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More from AustinDern
I haven't got a model sheet. I thought I should explain why, and what to do about it.
Mostly, Austin comes from text environments, mostly mucks. (Catch me on SpinDizzy, muck.spindizzy.org port 7072/SSL 7073!) And comes from a time nobody had heard of coatis. So what's important to me is getting the species right. Everything else is a detail and I'm happy to trust artists to draw the details. They know what they're doing.
How To Draw Austin Dern
Structure
This is a rough guide to Austin Dern’s body design. Its parts are: Body, Markings, Accessories, Pictures, Variations, and Your Judgement.
Body
----
Austin Dern is an adult nonanthro coati. That is, quadruped, looking like the real-world animal found in the southwestern United States or in Central America. So any real-world photograph of (white-nosed) coatis is a legitimate reference.
Austin is about the size and shape of a raccoon. A bit sleeker, but the important things are the nose and tail. His nose is long. Longer than you think. Longer than that: the eye-to-nose-tip distance is about the same as elbow-to-fingers. The coati nose is crazy flexible, too. The real thing looks cartoonishly flexible. It can go anywhere that seems interesting, pretty near.
His tail's also a big feature. It's as long as the rest of his body. Like the raccoon tail it's not very fluffy, and it tapers toward the end. It's typically held upright, tall; remember that Austin is typically standing horizontally, on all fours. It moves a lot, though, to keep balance and to make visual sense. It's not actually prehensile but, boy, doesn't it look like it ought to be?
Coatis are more-or-less plantigrade, the way raccoons or bears are. Their hands are, like raccoons', very dextrous and dangerous. Their hind ankles can rotate backwards, the way squirrels' do. This helps them climb down things better and also really creeps out people. Probably won't come up in any picture but isn't it a wonder?
Markings
Austin Dern a white-nosed coati, the kind that has a light mask around the eyes and snout. And also has fairly discernable tail rings. These don't have to follow any particular pattern. He comes from a text-based environment, and from 1995, when it was hard enough convincing people I didn't make up the species.
His natural fur's reddish-brown, with white eye and snout mask. His chest and belly and upper forelegs are a lighter tan-to-white. The tail rings are lighter and darker and can be sloppy. Silver claws, on the off chance they're large enough to be noticed. This all looks a good deal like a red panda, yes, apart from the belly being a lighter color. There are not canonical choices for these colors; you can pick what looks good.
And that's just the base color. Austin gets repainted or recolored magically often and easily and takes up new colors well. That there be eyemask and tailrings is the important part. They're how Austin keeps from just looking like someone made a weasel-raccoon hybrid. And even then he does anyway. It's good anyway.
Accessories
Austin Dern doesn't wear anything, unless circumstances demand, like he's in space or something. He does try to have a crescent moon icon; this is a Krazy Kat reference. Don't worry about omitting it. Austin forgets to include it most of the time anyway.
Pictures
Like I say, most any real-world photograph of a white nosed coati is a valid reference. Here's some that work for me. Please let me know if any of the links have rotted. Like you'll see, real coatis have a lot of color variation. So it's okay for Austin to vary from any other images you might have seen.
The Head: http://www.arkive.org/white-nosed-c.....e-G136866.html
The Full Body:
http://www.theonlinezoo.com/img/00/toz00473l.jpg
Standing Tall:
http://www.theonlinezoo.com/img/00/toz00478l.jpg
Tail Size, And Stance, While Walking Or Standing: http://www.arkive.org/white-nosed-c.....e-G135114.html
Prowling:
http://www.theonlinezoo.com/img/00/toz00532l.jpg
A Bunch Of Pictures, Including Of His Scary Teeth: https://www.coniferousforest.com/wh.....coatimundi.htm
I'm Not Stuck, You're Stuck: https://fineartamerica.com/featured.....-andersen.html
The Other Kind Of Coati But A Reminder That Our Noses Do Crazy Things:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dsziklai/15407442006/
Variations
I am delighted to have a variation on Austin. Most interesting to me are transmutations. Austin as a plush doll. Austin as a pooltoy. Austin as animate clay. Austin as a liquid morph. Austin as a TRON-style program. Austin as a semiprecious stone. Austin in a flat form. Austin as a cartoon. Bioluminescent. These are all great.
If varied, please, play up the different stuff. Especially if it makes for slight awkwardness or weirdness. If Austin's plush, why not have one of those belly --- or back --- drawstrings that has to be pulled so he can talk. If a pooltoy, please, have seams, have a valve somewhere like the palm of his paw where it might get in the way. If clay, have his body be blocky, like a Gumby figure. If liquid, be noticeably melting or puddling. If a TRON-style program, ah, why not Automan styled instead? If a semiprecious stone, why not all flat surfaces and sharp angles? If flat, why not folded across a corner? If a cartoon, why not body stretched out where he accidentally swallowed a whole refrigerator? If he glows, why not glow only in strange color ranges?
Stress the unique stuff about the texture first and foremost, then worry about body shape, with coloring and accessories minor parts after that.
But yeah, look at this robot Austin form: https://yerf.metafur.org/siemjohn/robotroo.jpg --- just right in expressing robot nature first, and coati next.
Your Judgement
You're the artist. You know what you're doing. Feel free to vary anything that you think makes for a better picture. I trust your judgement. You aren’t going to break the character.
