TINY MEN, TINY ELEPHANTS, AND GIANT LIZARDS! WELCOME TO FLORES!

These pages are a continuation of my current obsession with Flores man. Doing more research into it, though, and I came up on some frustrating inconsistencies. The "Dwarf stegodon" that homo floresiensis co-existed with is a funny animal. It's either a brand-new, undescibed species, or it simply doesn't fit the time period. There was a tiny dwarf stegodon around 840k years ago, but it was replaced by a stegodon the size of an asian elephant not long after that (due to lower water levels during the ice age). So either the stegodons found in the Liang Bua caves (known apparently only from juvenile skeletons) the juveniles of the still large flores stegodon, or, and this isn't totally unlikely, the juveniles of the flores stegodon dwarfed by 800,000 years of reduced resources, and probably, a new species. 

And here, after excitedly drawing all this shit, I realized (after looking at the flores man skull) that the eyes of the flores men were too far apart. But these pages definitely get the right feeling to them, in terms of jungle elephant hunts. And this is something I'll come back to, once I have a "flores man" head layout that I really like. I've already got a wicked story set up, all about hallucinating tiny men, giants from papua new guinea, and HUGE komodo dragons. It'll be tight. Oh, and about some type of stegodon - I'm not sure yet.

a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/povorot/3210259562/" title="Stegodon ambush 3 by povorot, on Flickr">

Homo floresiensis sketch

Homo floresiensis sketch
Originally uploaded by povorot

I always find it more interesting to think of the other human species that previously existed on earth in the most - well - human way possible. By depicting neanderthals and other early hominids as bipedal chimpanzees, it's much easier to think of them as animals, rather then people - which tends to make their fascinating lifestyles a little less interesting. Take Homo floresiensis, for example. A tiny race of long-armed men, hunting dwarf stegodons, big rats, and dodging titanic komodo dragons. Just that, there, is a better premise then a lot of sci-fi and fantasy being written today. Depicting them as people helps us realize that they were, in fact, people. A different species, yes, but a still human.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(an image for my brother's band)

This, surely, is a year of heavy rocking and sweet flavours. My comic, Jan and Anders, looks like it'll be published in the summer, I'm cooking up a new project... things are looking pretty good. Swing on by my flickr account to check out what's up. 

I'm feeling pretty good about this whole thing, really.

homo neanderthalensis

homo neanderthalensis
Originally uploaded by povorot

Peep the technique.

Al-Khattab and the Jinn

I just did this doodle today, which I ended up really liking. Islamic mythology has a bunch of little gems like the djinn, a race of ethereal beings god made from smokeless fire the same way he did with earth for mankind. There are all types of djinn, too, including the Ghul, which lures men into the desert to devour them (among other things - they like eating the dead as well). I just wanted to play with the visuals you could get from a race crafted from "smokeless fire".

Apparently, living in lamps and granting wishes isn't standard practice for the djinn, either. Just a few specific exceptions.

DO WORK!

A page in progress (below).

Almost done...

(Edit - All fourteen are up! Inking on the last six has begun!)

I've only got about six pages left to draw for "Jan and Anders", which I'm very excited about. Over the week, I'll be scanning in the next fourteen pages of the story (out of about fifty). 

UPDATE!

I put up a few more pages of "Shipwrecked with Dan the Gorilla" right here. Peep it.

PAINTING!

Man, until I came to ACAD and really had a chance to put my back into it, I never really knew how rewarding oil painting could be. Here's a few of the paintings I've been working on lately.

Forgive the picture quality, but all I have is my mac's camera.

Wishing You a Blessed Christmas...

I found this card looking for supplies for a sculpture project, and ended up finding PURE MAGIC!

Made by a company called "One Heart" and printed in china, this is a 3D card you will be amazed by.

First: "Wishing you a blessed Christmas." Look at the picture. What the fuck is going on in there?

Okay, The virgin mother and christ, some angels, and some people. Wait, though - who are those people down there? Just ordinary people? The tip off is this poor fucker right here:

That's RIGHT! Brian is feeling really down... because him and his friends are SINNERS BURNING IN HELL! Or they could be repentant sinners being taken up during the rapture as the world burns.  But those rocks look pretty hot and hellish. (I think it's hell).

And here's the final, beautiful touch: "Hope your holidays are packed with all the good times you can handle." Here's where I got suspicious. Either this card was made by the most clueless maniacs - or comic geniuses. I applaud you, One world. 

I applaud you.

MMMMMM! SLAVIC BREAKFAST!

In the interests of compartmentalizing things, I've set aside a piece of internet only for my russian-insanity related projects. I've started with a project from earlier in the year, so have a look. 

And another Dinosaur.

and yet more Dino-Saurs...

Peep game!

More madness where that came from here...