A Safe Perch (Tentative Title)

This is for an idea I've been wanting to practice - colouring backgrounds with lineart. One of my absolute favourite artists, Der-shing Helmer draws their layouts with lineart and has been able to achieve a great effect with their comic The Meek in both outdoor as well as indoor backgrounds. It's stuff worthy of drooling over, so I wanted to give it a try with this image. I've been drawing a lot of velociraptors lately like this one - they're all the same character, a young male subordinate Moki. The story goes that Moki's trying to find his place in the pack and has aspirations of leadership, but he's very young and inexperianced, so he doesn't know if his dreams are going to happen. That's Moki. A nice guy who tries hard but usually doesn't win.

In this image he's up a tree, hiding perhaps from a larger predator, or on the lookout for prey for his pack. I really like the composition of this piece so far. I hope the end result will turn out nicely.

Moki's species are probably not real velociraptors, but instead a close relative. I've tried to base them as much as possible off of real velociraptors by studying their fossil skeletal anatomy, but I know for certain that my raptors are a little bigger than the velociraptors which roamed ancient prehistoric Mongolia. Also, Moki's pack lives in the forest rather than the desert, though their home is indeed surrounded by desert. In the story I have planned for Moki, he and his 'sister' Tyanar (a mammal based off of the cheetah-like hyena species chasmaporthetes - obviously my characters live in a different reality) leave their oasis for the world beyond. The tale needs development, but I really like it and someday I'd love to draw it. It would be the first story I've ever done with pretty haardcore research involved. For now, I plan on letting it mull in my brain. It's all based on a game I used to play as a kid, with toys I had of Tyanar and Moki.

The story's current working title is 'Velocity.' Velocity would be a graphic novel.

I hope you enjoy.