Image "Landsuit_Above_Patterns30%" is terrific - and shows why I wanted the SMS touch.
Quibbles/praise follow:
"Scream" of the mask may be interpreted too literally. Perhaps needs to be altered? Horizontal louvres are too obvious...?
Diskos, to be a practical weapon, needs to have its full perimeter or as much of that as possible exposed. I also imagined it having a subtly double-curved shaft, like a scythe (expediters as Grim Reapers - why not?) - however, the dimensions and shape, I appreciate are subordinate to composition. The implication that it is a double-ended weapon, the heavy powerpack or whatever it is at the end opposite the blade is interesting - never thought of it, but the martial arts taught to expediters would no doubt involve the use of a diskos as an impact as well as cutting weapon, so a substantial mass opposite the blade could be handy. In some short story or other, I described training/use of the thing and noted that there would be a lot of inertia tied up in a rapidly spinning blade, and so combat would appear to be a rather formalised dance... rather like Kendo...
Love the composition!
Ruff and helmet crest work for me. Love the "explosive" shape of the ground.
This image doesn't need to be more complicated, as far as I'm concerned - I leave this to your judgement, but depicting a specific incident with all present, accounted for and in their appropriate poses is not an issue for me. This says enough - as the drawings are a suite, we'll see the faces of Meyr and Pallin elsewhere.
Cheers,
--B
From: eira.sms@virgin.net
To: pinlighter@btconnect.com; bidavids@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Night land : Land Armour
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:17:35 +0000
Bearing in mind the comments, I thought
I'd send you a couple of more recent sketches.
Much the same design, but slightly more
'Baroque'.
I think I'm getting the hang of
it...
Best:
Smuzz
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2011 9:12
PM
Subject: Re: Night land : Sea of images:
Section 3.
Some reactions
- the idea of the Helm being especially festooned with
sensors and filters is one which fits very well with other NL
stories. The developing idea is that in this era the Helms have to
filter the Night Land into a sort of virtual reality in order for the wearers
to endure it. cf for example the story "Slope" (by me, but Brett
and I have used each others' ideas extensively http://www.thenightland.co.uk/nightslope.html
Their nightsuits are not the heavy amplified coverings used by the
Watchmen for patrols or close exploration work. They are as thin as
cloth and as light as paper, unamplified and uninstrumented. Their
only augmentation is in the complex filters in the Helms, which make up
thirty percent of the suits' weight and consume all their power. Long
ago, men could survive in the Land by relying only on their own
senses. Now they must wear the Helms, which mount shields and sensory
enhancements on a pattern two million years old. The Helms capture and
amplify sound, and scavenge what little light there is in the Night
Land. They map the paths through the dark, and they pass
messages to other men in ways that hopefully are not obvious to the entities
of the Land, where even telepathy is too risky to be used. They
enhance and they communicate and they also protect, for they shield the eyes
as well as the Soul from that which can destroy merely by being
sensed.
but these are the heavy amplified suits
used for close in work,
- the one thing I don't like are the heavy lower limbs
and boots. Very bad mechanically - the last place you want
energy-soaking mass is at the end of your limbs. reminds me of mecha, not in a good way. mecha are not the
product of real world evolutionary selection
- is there a risk of the "ruff" looking
foppish?, - maybe more like radio
telescope dishes / bat ears / antennae?
- another gothic suit
good stuff :-0