Quentin Hudspeth's Journal

Liz has been working hard on art for me between bouts of getting married, holding down a full-time job, moving and all that piddly stuff. So, I thought I’d share some of her initial sketches.

Trillids:

The Trillids are one of the most interesting of the galaxy’s species, being the only known intelligent species to have three sexes. In fact, all complex life on their home-world Shemarbruc is trisexual. All three sexes — alpha, beta, and gamma — are rather short, with hairless, slightly moist, smooth grey-green skin, reminiscent of frog skin…The most obvious deviance from the humanoid form is in the facial features, set on a slightly bulbous cranium. While the eyes are quite human, with surprisingly similar coloring of the irises, they are large and deep-set, beneath strong brow ridges on a steeply sloped forehead. The nose is broad, and flattened, with fine crenations around the perimeter of the nares, while the lower half of the face protrudes slightly forward in an almost canine fashion. Trillids also lack external ear structures, having only large tympanic membranes beside their eyes, also protected somewhat by bony annular protrusions connected to the brow ridge.

These are initial sketches, and the final people look a little bit different. You’ll have to wait for the book to see what I mean.

Loramyps:

The Loramyps are a semi-sessile, sapient plant species, resembling large, thick-boled bushes. Their roughly hemispherical canopies are thick with large, palmately compound purple-black leaves. The leaves are purple-black with a rough matte surface. In the spring they sport a multitude of huge creamy-white flowers resembling magnolia blossoms. They top out at around ten feet tall with ten foot diameter canopies and four foot diameter trunks. Their smooth, umber-colored trunks are bare up to about five feet from the ground where a sparse ring of flexible, whip-like, prehensile branches begins. These appendages, which can reach sometimes up to ten feet, are tipped with frilly yellow-green foliage, resembling down. When not in use, they are kept wrapped around the trunk.

  We’re still dialoguing on these, but the Loramyp in the atrium is just about perfect, no?

Durgen:

The Durgens are a protean metal-based life form. They generally mass about 3.5 times an average male human, but being made of a denser material, they are smaller than humans. They average around 4’ 6’’ tall and weigh around 656 pounds. These beings generally take the form of whomever they are dealing with at the moment. If faced with a group of multiple species, they mimic the dominant one in the party…The Durgens have an unusual societal structure and might be better referred to as The Durgen, singular. They are a communal species, in the strictest sense of the word. Individual Durgens are but extensions of The Durgen, an enormous organism existing on their home-world, Hydoorgyr. From time to time, The Durgen buds off and sends its new Gemma out to accomplish some mission — help find food, rendezvous with visitors, explore new star systems, et cetera.

As always, Liz is a pleasure to work with. Y’all should definitely hire her to do something for you.

Slaintè,

Q