character sheets, and spot illustrations. When all's said and done, there will be over thirty pieces. (One per week, basically)

This one is the lair of a secondary villian: a cult-leader griffin named Inshee. The project is based on a book I wrote and am currently in the process of self-editing. The world, Dumaria, is populated largely by sentient, mythology-based animals and what happens when humans from another world enter the mix.