Guide Art Direction – Aldryami

Here is some art direction for Gloranthan Elves.

The picture is a full page black and white depicting three different Aldryami (Gloranthan elves) subtypes. All three are humanoid, in that they have two arms, two legs, a torso, and a head. All three have kinship with plants and ultimately belong to the Vegetable Kingdom and not the Animal Kingdom.

Here’s some images to just get you into the right mental framework:

And this short film is exactly the right feel: http://io9.com/5948244/this-short-film-is-the-next-best-thing-to-a-new-swamp-thing-movie

Figure 1: Green Elf warrior. This female aldryami is kin to the pine trees of her upland forest. She is about 5′ 6″ tall and slender. She looks almost perfectly human – almost too perfect. Her breasts are gravity defying, her facial expressions are fixed and unchanging, like a Barbie Doll made out of wood and then sanded (like this http://imagesgonerogue.com/2010/01/lilycolecartersmith6.jpg or this http://media.photobucket.com/image/lily+cole+/relina199167/Celestina/Lily%20Cole/AskMe.jpg) – complete with the wrong proportions of a Barbie doll. Her hair is made out of pine needles (as well as any other little details you might want to add). She wears armor made out of copper plates, and carries a living plant that she uses as a bow.

Figure 2: Brown Elf gardener. This aldryami looks more like a walking oak tree than a human. It is about 5′ 3″ tall and covered in thick bark. No knees or elbows, but 4 sinuous limbs that are vaguely arm or leg-like. The head nestles at the split of two branches and its face has hollows where the eyes should be and a gaping maw that channels the wind into piping vocalizations. Its head is covered with oak leaves and acorns. It carries an ornate magical staff that has been grown to aid him in tending to the forest.

Figure 3: Yellow Elf scout. This aldryami is more humanoid than the gardener, but not as human looking as the Green Elf. He is kin to the cypress trees (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Longwood_Senator_Park_Big02.jpg) that grow in his vast lowland rain forest. He is coveredith bark, with various creepers and vines crawling up him. His “hair” is a tangle of cypress leaves. He looks strikingly like the old DC villain Floronic Man (http://picturepoetry.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/swamp-thing-244.jpg). Our Yellow Elf carries a living bow similar to the Green Elf warrior.

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