Sketchbook Pages for Cichlidian Scavengers and Scorpidile Marauders

This month for the Martian of the Month I have a couple of new pages of a raider faction made up of scavengers and marauding pirates. These opportunistic hunters are designed with a blend of crocodiles, scorpions, piranhas and angler fish. A wide variety of creatures, all cold-blooded killers patiently waiting in ambush.

The Cichlidian Scavengers, with their angler fish lights and sharp teeth, are framed in rough, bolted plates, fashioned from the hulls of looted ships. Some are suspended in diving bells of glass while others are masked and their gills supplied by old, barely functioning tanks. I had imagined the Scorpidiles as being more thoughtful and careful with their armor and weapons, using a lot more cybernetic-looking augmentation in their designs.

After I finished with these designs, I found that I wasn't quite satisfied with these ones. By the end of the first sheet, I had started to work more scorpion elements in and I got away from that in this one. I will likely go back to these chameleons and crocs and add the scorpion elements back in (even if it is just with extra cybernetic limbs) to add something a bit more alien to them. Sometimes it is fun to just dwell on a single creature, and I had a good time with these, but that is why you do concept art! Sometimes a good character will take several iterations before you get it just right.

As for finishing any of these in color, we are currently on our "DEATH TO PHOTOSHOP" arc, so that is planned for later on. (Otherwise I'd put these up for a poll). For now, we are actually using these scanned drawings as prototypes in game.

More pages coming soon as I continue to hack through concept art for the mercenaries and gun-wielding aliens for the next few months!