Art: Dinoception [Inception]

[motetus]

I did it, I finally slew this dinosaur-shaped thing that's been lurking in my WIP folder for over a year... wait, no, make that two years. Huh, I think that's a new record for me. Anyway. Finished! \o/

So, this is a long-overdue gift for the wonderful agenttrojie, who deserves all credit for the title and concept (that is what I love about all you people in fandom, you ensure I never have to use my own imagination). The idea, which I stole from one of her WIP descriptions, was that the team attempt to extract from someone whose militarisation manifests DINOSAURS (Arthur has neglected to research that bit of information again, and so Cobb does more angry finger-pointing), and that meant I could draw all sorts of ridiculously enjoyable things like angry dinosaurs and Eames with a rocket launcher and adorable dinosaurs making friends with Cobb. Trojie, your idea was awesome and I had a very fun time with this, and I hope it makes you happy! <3 And ahem, inspires you to finish that WIP one day...

No attempt at scientific accuracy was made at any point (am pretty sure Stegosaurus and T-Rex/raptors/angiosperms did not exist in the same era), but the wonderful thing about PASIV extraction scenarios is that you can wave your hands about and protest that it's just a dream, and then go back to being lazy. And, uh, ignore the incorrect handedness. THE THINGS YOU ONLY NOTICE AFTER 2 YEARS OF LOOKING AT IT.





I think this may well the most complicated thing I have drawn to date, and you don't want to know how many layers I accumulated. A lot? I'm amazed my ancient computer didn't expire halfway through. Here, have some close-ups at 66%, so you can see the utterly stupid amounts of unnecessary detail (I HATE PLANTS SO MUCH NOW) I squeezed in:







If anyone wants to take advantage of how deliriously giddy I am about finishing this, I'd be delighted to send prints of this to anyone who fancies one, just let me know.

Comments

[sineala.livejournal.com]

OMG this is the bessssst. I love the feathery one in the foreground. Also the rocket launcher.

But is the blue one in the middle dead? Drowning? Swimming?

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank ypu! It occurred to me far too late that it looks like the rocket is going straight up poor T-Rex's arse. That is probably not going to end well.

And omg, yes - that dinosaur was supposed to be dead and sprawled over a rock but you are right, he does look like he's doing a (terrible) backstroke to get away from Arthur! Hah, ridiculous little dino.

[sineala.livejournal.com]

I'll pretend he's still alive and happily swimming away. La la la, denial!

[bauble]

Yay, it is complete! And it is so spectacular! Congratulations on such a complicated and awesome achievement :D

Arthur and his sassy pose are still my favorite moment in this piece, though there are a lot of good ones. Cobb pointing makes me laugh, I like that colorful dino in the forefront and I like all the placid herbivores in the back by the watering hole. The plants look great and properly prehistoric and the mountains in the distant with the swooping flying dinos are very nice.

And turtles! So cute <3

Also, of course I will jump on any opportunity for a print.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

The turtles are making their way to the fresh corpse of the dinosaur in the water to feast upon it. Still cute? Yeah, I suppose they are.

Glad you like it, and thank you for all the encouragement and hand-holding you did throughout the long painful process of finishing this! I am also very glad I took up your challenge of painting something with strong pink tones - I think it adds to the whole prehistoric feel of the background, and goes with all the green very nicely.

(orange is still my favourite colour and I will never give it up!)

[the-little-owl.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, now we know what, er, who killed off the dinosaurs! :>)
But I feel sorry for the already slain ones.

So I take it that Arthur made a shoddy preparation for a normal-looking job, and that landed the team in some sort of dinotopia, while they expected some modern military with aircrafts or tanks?

Congrats to this detailed picture! And yes, I noticed the swimming turtles! I'll bet they'll attack most ferociously when Arthur and friends fired all their ammunition. And the turtles will win! ;>)

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you! If it makes you feel better, the slain ones are the mean bitey ones, and the team are letting the adorable friendly herbivores live? And yes, they've underestimated the turtles - a foolish mistake, because as one who has been bitten by a pet turtle before, they are vicious little monsters.

[earlgreytea68.livejournal.com]

Eep! This is a brilliant idea and SO ADORABLE I LOVE IT.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! I'm glad you like my humble attempts to shove more dinosaurs into fandom. :D

[fififolle]

That is truly beautiful!! Congratulations. It's amazing :D
I love the little ankylosaurus-like thing! And Eames happy face <3
Absolutely gorgeous sky and so many creatures. Love it!
I will have to pimp this to all my dino-loving friends :)
Thank you for posting. I was thinking I would love to print this :D Yes please, me! Would be happy to pay costs, just let me know.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you liked the small friendly dinosaurs - it may be a bit unrealistic to have them there amongst all the vicious carnivores and the team with loud explosive weapons, but I couldn't resist shoving them in there and making them look adorable. You know what I'm like with small cute animals...

I will send you a print for your Wall of Dinosaurs! :D

[fififolle]

Yay! Thank you!

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

oh my god this is the best thing that has ever been created in the history of the world and I am in awe of it. So much. SO MUCH. Fucking fuck, I need to finish the fic just so that I can prove to you how much I love this, and you, and that you are the best.

can I put my hand up for a print so that I can bask in its gloriousness foreverrrrrrr?

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Yay, I am so glad it made you happy! :D I fell in love with your idea the moment I read it - I don't think it was much more than a mention of dinosaurs and Cobb sounding a little exasperated, but sometimes the idea is SO GOOD that fleshing it out visually is a piece of cake. I am just disappointed I couldn't fit more dinosaurs in, but them being all big and hogging space would have been a problem.

