These are the TiYessin, an exoskeletal race. They are bipedal, but can assume a quadrupedal gait at need. I did quite a bit of work on designing the individual segments, allowing for expansion joints and growth plates. This is one of the few that Dan [...]]]> Next alien from Dan Repperger’s Epoch of Rysos © universe.

These are the TiYessin, an exoskeletal race. They are bipedal, but can assume a quadrupedal gait at need. I did quite a bit of work on designing the individual segments, allowing for expansion joints and growth plates. This is one of the few that Dan asked for motion studies on. I haven’t included the sketches for those, since they are really stick figures, but I am including a few of the design sketches for mouth construction and some of the more specialized segments.

This one is unique so far, as it is the only alien for whom Dan has requested two illustrations, to show the 2-legged/4-legged postures.

More info can be found at the Epoch of Rysos website.

The TiYessin and Epoch of Rysos are © 2009 Dan Repperger, all rights reserved

TiYessin in both postures

The Tell-Tale Heart

If you missed previous year’s offerings, here are links:

2009 Little Orphant Annie

2008 The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe

It was amazingly gratifying to see [...]]]> We just returned from what we hope is the resumption of our yearly treks to Ahsland Oregon for the great Shakespeare Festival therein. These trips were interrupted by parenthood, but now that erin is of an age and inclination, we want to make this a regular pilgrimage once again.

It was amazingly gratifying to see Erin’s enjoyment in, understanding of, and thorough engagement with the plays. She sat on the edge of her seat, silently chanting for Sebastian to hurry up and turn restore sense and order to Illyria, laughed at Malvolio’s colorful attempts to woo Olivia, trembled as Antonio was nearly carved by Shylock, and laughed as Portia and Narissa tried their husbands’ faithfulness with disguises and rings. She’s eight years old, and this goes a long way toward dispelling the myth that Shakespeare is somehow fundamentally inscrutable or inaccessible to young people.

She also loved Pride and Prejudice, the non-bardic offering we saw.

As for the plays themselves, here are make “bound within a nutshell” reviews. We only had time (and money) for three offerings this year.

Twelfth Night

This was the second time we had seen this show performed at Ashland, and I have to say I much preferred the earlier offering. The production we saw a decade earlier was done in an arabesque style, with Middle Eastern screens and minarets. The costumes were inspired and the comical characters generally funnier. This production featured an excellent Malvolio, who went far beyond simple yellow cross-gartered stockings to an outrageous canary-yellow ensemble that was funny even with the actor just standing there. There were some very nice lighting effects and other bits of stagecraft. The set was minimalist, giving the impression of an extended garden party, but the actors used it to excellent advantage.

The twins were solidly played, as was Olivia, though her conversion from cold mourning to having the hots for Cesario/Viola was a trifle abrupt in its contrast.

Merchant of Venice

The performances in this production were all top notch; the actors showed good understanding of the nuances of their text all round. There were no standout parts here, with the possible exception of Lancelot Gobbo, who was probably more coherent than I have seen him elsewhere. The actor made excellent use of pantomime to bring out the meanings of his lines— acting on the lines, rather than between the lines. The failed suitors were very funny, particularly Aragon, whose servant followed him around with impromptu mandolin accompaniment. The most surprising alteration was the changing of Tubal to a deaf/mute. The actor signed his lines, while Shylock supplied the spoken word, paraphrased as if he were translating aloud.

The play was oddly staged though, beginning with about 30 seconds of the trial scene from Act IV. As soon as Portia/Balthazar asks how these events came to be, the big prop clock spun backwards and the previous events are related. Since no use is made of the clock afterward, and nothing in the scene really required a recap, nor showed any moment of dramatic interest (such as say, Shylocks knife against Antonio’s breast), one is left to wonder why the director chose such a storytelling conciet. It felt like a gimmick, and worse a gimmick without purpose. How much better it would have been to start with the knife, work backwards with a musical sting and then use the clock throughout the play as a horrible “doomsday clock”, ticking one minute closer to the moment of ultimate peril, as each even tin the play drives inexorably toward the removal of the pound of merchant flesh.

