therithere: Sometimes when you're typing...

Orion Sandstorrm (

waywind) wrote in

therithere,
@ 2005-09-19 09:19:00

Entry tags:

characters: agatha, format: multiple panels, humor: slapstick, post: comments: 30 or more, species: gryphons, subject: phantom limbs

Sometimes when you're typing...

http://therithere.comicgenesis.com/d/20050919.html

I'm not wholly satisfied with how this particular strip turned out, since it's a misrepresentation of therianthropy and the phenomena associated with it. In reality, you might feel like your claws were punching through the keyboard, but the keyboard wouldn't stick to your hand like this, because there are no physical claws involved. However, I'm happy with the artwork, and it's better than missing a day.

(Post a new comment)

	makuus 2005-09-19 06:19 pm UTC (link)
	I still think it's fine. Addresses the hazards that few consider would arise had one the claws they think they have or wish they had. I really do like these strips. Thank you. (Reply to this)

	kinkyturtle 2005-09-20 06:31 am UTC (link)
	It's certainly funny in a "boy, what if that really happened" way. (Reply to this)

	weirgreif 2005-09-21 03:05 am UTC (link)
	I, for one, have considered this. I've also considered how I'd be even more twisty if I had a serpentine spine and (lack of) limbs. Gryphons are good! fills ballot box with gryphon votes (Reply to this)

	kenthar 2005-09-21 03:42 am UTC (link)
	Now, how would you realistically fix the problem? Leather gloves with steel clawtips on the inside? (Reply to this)

	a_leprechaun 2005-09-21 04:44 am UTC (link)
	Hey there, great comic so far ^___^ Doesn't matter to me if it's not 100% realistic, cause it's funny! And that is an awesome drawing of a griffin. Hope to see some faeries up in here ;) (Reply to this) (Thread)

	waywind 2005-09-24 11:09 pm UTC (link)
	Hmm... I'll have to be sure to work in some faeries pretty soon, then! (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	forestdweller 2005-09-30 04:41 pm UTC (link)
	I second the Fae request! bouncebounce goes back to being the quiet lurker (Reply to this) (Parent)

	pretender_katt 2005-10-04 11:58 am UTC (link)
	And elves? :-( (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	waywind 2005-10-04 05:29 pm UTC (link)
	Yes. All kinds will be represented, as possible. (Reply to this) (Parent)

elynne
2005-09-21 01:36 pm UTC (link)

Somehow, in the second panel, you've *perfectly* captured an expression of consternation on the griffon's bird face, while still keeping it wonderfully, completely birdlike. Mad, mad props. :D Also, I like that the human-form in the first panel is rather androgynous; I see it as probably female, but I can easily see it as male, too, which is super-cool. :)

The flailing around with a keyboard stuck to one's hand makes me think of what I do when I have a bit of tape or paper or something stuck to the bottom of my shoe... my initial response is never to just bend down (or bend my knee and lift my foot) to peel the tape off; instead I'll flick my foot, then flail my leg, with increasing urgency, until I remember "Oh, right... I have opposeable thumbs!" :D

(Reply to this) (Thread)

waywind
2005-09-21 02:23 pm UTC (link)

Yayyy! Thanks! The sprack-squee icons frolic.

I can draw indignant birds because I have chickens! :D And because I sketched a gazillion different faces until I thought I had the expression right. I've been doing that with all the comics so far, since they rely a lot on facial expression. Even for the comic in the simplified style, I spent an hour on sketching different faces until it was just right. (:P

The original picture of the gryphon's face is completely different. Its tongue is lolling out on one side, its pupils are dilated, and its eyes are rolled downward. I changed it in Photoshop because it looked either completely insane or dead. o_o;;

Or both! Watch out, the insane zombiegryphon is flailing around with a keyboard!

