cmkosemen

The origins of the Tool Breeders from "Galaxy Guide" - my childhood spec-evo sketchbook, spread 14 of 53

Added 2023-02-26 18:10:40 +0000 UTC

Here is a spread from "Galaxy Guide" - a spec-evo sketchbook I kept between 1999 and 2002.

You will notice that the tool-breeding, dolphin-like "Lyceeen" species depicted here is extremely similar to the Tool Breeders from All Tomorrows! Apparently it was one of "11 sapient cetaceans"... I wonder what the other 10 were like?.. :)

I will share an image from this series every once often, and I hope you will enjoy the journey!

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"Galaxy Guide" was a guide to an immense artificial habitat known as "the Wall" - where creatures from all timelines and all planets were brought together and allowed to proper. It was a wonderful place populated with arcane megastructures, and overlooked by strange, God-like intelligences named “Walleans” that defied classification as organic beings or machines.

As I drew in my "Galaxy Guide" notebook for three years, rough pencil illustrations with detailed backgrounds gave way to fully-detailed watercolour illustrations of the creatures themselves. In those days there was no Photoshop and no Indesign - so I had to do everything from image placement to page layouts and text boxes by hand.

Many concepts I later used in Snaiad, All Tomorrows and beyond made their first appearances in this sketchbook, - indeed, the last image in "Galaxy Guide" was the first illustration from All Tomorrows itself!

Thank you for your support on Patreon, and I hope you enjoy "Galaxy Guide"!