This is a minor quibble, though and easily overlooked in what I feel to be the main flaw. The play left a bad taste in my mouth. Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare’s most difficult plays to stage in a post-Holocaust world. I think there are two definite wrong ways to play it, and these lie at opposite extremes. The first wrong way to play it is the way that it was almost certainly originally performed, with Shylock as a monstrous villain. While it is true that Shakespeare gives Shylock more humanity and motive for vengeance beyond that in say, Marlowe’s Barabas in the Jew of Malta, he was almost certainly played as a Jewish stereotype, and the audiences at the time would likely have seen his enforced conversion as a fitting end.

This production went to the other extreme, and in my opinion, the second “wrong way” to stage it. In this Shylock is almost thoroughly the victim. The Christians are rarely portrayed with any positive qualities, and Shylock’s suggestion for a pound of flesh to secure the loan is treated as if the request were a lighthearted joke. They laugh as they shake hands. Shylock’s hatred of Christians is downplayed and understated, and it is only as indignities are heaped upon him that we get the feeling that Shylock is being forced into becoming a villain against his will. Up until the minute when Portia cries for him to hold (and her halting performance in the courtroom really fails to show off the intellect of one of Shakespeare’s smartest female characters), you are given the impression that Shylock really does no want the pound of flesh and might not actually be able to force his shaking hands to do the deed. The judgement against him comes off as much harsher than need be. Shylock is a total victim.

This would work if the play were the Tragedy of Shylock the Jew. Unfortunately, given the resolution of Act V, wherein happiness reigns at Belmont with brandy and cigars all round, one is left with a resounding impression that the real villains have won. The text is comedic and triumphant, and the audience is unable to identify with the characters, like being forced to endure an interminable uncomfortable party.

Once again, the play is a difficult and delicate one to produce, and going too far in either direction (Shylock as monster, which betrays modern sensibilities, or Shylock as victim, which betrays textual and dramatic intent) is unsatisfying. This one went too far toward the latter for comfort. I still enjoyed the performances, which were funny, sad and suspenseful, but disagreed with the overall vision.

Pride and Prejudice

This was undoubtedly my favorite of the festival, despite being the non-Shakespeare offering. The play almost did away with the concept of time, sweeping us from scene to scene by merely shifting a few chairs and rotating actors in and out, keeping the action flowing and never letting us feel like there was a drag. The pace was good and the writing cunning enough to express the underlying motivations and overall changes of time and space without ever requiring narration. There were several standout performances, particularly the outrageous Mrs. Bennet and the unctuous Mr. Collins. Even the reserved and proper Mr. Darcy never pulled a scene down, and was even played for wonderfully juxtaposed comic effect. This was thoroughly enjoyable.

This is a Tembian, an air-breathing aquatic alien race.

The Tembian spends most of its time floating on the surface, being able to fill the septa of it’s shell structures with air or water, like ballast tanks. It can move on land but only [...]]]> Next alien from Dan Repperger’s Epoch of Rysos © universe.

This is a Tembian, an air-breathing aquatic alien race.

The Tembian spends most of its time floating on the surface, being able to fill the septa of it’s shell structures with air or water, like ballast tanks. It can move on land but only slowly and with great effort.

It filters its food from the water with the flagella structures on the underside. These also provide minor locomotive power. The forward tentacles are arranged so that four “thumbs” surround a single “finger”. Each tentacle can be used with precision against the central finger, but is fairly clumsy when used in conjunction with any other thumb.

There is no internal skeletal structure, though there is a cartilaginous system. The Tembian language is mostly whistles, grunts and clicks, vocalized through the dorsal blowhole (not shown). The Tembian does not have a conventional mouth.

The next in this series should be the Ipp, a symbiotic sapient race that feeds by cleaning the Tembian’s feeding flagella of a barnacle-like parasite. Dan gave me very little art direction on this one, only stressing that he wanted it to be “unusual”.

At the start of the project, I was given a description:

Mordeth are a stout, heavy race. They are shorter than humans, but significantly tougher and stronger. Their bones are thick and [...]]]> This is another alien concept for Dan Repperger’s Epoch of Rysos role-playing game and fiction setting. This alien is called a Mordeth.

At the start of the project, I was given a description:

Mordeth are a stout, heavy race. They are shorter than humans, but significantly tougher and stronger. Their bones are thick and their muscles tightly packed. They are covered in leathery, brick red flesh. The Mordeth brain is located inside the chest, and like all the major organs, it is protected by their thick ribs and strong muscles.