You're the first person who said something about the androgyny... so far in all the comics, pretty much all the people have been androgynous. :D I won't keep that up, since I want the characters to look really diverse, but it was an experiment in making the characters appear unalike one another while yet still being easily identified with. Or something.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	kiwiburd 2005-09-21 08:43 pm UTC (link)
	flings the keyboard across the roomi love it!! and i'd probaly be the same if i became my gryph self! XD do you have any icons of the comic or can i make one with your permission?? :D (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	waywind 2005-09-22 01:52 pm UTC (link)
	I haven't made any icons yet, but fans are always welcome to make icons. :) If you send me a link to the finished icons, I'll put them on the comic website and credit them to you. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	silvernyte 2005-09-25 03:30 am UTC (link)
	y'know... I had a fussy hen several years back who did that exact same expression quite often... XD (Reply to this) (Parent)

	slupine 2005-09-26 01:30 pm UTC (link)
	You were right to change the eyes. Pupils normally constrict rather than dilate when you tense up, don't they? I think... hm, shows you how often I make eye contact. heh Guess who's not the alpha dog. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

waywind
2005-09-26 07:10 pm UTC (link)

Dilated pupils are associated with tension, but so are constricted pupils. I guess that maybe either extreme, if displayed with disregard to actual light levels, indicates some form of emotional and physical excitement, without being very specific as to what kind of excitement it is.

Especially so if someone's pupils repeatedly get larger and smaller really fast. I've never seen human eyes do that, but cats and birds do that when they see something really interesting.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

elynne
2005-10-02 10:27 pm UTC (link)

Dilated pupils are associated with tension, but so are constricted pupils. I guess that maybe either extreme, if displayed with disregard to actual light levels, indicates some form of emotional and physical excitement, without being very specific as to what kind of excitement it is.

I think that, in humans, dilated pupils = excitement/interest/pleasure; contracted pupils = pain/surprise/fear. I have no idea if this is actually true (though Larry Niven did a book which dwelled on that idea quite a bit, called A Gift From Earth); further research would be required, and I think I might have to do it now, just to be sure, because... because. ;)

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	elynne 2005-10-02 10:41 pm UTC (link)
	Hm... web research is coming up inconclusive; the "dilated = interest, contracted = fear/aversion" meme turns up several times, including a couple of citations of research proving that dilated pupils make a person seem more interesting, but there's no clear indication of when pupils contract vs. dilate as an emotional response. Hm. [/geeking] ;) (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

waywind
2005-10-02 11:16 pm UTC (link)

I remember reading some things that suggested a clearer link between pupil dilation and drug use. Depressants = dilated, stimulants = contracted. The biography I saw it in didn't state it so clearly as that, though, and it's probably only as applicable a rule as the emotional connection, if applicable at all. Heck, maybe it's even on snopes.com... um... nothing that I can find, although searching for "eyes" on there brings up some pretty disturbing results.

Having one pupil larger than the other, that's a sure sign of a severe concussion. They always check for that when someone has a head injury. Hm... but there are exceptions to that, too: a similar effect is seen if someone's face is strongly side-lit... I've only seen that as being visible on cats, though, since slit pupils show changes in dilation more clearly than round pupils. You could tell the difference between those because a concussed person's eyes would stay mismatched even when the light was moved, though.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

	ohnosir 2005-09-23 03:01 am UTC (link)
	Thank God for retractable claws, eh? ;] ~DL (Reply to this)

	esmirelda 2005-09-23 02:53 pm UTC (link)
	I think it works great... it is a comic afterall. For the sake of a giggle we can throw realism aside. ;) (Reply to this)

	asilynneoutlaw 2005-09-24 03:29 am UTC (link)
	I love your art/comic style! Looks like the type youd actually see ina newspaper :D My favorite one would have to be the girl pointing with her wing, sometimes you forget certain body parts arent visible lol I hope to see some Wolfkin ones sometime soon ^-^ Keep up the good work! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	waywind 2005-09-24 11:09 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks! No worries there, I was already planning to have a wolf in the next strip. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	zuki_san 2005-09-24 06:03 pm UTC (link)
	Hmmm....it is me, or is there something slightly beaklike about our dear gryphon's human nose? Drawing a more unusual nose type was deliberate, wasn't it? (Reply to this) (Thread)

waywind
2005-09-24 11:07 pm UTC (link)

"You might be a weregryphon ... if you wonder why the aquiline nose isn’t considered handsome."

Some cultures (ancient Egyptian, mostly, and Chinese) believed that personality and life were things of the nose, as the nose is a defining part of the face (personality, character) and is used for breathing (life). As such, a big nose is a good thing. Personally, I think any naturally-occurring nose shape is pretty.

