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pallanoph — Strength and Cunning
#antlers #cervine #creature #moose #pencil #predatorandprey #pallanoph #huntinganimals #naturalillustration #mirthond
Published: 2014-09-29 22:24:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 6068; Favourites: 226; Downloads: 0
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Alternative title: Pallanoph vs. Moose.This should give folks a good sense of scale when it comes to pallanophs' size, though it's possible that Mirthond is shown a bit larger than she is intended to be. (Then again, why can't she be large?)
I tried to show her getting a grip on the bull moose's antlers; this way she can keep those deadly antlers somewhat restrained, and get a clear shot at his throat at the same time. Don't worry, pallanophs generally dispatch prey as quickly as possible.
Despite their careful planning, strength, and agility, it doesn't always end well for the hunting pallanoph. Perhaps soon I shall draw a hunt gone wrong!
Complaints regarding me posting even more pallanoph work should be directed to the Complaints Department. "Uuughguguh I HATE these stupid pallanoph things they're so LAME ohmaiGAWD." Come on though, honestly, what do you expect?
Powdered graphite and 6B, 8B pencils. Progress shots on my tumblr: pallanophblargh.tumblr.com/ Commissions are still in progress. I'm wrestling with one right now as I type.
Pallanophs, Mirthond's lovely face, and art © April Schumacher. Please do not plagiarize, repurpose, alter, use for profit, etc. please and thank you!
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Comments: 40
Exemplary, from their expressions to the exquisite textures. What a fascinating species you have created.
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Firstly, who would complain about you posting pollanoph work? If anything, post more! Second, love love love this work. It's great how you put so much thought into your pallanophs, even down to the size relationship to other recognizable animals. Her expression suggests that she's got everything under control 
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Nobody yet, thankfully! I do post a lot of them lately, so it wouldn't be all that unreasonable to assume that someone somewhere is tired of them and is flipping the table.
I still feel Mirthond's a wee bit big here, though she is a pretty large lady. Oh, that poor moose, I imagine he's really wishing he'd seen her, and that he didn't have such spindly legs! (It's okay, moose, it's a quicker death than most!)
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That is, indeed, one large beastie not to be messed with. 
I've loved watching the progress shots of this on my dashboard, the process was mind boggling for me. The powdered graphite base technique seems VERY intimidating. But no one could argue with the results. There's an awesome scale of values and textures included here, and the depth of the detail gives a great illusion of movement and emphasis.
Also, a bit off subject, but the gesture sketch you posted recently was beautiful, too. Finished pieces are always lovely and awe-inspiring, but I personally think there's a good rough beauty in gesture sketches and under drawings, especially in dynamic poses or perspectives. Very appealing to the eye 
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I've only seen a moose once, which is sad, because they are easily one of my favorite animals. They are incredibly large!
I imagine Mirthond is about 5' at the shoulder, so it was hard for me to gauge how large she should appear! The moose is clearly far taller, but with his legs buckled under him here, it was tricky for me to get the proportions right: especially when such a large sketchbook is tilting away from me! (This makes for some extremely humorous results sometimes, especially when viewing it straight on after working on it for hours to see everything at the top half is huge.)
Powdered graphite is so tricky because it doesn't seem to want to follow the rules that pencils do: Just because it's down, doesn't mean it's staying down; quite the contrary! A lot of this involved me hovering in bursts over the drawing. When I wanted to break from commission stuff, I'd spend 10-15 minutes bustling over this mess. Despite that, this went pretty quickly! Powdered graphite really seems to free up time in some ways.
I love gesture stuff, too. That was probably one of my strengths in drawing classes. It's still my favorite way of working.
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I think your proportions here are very good (your definitely right about the buckled legs, its obvious he's under strain, and clearly larger) 
The first time I saw a moose, we had just moved to Colorado from Arizona. The biggest deer I'd ever seen was a few puny white tails, and the biggest animal I'd ever been close too was horses. 
Gesture sketches = pure
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Holy crud, that's terrifying! I've always heard it's cow moose in particular you need to be afraid of, especially in the event of unseen calves... 
I have a large sketchbook almost exclusively for gesture sketching, it's how I start most of my work. Though I should start using thumbnails to practice composition more properly, since I ignore it way too often.