A Mordeth’s legs are connected near the top of the blocky torso, with the body suspended from there.  This is somewhat analogous to a human’s legs being attached at the shoulders.  The arms are then floated in sockets connected to the top, outside of the legs.

As a result of their rugged build, it is difficult for most races to compete with the Mordeth in physical combat. However, the same features that make them strong and enduring also leave them clumsy and slow.

Mordeth possess senses similar to humans, but their eyes are located on a nimble stalk which allows them to see in 360 degrees. Their thick skin prevents them from having a well-defined sense of touch, but developed nerves on their feet allow them to feel the vibrations of creatures moving around them.

Like most races, Mordeth have both males and females, however to most races they are utterly indistinguishable. Females will deliver live birth to small litters of Mordeth — usually one to three. The young will immediately be removed from the mother, assessed, and incorporated into the order of society with an assigned rank and task for their life.

Mordeth are omnivorous, but prefer plants to meat. Though they are physically powerful, they are neither swift nor witty enough to hunt most animals native to their homeworld.

Armed with this description, I worked up a page of preliminary sketches. When doing a project like this, I want the anatomy to be as convincing as possible. That means figuring out how masses relate to each other, how bones and muscles (if there are any) are arranged, how such a species would wear clothing, etc. This alien was far more challenging than the Asta (the previous Featured Art piece), since the design was non-humanoid. I needed to create an armature for the unusual leg and arm joints. The torso is suspended from the legs, and the arms are mounted just above and behind.

Here is the sketch page:

After this, we then do a number of back and forth emails, refining the concept. You can see from here that compared to the final work, one of the things that Dan requested was much beefier muscularity. He wanted these things to look like they could casually tear you apart, even though they are shorter than the average human.

Once we worked out the details, I started on the final image. Here was the first proof, basically a work in progress. A lot of details are not yet present.:

The gist of the response to this was that he wanted a redder color. This is pretty simple to do with Photoshop’s Hue and Saturation controls.

The second proof was far closer to finalized:

Dan wanted two specific changes. One: remove the teeth. Not difficult. The second request was a bit more challenging. He felt (rightly) that the eyes looked a bit too much like Googly Eyes. He wanted something more alien. So I did some reading up on the various types of eyes found in  nature, trying for something A) alien, and B) useful. In general simple eyes (like ours) are better than compound eyes, at least in terms of resolution. However, really large compound eyes could approach human acuity. Then I discovered the Mantis Shrimp, which has possibly the most complicated and remarkable eyes in nature. The Mordeth doesn’t need to have exactly the same eyes, since that level of anatomical detail is pretty specialized and beyond the needs of an artistic conceit. But they could echo the design, perhaps possessing a few of the same qualities as mantis shrimp eye. To begin with each eye has three separate imaging systems, giving each one independent trinocular separation. It is theorized that the mantis shrimps eye complexity makes up for it’s miniscule brain power by doing a lot of the image interpretation “up front” as it were. For the Mordeth, this would make sense for a creature whose eyes are so far away from its brain.

Anyway, here is what I came up with:

Once these details were worked out, I presented the final proposed anatomy:

But we weren’t yet finished. This is an ongoing project, which will eventually contain a large number of alien designs. Not all aliens run around without clothes, and clothing is an important cultural artifact. We decided that for humanoid aliens such as the Asta, a detailed surface anatomy wasn’t really necessary. But for a decidedly non-human physiology, we needed both anatomy and clothing. So the final step was to envision how such an organism would clothe itself. This was added as a number of separate layers in Photoshop.

The Mordeth have a view of life similar to the Elizabethan Great Chain of Being, where everyone has a place, from Kings to peasants and down to rocks in the field, and that the universe works best when everyone recognizes and is happiest in their place. As such, I felt it was important that the Mordeth should have cues to other Mordeth as to their station, the equivalent of the different between coveralls and a power suit.

Here is the final illustration. I am omitting the sketch preliminaries here, since there were few if any differences between concept and final:

The patch on the “breast” is something I envisioned as a sort of “Here is who I am” kind of badge. It contains a number of symbols and writing to indicate station. Beyond that, the Mordeth wears a simple undergarment and an ornate tabard (Dan’s idea).