I will happily send you a print! Can you let me know your address by emailing it to zoeradha@gmail.com, please?

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

hahaha, I love it all

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Everything about this is PERFECT, will try to comment on more detail later, but omg. <3

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Hooray! I am so glad you like the dinosaurs - I mean, I knew you'd like them because DINOSAURS, but it still makes me ever so delighted.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Wow. No wonder it took two years, there's so much going on! I think the feathery foreground dino is my favorite.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

To be fair, most of that time was spent avoiding looking at it while accumulating enough arting XP to level up to the stage where I could tackle it properly. It's a really good thing I don't rely on my art to put food on the table.

[sneaqui.livejournal.com]

OMG NO, LITTLE TURTLE FAMILY, SWIM AWAY!!
And for some reason I can't stop laughing at the dead blue dino in the river with his legs all up in the air. XD

LOLOL Coob being like THIS WAS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT WE'D BE DEALING WITH WHING WHING WHING /hair comes un-greased <3

And I love Arthur's and Eames' Twin Hero Stance of Great Justice!
And Ariadne looking at her dino like, "I'm... just trying to understand... What is this feeeeeeling..."

Also, I believe that the first angiosperms (possibly even water lilies) came into existence in the late Jurassic! Around the same time as Stegosaurus and Archaeopteryx! YAYY!! :D
I love that you put time and detail into your background vegetation. (Like you did with your A/E Lara Croft/Indiana Jones art.) As someone who loves planties, it makes me really happy. And it makes your art so dense and rich!

The detail in this is just amazing. Esp all the different colors. Congrats on finishing this. It is truly gorgeous and I'm going to keep it open in this tab a little while longer so I can stare at it. :]

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Omg, thank you! :D Yeah, I can't believe I've finished this either - it feels like a decade ago that I was sending scribbled drafts to Bauble and having her very politely tell me it was very hard to figure out what was going on because there were so many things in it and my scribbling was very very messy. I'm now contemplating buying myself a new tablet as a reward...

Ahahaha, "Arthur's and Eames' Twin Hero Stance of Great Justice" - YES. I did not intend for them to have similar postures, but obviously I have a very unsubtle Thing for the both of them with their legs firmly spread apart. I wonder why...

And yay, I'm so glad the plants got the seal of approval from a plant-lover, even though I put absolutely zero effort into making them vaguely accurate, just scribbled something that looked a bit fern-like. I must admit I got frustrated with them towards the end because there were just SO MANY of them, but then I feel like that about everything I draw for too long. Currently I am having irritated thoughts about Eames' naked body, THE BASTARD.

[beili.livejournal.com]

MY GOD, IT LOOKS ABSOLUTELY MAGNIFICENT! Bravo!

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! It feels like such an achievement to have finally finished this... until I look at all the other files in my WIP folder.

[mrsdstephens.livejournal.com]

Amazeballs

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ameluz71.livejournal.com]

There was unable to comment but OH MY GOD!! draw all look gorgeous and your great dinosauriosson both, I really like the colors, background, all elements you drew are beautiful, plants, lake and two crocodiles in the water.

EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL, GREAT WORK!! :) ♥

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Apologies for the incredibly late response to your lovely comment, I've become rubbish at checking LJ! Thank you very much, and I'm glad you spotted the crocodiles! I love that there are some species today that look just like their prehistoric ancestors, though I'm kind of glad it's them and not the huge terrifying carnivores that survived.

[chasingriver.livejournal.com]

This is spectacular. Wow. I could stare at this for ages and keep finding new things. I love your artwork.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, thank you so much! I do love drawing ridiculously cluttered pictures with lots of things for the viewer to spot, though they're so time-consuming that I don't manage to churn them out very frequently. I'm very glad you like it! :)

[chasingriver.livejournal.com]

All the art you've been posting for Inception on tumblr has been making me so happy too. I love the warm roundness (if that's a thing) to it. The Eames/Yusuf one... I can't even describe how it made me feel when I saw it. Amazing. Eames looks so serene. And the Eames/Saito/(carpet) one as well. You managed to do hot and yet really tender. I think I first saw your art on The Man with his Fingers in my Icebox (?) and I've been in love with it ever since. If you ever take commissions, let me know. :)

[motetus.livejournal.com]

You are doing terrible things for my ego, but I am so thrilled by your comment about the Eames/Yusuf picture! I've wanted to draw more of that pairing for a long time, and I'm really delighted by the reaction to it. It's kind of pathetic, I know, but the reason I don't draw as much rare pair art despite all my claims about loving them almost as much as I do Arthur/Eames is purely down to how it's pretty depressing to work on something for days or weeks and then get a handful of pity likes. So the fandom's response to the rare pair week has been amazing and really encouraging, and it's got me determined to draw more of my favourite pairings. And "hot and yet really tender" is such a wonderful compliment to get, thank you - I'm a fan of limited emotion when it comes to fic, but when making things myself I can't seem to avoid drenching everything in sappy feelings!

Commissions are something I've shied from for a long time because I felt daunted by the idea of producing art that I felt comfortable accepting money for, but now I've had a few inquiries I may consider it once my thesis is finished (and I'm unemployed and income-less, hah). Will let you know if I decide to go for it! :)

[chasingriver.livejournal.com]

I think it's fantastic to see all the rare pair love. I shipped pretty much nothing but rare pairs in Sherlock for three years and it was always wonderful to see any sort of rare pair art. I'm a big fan of sappy fanart. :) Definitely let me know!