Kkkkkkkk...

Blocked in wash of the kif. Crits welcome. He'll be done in a couple days.

...nadi: don't forget Kif have a very short ridge of "mane"...

Just a question or two: What are you doing with the nose? It's not clear yet to me how you will handle it. And are the lips prehensile?

The lips are indeed prehensile, but will be pulled back into the position they are in. I hope it will be clearer in the final. This is just the wash, which is used to determine color. There will be a hood, so I'm not sure how visible the mane will be. It will probably be sucked up in the shadow of the hood.The nose itself, is not detailed (no nostrils in the wash, as there are no eyes or teeth) The wash stage is a compositional tool. Notice that there are no hard lines, just suggestion of such. This is much more complex than the pencil sketch.

Unless you are keeping your background white, now is the time to block it in--and I'd throw in a basic hood and the shadow of such. Just perfectly flat washes--a value guess only.

Big Darks and Big lights, right? I am thinking the background will be a darker bulkhead...maybe an open airlock door leading to station, with some dim sodium lights.

I'll work up the hood next.

Gee, and here I was thinking it was a preliminary surface texture for a 3D model...

Enabler. Instigator.

Can of worms. If the kif snout has prehensile lips, it's going to get crowded in there. I've been looking at pics of manatees and all I have to say is that nature is more bizarre than anything we can make up.

Maybe you guys can help with the teeth, too. If I remember correctly they are not like canine teeth, but are smaller, razor sharp, and serrated?


I apologize to Selden You are ALL instigators and enablers.

I want to say sharp and needle-like teeth for the front set, and then something similar but more solid for the second set (unseen, but included because I was thinking about it...)

But then, they might have to be something more suited to shearing off chunks of meat rather than just gripping it, and strong teeth, because kif prefer their meals wiggling, perhaps even replaceable (like a shark).

Excellent, Neco. I had forgotten about the second set of teeth. I have bo idea how to represent that either, in the given head-on pose.

Of course at this point I have a blind, reptilian-looking pterodactyl, with a bristling mane, and 2 mobile buzzsaws in it's mouth. Wearing a monk's robe.

I guess I can get away with a little bit of artistic license.

I have the impression that the second set of teeth is set well back in the mouth, and therefore wouldn't be visible from this angle.

Well, it's not like there is a live one that someone can compare it to and tell you you've done it wrong.

That picture just totally creeped me out. In a "No wonder they keep their hoods on" kind of way. Ick. Exactly the reaction one is supposed to get from a kif! Add the sodium light and the ammonia smell and the row of decapitated heads on stakes lining the ramp... and I'm pretty glad they don't live in my universe.

From the conversation above before it got into teeth, all I could picture were Jar-Jar Binks lips. Don't do that please. Nothing pouty. My personal vision of kif are more reptilian than insectoid, but the usual disclaimers apply- I have no idea. But here are some possible answers: Scary Faces

Good luck! Post options so we can tell you what to do, please...

eek! why did I look at your link just before bed time, Bet!

Richard, any reason the nostril's cant be slits just above the jaw line?

Thus my added comment of "unseen, but thinking about it anyway"

Cool beasties I couldn't tell if that bat had eyes or not. Awesome snake though.