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I've heard that too, but luckily I doubt this one had a calf, she just climbed out of the water and went on her way, and the girl scouts' counselors gave them what for for doing something so foolish. Its amazing, though, how many people I've seen that don't realize how dangerous moose can be. There were always people getting out of their cars to take pictures of them on the road to and from the ranch, and they'd literally stand less than a cars length from bulls with 5 to 6 foot spread antlers and act like it was no big thing. I mean, we came fresh from the desert and WE knew better than that...You people are from Colorado, you should KNOW better D8
That's a neat idea, really...My sketchbooks tend to be 50-50, I start most sketches with some gestures and roughs and then if i like it (or if i get bored) i may keep scribbling on it...yeah my sketchbooks are a mess
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Damn, I'm not even originally from a state that has moose, and I know better! (Then again, I don't have a risk taking bone in my body, so I suppose that helps.)
Oh yes, I'd seen his books around, but don't own any. I had a couple of sketch art books around as a kid that were awesome gifts from my grandmother: One of them was "Drawing Animals" by Victor Ambrus. I remembered to take it up to live with me, and I still get so much joy at combing through his awesome loose drawings. So. Nice.
I really need to get back into life drawing and gesture drawing of humans, but I need to find a vantage point to watch people walking without them feeling like I'm being a total creeper. Otherwise I just have to draw my boyfriend staring blankly at his laptop, which isn't really challenging.
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I actually just heard from a friend today that there's a cow and calf hanging around their home town that have a police escort, because people have tried walking up to pet her. -.- Its a freaking tourist town, and the people there literally think all wildlife is there for their experience.
*runs to google* ....OOOOOOOOOH I see some library fodder O^O I must remember this next time I'm at a book store. Lovely work <3
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No, thankfully... If they did, I'd have to take a moment to point out my username, and then ask them why they expected anything else?
Though it does seem that some of the things featuring them have been flying under the radar, as opposed to everything non-'noph I post. Eh, most things will always be better received than 'nophs, and that's fine!
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Who could ever get tired of seeing pallanophs? They're so cool!
Also, huge. o.o
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Oh, I'm sure someone is tired of them by now: After all, one can't please everybody! (And that would be exhausting, anyhow.
Yep. I honestly didn't expect her to be this big, and yet here she is.
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Silly characters, trying to be all independent.
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Ohohoho, I will, much to the dismay of many of my uninitiated followers!
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The action is so great. You got the moment just before the moose falls so well.
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I had a hard time figuring out how such long legs would react to such an impact, but I'm glad I got that feeling across! 
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Awesome drawing! I really can't help but love the moose. The composition is great too and I love the lighting.
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That poor moose! They're one of my favorite animals, to be honest. Thanks so much!
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Likewise! And you're very welcome.
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No please- post pallanophs, since you enjoy drawing them anyway (and us commenters enjoy them as well!) Who doesn't adore their brain-children/species?..or have a love hate relationship with them.
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Oh, I definitely have a love-hate issue with these buggers: They're the most personal things I have, yet they can interfere with art and art blocks sometimes. So I often doodle them in between commissions to keep my sanity. (If I had a dollar for every time I tried to cut them out of my life, I'd have a sizable sum! 
As far as I have decided, pallanophs don't tend to use their mouths for the kill, though they may use their teeth to reinforce a grip if need be. They tend to keep their dewclaws highly sharpened, and they often use these to puncture and sever arteries and/or larynx. Occasionally, the blow of a pallanoph landing with all four feet knocks the air from their prey, and sometimes even severs the spinal cord. Generally, I feel that pallanophs have far more strength in their limbs than they do in their jaws (even though their jaws are decently strong), so it is not uncommon to see a pallanoph twisting and breaking the neck in some instances. Moose are pretty strong, of course, so Mirthond is going for the throat here with her free paw.
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Interesting concept, these pallanophs. I would like to see the hunt gone wrong idea, just because the hunting pictures are so fun.
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I had the choice of either commenting on Tumblr or here, this time I chose dA. This scene was great fun to watch come together. Other than how you handled that bright sunlight, I think one of my favorite details is how she's holding the moose's antler; it conveys great strength and dexterity on her part and illustrates well just how different their forelegs and paws are compared to other terrestrial creatures.
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Aww, thanks! (Yeah, and on here, I can respond to your comments directly! Which is great.
I think I went through 4 different poses regarding the moose antlers and her front paws, and this is the only one that actually worked.
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Showing them off in scenes like this I think is the best way to go! It illustrates the finer points of the "hows" and "whys" of a given creature's design really well, and gives a good excuse to flex the art muscles too.
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