 November 2, 2012 - 5:09am | Dralasites are easy to draw, compared to yazirians and vrusk (I'm still not confident when it comes to vrusk). However, so much of communication and also story telling with a picture is facial expression. To which dralasites are lacking in features to manipulate for expression. An artist can become bored with them after a bit because they are pretty vanilla next to the yazirian's chocolate and the vrusk's strawberry. Getting the kids ready this morning for school I pulled an art book to skim so that I would not be constantly on the kids since thier normal speed at getting ready is severely slower than what my patience can tollerate. The book had been useful in the past for drawing animals and its 10 page chapter on facial expressions was a bit thin compared to the 275 page book I had on facial expressions however I ended up at facials expressions and considered ways to make the dralasite expressive. Rather than do his exercises which utilized the human face I did the five basic faces for the dralasite. The facial focus is for the eyes. In all likelihood the expressions as presented would not be the actual dralasite expressions but the art is for a human audience so I'm simply going with the adaption of a human expression for the dralasite. expression is largely based on size and shape of the eye spot veins and then I shaded in surface texture to hint at eyebrows and lips. No doubt a dralasite can form the voice box apparatus anywhere on his body and is not required to do it on his face, I suppose it could even be on his back side which gives new meaning to "talking out your arse" - sorry that was corny but this is a dralasite thread so I had to work in their style of humor. I studied speech communication in college and one important factor to good communication is that you look at someone and project your voice toward them if you are looking away from someone and say something you are courting communication failure so I think that the dralasites would realize this and develope the habit/convention of forming their voice box & air bellows in close conjunction with the eyes so that when they are looking at someone and reading them they can also effectively communicate with them.  1. Wide eyed: for Deadpan, Laughing, hysterical, attentive, shock and gaping or gawking; excellent for staring into danger or running away from it 2. Passive: giggle, smile, squint, bored, thoughtful, meditative, relief, bliss and joy; good for conveying no worries 3. Aggressive: anger, insane, stern, grumpy, gritting of teeth; for conveying the desire to attack or defend 4. Inverted: Embarrassed, timid, bashful, stressed, fatigued, fear, pining, furrowed; for conveying sadness or tiredness 5. Staggered: sneering, paranoid, shift, confusion, contemplation; tilting the head will also help with this expression. My thanks to Kaymore the dralasite holovid actor for modeling these expressions for us. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 2, 2012 - 12:57pm | After going to work I decided that something similar could be done with vrusk- the antennae and mandibles being primary movable pieced to their face and the classic expressions could be adapted to have antennae straight up vs close to the skull and etc. as per the thread on flicking emotions for the vrusk. Mandibles would figure in the same way could also move the "vrusk eyebrow" to help him look more stern or whatever. One thing is sure though, I'll need more practice on the vrusk before doing that. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 November 2, 2012 - 8:00pm | Interesting ideas jedion. I was wondering, do dralasite cry? |
November 2, 2012 - 8:30pm | I was contemplating a scared looking dralasite handing over his ID card with a mugger holding a gun to his head and sweat dripping off his head. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
