Tristan 2015

I'm really sorry guys, because even though I made very good progress on today's Tree of Life page, a sickness that came without warning prevented me from finishing it... So I thought, as an apology, I'd finally share with you something I've been working on in my spare time in the past few weeks.

I wanted to create this picture out of sheer nostalgia. This is the prototype for Tristan from 2015. I put together in my head what little I remembered and added a few little things too to make it look a little fresh too.

Originally, I wanted to make him a character who were one of the creatures that had adapted to living in chaos; where the sun is never out, danger is everywhere, and food is so scarce that there is constant competition for it. And as he began to seek safety outside the chaos, he met our protagonists, who at first thought of him as an enemy. And after a few trials and tribulations, he became part of the team, though not everyone accepted him at first because he was born in chaos, hence how he looked.

I originally came up with the idea of him using the hook-shaped bone on his tail for climbing. But I thought now that it would really suit the guy if all his spikes were poisonous, especially the one at the end of his tail. His poison would only cause severe numbness or paralysis for a time, and he's always careful where he sticks it. In his usual habitat of constant danger, it's very useful to have some effective defence mechanisms, isn't it?

I hope you like pseudo-Tristan! XD When I started to get a better idea of what the Tree of Life team was going to be like, I realised that he needed two legs, because he was much smaller than the others and would have been more of a talking pet than a teammate. So he got a new look, and I hadn't seen much of a monkey-lizard species pairing before. So I'm proud of the way Tristan looks today!