Deliberate, yes, and a bit of an attempt to make the gryphon keep looking like xirself in either form. It's deliberate also in that one of my goals with the artwork in Theri There is to portray people with a variety of facial features (and hairstyles, body shapes, ethnicities, genders, etc) instead of having all the characters be clones of one another.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	weirgreif 2005-09-26 06:36 am UTC (link)
	OEM, I'm a source. :) (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	waywind 2005-09-26 07:05 pm UTC (link)
	"OEM"? Original Equipment Manufacturer? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	weirgreif 2005-09-28 03:06 am UTC (link)
	It's less blasphemous than OMG, yes? (Reply to this) (Parent)

Another idea belched out of my brain at 5:45 AM

kistaro
2005-09-25 10:56 am UTC (link)

Studying for over 14 hours in one day (total) can actually be inspiring to me. My brain starts to make weird connections, and that's where weird ideas come from!

Something that's been happening to me continuously for the last two years of college class: abrupt xenoawareness in Psychology class. (I'm laying claim to the word "xenoawareness" right now.) That's when something abruptly brings one's differences into the forefront of one's mind; you can see how a Psych class would inspire that. My most general moments of that are describing emotional systems. Did you know that apparently, human emotions are assigned with a subconscious system that makes a guess as to what the cause of physiological arousal is? That's completely different from me- I'm aware of the emotion long before I'm experiencing any physical signs of it, rapid heart rate or otherwise. (That and there's only one emotional "arousal" system- same physical response for grief, anger, sexuality, etc. That also varies from me.) However, that's not terribly interesting to illustrate, although the phenomenon is; how about to something a little more visual, like an in-class experiment? That's happened for me as well. Ignoring the fact that I presently hold the record for training a virtual rat to press a lever to get food (both records- speed record to 15 bar presses at 14 minutes, hit record to 50 bar presses under the time limit of 20 minutes, from an untrained virtual rat), it's more something like Dr. Lambert describing a puzzle in class, waiting for people to solve it, and then stepping through "the exact process you used to solve it", expressing this with great certainty and then observing that personal variation in that simply didn't happen. 197 people in the 198-person class were amazed; there was much discussion afterwards of how it perfectly matched. The thought process described was completely alien to me. I could dig out my notes, but I'm not sure you need that...

I've got an idea how it would be fun to illustrate, but stop reading this comment if you've already thought of something and are interested in this because your idea is probably better than mine. Generic lecture hall full of students, with Dr. Whoever describing this puzzle-experiment in the front. (No therianthropic illustration.) Next panel: Lecture hall full of thought bubbles, most of which are nearly identical except for one throughly different one. Third panel: Dr. Whoever's speech bubble, with a short explanation of problem-solving processes and then the exact content of the mass thought bubbles. (Preferably text giving way to pseudo-abstract visuals.) Final panel: Everything simplified and abstract, except for one ornately-illustrated therianthrope in the middle, suddenly feeling distinctly inhuman and very aware of (and possibly uncomfortable with) this...

I go sleep now. *thud*

(Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: Another idea belched out of my brain at 5:45 AM slupine 2005-09-26 01:28 pm UTC (link)
	That emotional thing, do you suppose that could be equated with knowing a panic attack is going to happen that night, early in the afternoon it is going to happen? I used to have that quite a bit, though I'm sure it can be argued that it was the other way round and I was causing myself to have one. Sorry, I'm rather interested in psychology myself. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

Re: Another idea belched out of my brain at 5:45 AM

kistaro
2005-09-26 03:10 pm UTC (link)

It seems to be a different phenomenon to me- it's simple awareness of "I am in this condition right now and have full freedom of choice to act upon it or not", rather than "I will lose control of my responses in X amount of time"...

I'm minoring in Psychology, a bit of a strange combination to my major in Computer Science. It sort of makes sense. I understand computers inside-out; their cold, logical determinism makes perfect sense to me. It's something that's fun for me to learn that I can easily build a career off of- for some vague definition of "easy" that's currently playing hell with my sleep schedule and homework load. People, conversely, make no sense to me and I could use a class or six about them...

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Another idea belched out of my brain at 5:45 AM slupine 2005-09-26 09:58 pm UTC (link)
	"I'm minoring in Psychology, a bit of a strange combination to my major in Computer Science." Hm, makes sense to me. My boyfriend is a CS major survivor. Psychology fits because, by the time you graduate, you'll need mental help. Saves on the therapy. :P (Reply to this) (Parent)

Username:		Create an Account Forgot your login or password? Login w/ OpenID
Password:
	Remember Me
	English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…

About

Help

Get Involved

Legal

Store

LJ Labs