The Mordeth and Epoch of Rysos are © 2009 Dan Repperger, all rights reserved

The subject is an Asta, a member of an [...]]]> I picked up a demo copy of a really sweet video desktop capture program. To test it out, I used it while painting my latest commission. A lot of people ask me: “How do you paint on the computer?” Hopefully this answers a lot of questions.

The subject is an Asta, a member of an alien race from the Epoch of Rysos, ©Daniel Repperger.
I’ve linked to the first video in the series (there are 12, plus a conclusion). The whole series can be found here.

This post is for suggestions on how to reduce the stress that many of us feel around this time of year, and perhaps re-capture an appreciation of the things that are good about it. I’m using Christmas in my examples, but feel free to apply this to [...]]]> … Or any of the major family holidays.

This post is for suggestions on how to reduce the stress that many of us feel around this time of year, and perhaps re-capture an appreciation of the things that are good about it. I’m using Christmas in my examples, but feel free to apply this to other holidays which cause you or someone you know stress. If you have more solutions, please post them as comments.

1) Christmas is not a calendar date.
We were being really dragged down by the amount of traveling we were doing on what is ostensibly a day of celebration and enjoyment. One of the best solutions we have found is to make the day AFTER Christmas (Boxing Day) the day for visiting family. We don’t have to rush out the door, the child[ren] get to play with their toys or just play and be with immediate family.
We did not opt for the day before, because our daughter needs her sleep, which is hard enough on Christmas Eve without adding in hours in the car and getting excited by playing with cousins all day.

2) Spread out the presents
This is for families with children.
Some families have a rule about presents only being opened on Christmas morning, others allow one present to be opened on CHristmas Eve. My suggestion is to spread the presents out, particularly if you have lots of adult relatives mailing in kids’ gifts. If you are a parent, or around small children, you have probably witnessed Present Shock, the sensory overload that comes from opening too many presents too fast. Tags get mixed up, the child only remembers the last present opened, and then is faced with too many choices about what to do next. For a week before and a week after (or some other time period) open a present a day. Make a little ritual of it, doing it at the same time of day if possible.
The child gets to really appreciate the gift, and if you have them write a thank you card the same day, that task is spread out as well, and the child does not have to be reminded who gave them what.
Save the big family or Santa present(s) for Christmas morning (you know, the bicycle or video game system or what have you), as well as the stocking. But that board game from Uncle Max might actually be played and a cogent thank you note written if that is the only present for the day. Even the smallest present gets appreciated.

3) Stockings
This may not be for everyone, but it helped in our house growing up. Stockings are kid-distractors for parents who want to sleep late or cook breakfast before the morning rituals. A stocking is a “gift from Santa” whether your family embraces the tradition as “real” or not. Parents do not need to be present. Put in toys, puzzles, dexterity games, Rubik’s cubes, etc. in there to give you time to have a leisurely morning.

4) Commercialization
Do your shopping early, throughout the year if possible, or on-line even. Unless going to the mall and listening to Muzak Christmas carols and seeing Christmas displays is what you need to get your Christmas Spirit moving.
Mail out Seasonal cards. If you do this early enough, and regularly, far-flung relatives will realize that you are not getting them an expensive gift, and they don’t need to get you one. Christmas presents are for kids, really. Adults can buy the things they want. Closer family members can get simple gifts. Communicate this honestly and early and you might be able to reduce a sense of dreaded obligation. Hopefully, you don’t have a Christmas Zealot in your family to deal with, but coordinated action from the rest of the family might be able to reduce even this.

5) Married couples: Compromise
Be understanding that your spouse is different from you inside and probably has a different list of what they need to make the holiday enjoyable. Give them space if they need it, or follow them on some of their Christmas rituals. Give and take, and be honest with each other. Don’t make ultimatums or use guilt as a weapon. If you have a strong marriage, you probably already know this one, however.

6) Reducing the Gimme instinct in children
Organize some sort of community-benefiting activity. Helping with a charity drive, donating old toys and books, helping at church, anything that isn’t about getting. Make it just as normal, regular and important as the rest of the Christmas traditions. With any luck, regular exposure to this sort of attitude will instill good habits in later life and build a new young person with a good civic attitude. At the very least, you’ll be helping some folks who don’t have all the opportunities for happiness that you do.