Kevin's Watch

The image is a little small. I had to adjust the size or it would have skewered this post but the original Nom and a Ur-Vile can be found here at this link. homepage.mac.com/kevin164/PhotoAlbum7.html

I'm testing out a site and it's bells and whistles for FTP storage and building a on-line portfolio, I am not so sure of it yet.

when did you make these Kevin164?

I cant view the links for the pics..its trying to load a java script that wont load, just a broken image link..you should post a copy of those in the Laborium in the Album, Im glad to see more artwork in this series.

are those paintings, colored sketches or CGIs? I like them. but would love to see a larger version if possible

There's a link in my profile it might lead you to the full blown images. They are inked images scanned into CS3 then shaded and colored.
I tried loading a couple images into the album, but I keep getting a try again message. Here's the link in my profile, it will lead to another page of story board art but at the top is a link to the Creatures of the Land. That should take you the Nom and Ur-Vile page. homepage.mac.com/kevin164/PhotoAlbum5.html

Yeah, nice ones.
My recommended modifications to existing work (where they aren't perfect for me): Make the feet wider and the head a little more like the critters from the "Alien" films. Nom was decidedly non-human to me, and those elongated heads with no particular features are what I see.

Giger's Alien is pretty much the new yardstick in how a monster should be in the twentieth century. It was perfect in the shadows and it had a lasting effect on all those who saw it. The Alien is one of my favorite subjects to draw and I have to say it had more of an influence on how I picture the Ur-Vile and the Demondim rather than the Sandgorgon.

Sounds funny, but I picture Nom kind of like the Tasmanian Devil; very broad and muscular up at the top, slender for running speed at the bottom. And I picture the ends of his arms much larger, like boat oars but much wider and blunt at the ends. Like the end of a large baseball bat, but much larger. I have no idea of the existence of hair; I only know he had an albino whiteness from being in the sun and desert all his existence. I am sure SRD had a particular look in his head when he described Nom; it would be so awesome for him to see these pics and make comments about how close they are, don't you think? Does anyone have contact with him and can ask him to look? Inquiring minds want to know.......

Kevin and blackhawk: I dig your renderings. But arent his "hands" described as flattened and flail-like. I've always imagined something like his arms ending in rounded rectangular beaver-tails.

"Its forearms ended in flat flexible stumps like prehensile battering rams-arms formed to contend with sand, to break stone."

I always imagined that the stumps would be somewhat larger than the arms, as if he had hammers for hands.

But I always assumed that "flexible" meant that there was sort of a wrist involved as well. And that "flat" meant the end of the stump, not the top or the side.

"Prehensile" does bring to mind monkey tails and elephant trunks, though. The definition is "adapted for seizing or grasping especially by wrapping around".

So maybe beaver tails is indeed the best way to imagine them!

However, now that I think about it as I write this, maybe they're more like what our hands would look like if we wore thick, thumbless mittens.

that is the unfortunate part of artwork on a series that has never had artwork concepts done to give the readers an idea of what things look like. the way I made Nom is how he was described from the book and his vision in my own head... i took into consideration that he is supposed to have giant blunt ended arms but when reading the description of him building a cairn or tomb for Honninscrave it mentions him using the stumps of his arms to lift broken fragments of pottery and remnants of artwork small enough to be picked up by his handless arms. and also i didnt want Nom to look like he could use those arms for running on all fours.

it also said Nom had prehensile battering rams capable of contending with stone... and prehensile means that it is flexible or able to move like a snake like the tip of an elephants nose or something...but still strong enough to batter stone?

Rocksister/Proebe. .im going to add some clubs to the end of his forearms.. and i am thinning out the legs again, they look too bulky now, and I agree on that that he needs blunt ended arms though not tooooo much bigger than a baseball bat. but at least thicker than the upper part of his forearm.. Im still working on the feet....simple as they are....

the second rendition looked a bit Daffy

it also says that Nom was not very much thicker built than an Haruchai and only two hands taller than Covenant. instead of using strictly my own visions of the landscapes and creatures im trying to use references from the books i have....i have pdf versions of the TCTC chronicles so I use word searches on it often to get ideas and descriptions of places and things. Very handy..a friend got them for me a couple years ago and i thought i would never have use for a computer book.. too much toll on the eyes. but now i thank them for it.


my main thoughts of a sangorgon were...I had to make something that looked like it would be able to catch and defeat an haruchai. when i made it too thick i thought...that thing would never catch or be able to hit Ceer or Hergrom. ad too thin and i thought..that thing would never be able to crush the gates of Revelstone... it needed to be something that looked as if it could not contain so much might.

Rats.... I thought I nailed his hands correctly. They look to me like he has a wrist and semi flat extensions for hands. I wanted something that conveyed the ability to smash down a wall and then build a grave as Stephen R. Donaldson described.

I never saw the Sandgorgon has "hulking" which is usually used as a visual reference rather than the hidden power it had within its self. I saw it more as a larger far more monstrous version of the Haruchai in its frame and gesture.

Personally I would love to have Stephen R. Donaldson's take and direction on how he would want a rendering of the Sandgorgon.

Kevin164 wrote:Rats.... I thought I nailed his hands correctly. ... Personally I would love to have Stephen R. Donaldson's take and direction on how he would want a rendering of the Sandgorgon.

I would enjoy hearing SRD's take as well. But with (what I hope is) completely non-arrogant intent, I prefer my personal visualizations and pronunciations to even those of the author. I feel that it is one way that we make a story our own. However, I do love the other thread where people are giving their own pronunciations.

Great job on your art!

Kevin164 wrote:Rats.... I thought I nailed his hands correctly. They look to me like he has a wrist and semi flat extensions for hands. I wanted something that conveyed the ability to smash down a wall and then build a grave as Stephen R. Donaldson described.

I never saw the Sandgorgon has "hulking" which is usually used as a visual reference rather than the hidden power it had within its self. I saw it more as a larger far more monstrous version of the Haruchai in its frame and gesture.

Personally I would love to have Stephen R. Donaldson's take and direction on how he would want a rendering of the Sandgorgon.

those are my thoughts on Nom also, actually my impression of Nom was exactly as you have it Kevin both of our originals of Nom are very similar. , I dont know if SRD meant prehensil as in the battering ram itself was manuverable as a hand would be on a wrist or if he meant like an elephant trunk....i think its the first because otherwise Nom would have been able to pick stuff up like an elephant with its stumps. and he had to pick objects up between the forearms rather than being able to wrap his wrists around things when he was making Honinscraves grave..



check this out..i have no idea what it is..but sounds like some game someone made up.... its their description of a sandgorgon and its power levels. i didnt know someone shot a missile at a sandgorgon but apparently going by this ..they bounce off LOL

psychocorp.net/adnd/compendio/0010.html

Its not done but its a comic page depicting the breaking of the Sandgorgon.

Now THAT's good! TC, Kasreyn, and Pitchwife, I presume.

Here's the completed version, and you presumed correct.

Any chance you will post a working link to a bigger version?

homepage.mac.com/kevin164/PhotoAlbum7.html

I gotta figure out why I can't load anything onto the Album here. It would be a easier for everyone and better faith on my part for the admins of this board rather than plugging my site.

We don't mind you plugging your site We just want to see bigger versions

Having copies in the album is also great because then we have a copy just in case the person doing them disappears (as has happened in the past)

Oh and general question - what's the easiest way for us to actually summarise the descriptions of all characters in TCTC?

Oh and general question - what's the easiest way for us to actually summarise the descriptions of all characters in TCTC?

Uh oh...I think I better invest in more pens.

We'll pay you. We have WGD's at our disposal