#project ivilitium

[bazookaboi]

Random test I made in my pretty unrealistic angular style. Might delete it later because I don’t like how the eyes turned out...

Messing around with the Ivilitium’s designs a lot, this one here is inspired by atlantic mackerel. I see them all the time in fish markets here and find them quite interesting.

Flat colour version and reference bellow the cut!

[bazookaboi]

Fellow spec bio artists- CONSIDER: draw your blorbos being held like the longcat meme. Or honestly any artist, I dare you draw your OC(s) like this lol. I want to see how long they stretch >:]

[bazookaboi]

I am still not satisfied with my more realistic style drawing skills, but I can see improvement comparing my last attempt with this one! (If I were to remake this piece I would probably change the foot, arm and get better at drawing clothes).

Any Opinions? Suggestions?

Oh. and school is almost over for me so I will be able to pay more attention to my glorious mutuals soon. + ARTFIGHT HELL YEAH + I will be able to post way more art >:]

[bazookaboi]

4 days left till ArtFight and I still have 3 references left to make… heh (they each take 24 hours aprox. to make) Why do I do this to myself.

I know some of you guys are also speedrunning refs last minute so uh, good luck and don’t let the burnout get you, lol.

Well then, here’s Gray! I probably forgot something or didn’t do as much research as I wanted to, but it’s good enough. Here is her profile on ArtFight if you are interested: (click here)

[bazookaboi]

Ok even though this should be part of a sketch dump I wanted to put it apart because I thought it turned out neat.

This one is just me messing around with “should I give Ivilitium clothes, and if so what would they be like” concepts. Nothing canon.

Oh and random fun fact did you know that Niko can make a 👍🏼 with his feet? (The drawing is a bit wonky because I couldn’t erase lol)

And yes I did change his design a bit if you were wondering. Ears/facial structure.

[bazookaboi]

Background practice, featuring two Ivilitium aerius.

Probably somewhere in Colorado.

I didn’t give this much thought or time because the weird-ass artblock variant that I have had for… 2 months or so now isn’t letting my mind advance.

I could definitely do better. I must do better! The background only took me 2 hours and 40 minutes.

[bazookaboi]

B1ASHO: “Quick question: how often does Niko interact with other ivilitium? (Of any kind?)”

Oh boy, scandalously massive rant time. [As always take this all with a grain of salt because I am constantly redesigning this story. The drawing too because I was messing around with colours.]

This would definitely depend on where in the story’s timeline you are referring to… He has already seen Ivilitium before in his younger years, but these interactions were either hostile or with other human-raised Ivilitium. In that time he was around humans for the most part, though. Farther in the timeline, Niko is introduced to normal Ivilitium. Specifically ones from the Ivilitium Imperium (II or Imperium for short). He is mainly around Ivilitium after that. [I can’t say much more without giving away significant story lore that I would like to keep secret for future comics lol] … Unfortunately, even though Niko is eventually in contact with regular Ivilitium, He will forever be physically, mentally and socially affected by the previous human intervention that he received… and that brings me to that drawing above. :]

Most Ivilitium find Niko weird or uncomfortable to be around. He’s a little freak who knows an enemy language better than any of the ones spoken by his own species. In fact, he only knows English, and a pretty rudimentary one at that. As if that wasn’t enough, his literacy skills are almost nonexistent. The only Ivilitium known to be able of speaking a decent level of English are members of the Imperium, so this already establishes a barrier between Niko and a large percentage of his species. He can’t even communicate with non-Imperium individuals.

By most of those who do get to know him a bit better, Niko is considered to be too volatile and unpredictable for comfort. (This goes for human standards too). In the Imperium, being calm and collected is what’s socially acceptable… which is what Niko is the exact opposite of. There’s some significant differences in his behavior. Just for example, if provoked and expecting a fight, most Ivilitium perform a sort of “hostile stare down” with another before doing anything physical. Niko doesn’t hesitate in resorting to violence, though.

One of the more evident things that can be observed is Niko’s expressions compared to a regular Ivilitium… which I still need to make a separate post about. Firstly, he “smiles”. Well, it can look a bit more like a grimace, but he instinctively tugs the edges of his lips up a bit more, which is a behaviour exclusive to human-raised/ socialized Ivilitium. This would be fine if he would just keep his mouth closed while doing it… but that (sometimes) isn’t the case, with Niko showing his beak blades and gums in a very bad attempt of mimicking a human smile. His smile makes both Ivilitium and humans uncomfortable. Niko’s mouth shape makes his closed smile way too long for human comfort, making him look even more uncanny to them than he and the rest of his species already are. And for Ivilitium, his open smile makes it look like he is angry or hostile. Secondly, Niko uses his brow ridges a lot more than most Ivilitium. He also has a tendency to have a fixed and direct stare in neutral conversations/interactions with other Ivilitium, even strangers, which can be quite unsettling or even misinterpreted as hostile by the other.

Ah, and just to put the cherry on top, Niko also came out with some physical defects; most notably his lack of vibrissae. He is stunted in stimuli detection compared to other Ivilitium, which makes hunting and detecting threats more difficult. Another curious issue is that some Ivilitium have problems detecting his sex, therefore not knowing how to refer to him. It is unsure what causes this yet- but it is assumed to be some hormonal imbalance, intersex condition, or something else entirely.

But! Do not fret, Niko has managed to make one good Ivilitium friend who doesn’t see him too much as a sociopathic weirdo… Although that is probably because this individual is pretty messed up as well. Seen in the upper left corner of the drawing, meet K4. A neurotic, nervous wreck of a creature who was also human-raised. I’ll make a post about him too sometime.

—————— RRRRH B1ASHO I LOVE QUESTIONS THANK YOU

Uh, if you managed to read to the end of this monstrously-sized lore dump, here, take some extra Niko sketches as a thanks for your interest. :]

If I am forgetting something I swear I’m going to be livid.

[bazookaboi]

Oh man, I love drawing my blorbos in ridiculous poses i find on Pinterest.

I also needed to test out a few design modifications with Niko… in particular his phalanges and limbs in general. It’s not much.

And all of this because ArtFight is around the corner (1 AND A HALF MONTHS!!!) and I need to create updated references for all of my OCs.

I should draw an ask or two now…