Version
This draft completed the 26th of June, 2018.
Mostly, Austin comes from text environments, mostly mucks. (Catch me on SpinDizzy, muck.spindizzy.org port 7072/SSL 7073!) And comes from a time nobody had heard of coatis. So what's important to me is getting the species right. Everything else is a detail and I'm happy to trust artists to draw the details. They know what they're doing.
How To Draw Austin Dern
Structure
This is a rough guide to Austin Dern’s body design. Its parts are: Body, Markings, Accessories, Pictures, Variations, and Your Judgement.
Body
----
Austin Dern is an adult nonanthro coati. That is, quadruped, looking like the real-world animal found in the southwestern United States or in Central America. So any real-world photograph of (white-nosed) coatis is a legitimate reference.
Austin is about the size and shape of a raccoon. A bit sleeker, but the important things are the nose and tail. His nose is long. Longer than you think. Longer than that: the eye-to-nose-tip distance is about the same as elbow-to-fingers. The coati nose is crazy flexible, too. The real thing looks cartoonishly flexible. It can go anywhere that seems interesting, pretty near.
His tail's also a big feature. It's as long as the rest of his body. Like the raccoon tail it's not very fluffy, and it tapers toward the end. It's typically held upright, tall; remember that Austin is typically standing horizontally, on all fours. It moves a lot, though, to keep balance and to make visual sense. It's not actually prehensile but, boy, doesn't it look like it ought to be?
Coatis are more-or-less plantigrade, the way raccoons or bears are. Their hands are, like raccoons', very dextrous and dangerous. Their hind ankles can rotate backwards, the way squirrels' do. This helps them climb down things better and also really creeps out people. Probably won't come up in any picture but isn't it a wonder?
Markings
Austin Dern a white-nosed coati, the kind that has a light mask around the eyes and snout. And also has fairly discernable tail rings. These don't have to follow any particular pattern. He comes from a text-based environment, and from 1995, when it was hard enough convincing people I didn't make up the species.
His natural fur's reddish-brown, with white eye and snout mask. His chest and belly and upper forelegs are a lighter tan-to-white. The tail rings are lighter and darker and can be sloppy. Silver claws, on the off chance they're large enough to be noticed. This all looks a good deal like a red panda, yes, apart from the belly being a lighter color. There are not canonical choices for these colors; you can pick what looks good.
And that's just the base color. Austin gets repainted or recolored magically often and easily and takes up new colors well. That there be eyemask and tailrings is the important part. They're how Austin keeps from just looking like someone made a weasel-raccoon hybrid. And even then he does anyway. It's good anyway.
Accessories
Austin Dern doesn't wear anything, unless circumstances demand, like he's in space or something. He does try to have a crescent moon icon; this is a Krazy Kat reference. Don't worry about omitting it. Austin forgets to include it most of the time anyway.
Pictures
Like I say, most any real-world photograph of a white nosed coati is a valid reference. Here's some that work for me. Please let me know if any of the links have rotted. Like you'll see, real coatis have a lot of color variation. So it's okay for Austin to vary from any other images you might have seen.
The Head: http://www.arkive.org/white-nosed-c.....e-G136866.html
The Full Body:
http://www.theonlinezoo.com/img/00/toz00473l.jpg
Standing Tall:
http://www.theonlinezoo.com/img/00/toz00478l.jpg
Tail Size, And Stance, While Walking Or Standing: http://www.arkive.org/white-nosed-c.....e-G135114.html
Prowling:
http://www.theonlinezoo.com/img/00/toz00532l.jpg
A Bunch Of Pictures, Including Of His Scary Teeth: https://www.coniferousforest.com/wh.....coatimundi.htm
I'm Not Stuck, You're Stuck: https://fineartamerica.com/featured.....-andersen.html
The Other Kind Of Coati But A Reminder That Our Noses Do Crazy Things:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dsziklai/15407442006/
Variations
I am delighted to have a variation on Austin. Most interesting to me are transmutations. Austin as a plush doll. Austin as a pooltoy. Austin as animate clay. Austin as a liquid morph. Austin as a TRON-style program. Austin as a semiprecious stone. Austin in a flat form. Austin as a cartoon. Bioluminescent. These are all great.
If varied, please, play up the different stuff. Especially if it makes for slight awkwardness or weirdness. If Austin's plush, why not have one of those belly --- or back --- drawstrings that has to be pulled so he can talk. If a pooltoy, please, have seams, have a valve somewhere like the palm of his paw where it might get in the way. If clay, have his body be blocky, like a Gumby figure. If liquid, be noticeably melting or puddling. If a TRON-style program, ah, why not Automan styled instead? If a semiprecious stone, why not all flat surfaces and sharp angles? If flat, why not folded across a corner? If a cartoon, why not body stretched out where he accidentally swallowed a whole refrigerator? If he glows, why not glow only in strange color ranges?
Stress the unique stuff about the texture first and foremost, then worry about body shape, with coloring and accessories minor parts after that.
But yeah, look at this robot Austin form: https://yerf.metafur.org/siemjohn/robotroo.jpg --- just right in expressing robot nature first, and coati next.
Your Judgement
You're the artist. You know what you're doing. Feel free to vary anything that you think makes for a better picture. I trust your judgement. You aren’t going to break the character.
Version
This draft completed the 26th of June, 2018.
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 50 x 50px
Comments