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They Stood Against the Sky · Original Short Story ·
Organised by RogerDodger
Word limit 2000–8000
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Skye’s the Limit
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#1 · 2
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
"The Skaven are relentless!"
#2 · 2
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
Holy dang, this wins the creepy as heck award!
#3 · 1
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
*looks it up*
hmm

Ah I see. It's a Skye terrier? I'm very glad that someone was able to pull off 'against the sky' without it actually representing the sky above the Earth. Well done! That being said, there's a lot about this image that I really enjoy, and some things that confused me at first.

All three subjects in this image, I think, are well done. It's pretty unsettling, and the medium used here makes it even more so. I really like that the rat on the left is wielding a screw. It's a great touch that also somewhat establishes a sense of scale. I also like that the dog's teeth were drawn much darker (lighter?) than the rest, making it a more obvious focal point.

Some things that didn't read well to me were the clock in the top right and the shelf in the top left. The clock appears to be rather large and somewhat off angle. The shelf seems just a bit out of place by itself. If there was a drawer or cabinet or any other background element accompanying it, it might feel better. All the background elements in general seem like they don't fully need to be there unless a more detailed background was going to be drawn.

However! I think the background elements as an idea help the scene by further establishing the scale.

I think this is a successful drawing! Very nicely done.
#4 ·
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
This is impressively done; I like minimalist pieces like this a lot, where a simple medium is used to convey plenty of information. The expression on the rats, the 'pit' eyes, highlighting the dogs claws and teeth, the 'focus' of the scene, (the clock-hands form an arrow pointing towards the dog's mouth!) all the little stuff, it's great.

As for constructive criticism... I think making the dog look more dog-like might have made it more obvious to me what was going on at first glance. I originally went 'Bear?' seeing this in the gallery, and although I concluded 'must be a dog' after clicking through and seeing the rats, I wasn't entirely sure until I saw your alt-text.

Two things that might have helped me: making the ears more obviously pointy (I realize they're covered by hair, but the shaped underneath could be highlighted more, maybe?) and stylizing the end of the dog's nose a bit more. Dogs have this little black heart-shaped thing their nostrils sit in, and although that's kinda in your picture, it's not very obvious; to me, the end of your dog's nose looks 'flat', and that's making the whole muzzle kinda fade into the nose, which throws off the whole 'dog' idea at first glance.

As far as being a prompt, this obviously has great potential. Tool-using rats, evocative expressions, immediate conflict, all good stuff. Maybe it would be even better if it raised more questions, but eh.
#5 · 2
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
It's cool how despite this being so minimalist on the surface I can tell pretty much exactly what's going on. It reminds me of something like Watership Down, or Secret of NIMH, but with the rats as the protagonists.

My big complaint, though, is that this is such a vivid image that there's not too much room for playing around with it. Preferably you want a piece whose context can be manipulated in a variety of ways by the writers, but this is so well-realized that I'm curious to see if anyone can really play with it.
#6 ·
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
Oh, I have run a Mouseguard game before, and this is completely appropriate. Everything is horrifying and out to kill you when you are at the bottom of that food chain.
#7 ·
·
Creepy and dark. I like.
#8 · 1
·
>>Hap, >>CoffeeMinion, >>Roseluck, >>Not_A_Hat, >>No_Raisin, >>Moosetasm

Skye’s the Limit

Congrats to the winners, and thanks for the comments!

This was done at the very last minute, after other good ideas failed to crystallize and I had put most of my time and effort into my other piece, which got almost no attention. Perhaps I am better off procrastinating?

This was sketched with white china marker (essentially crayon) on black paper. I did the terrier, the rats, and the background on separate pages, and combined them in Photoshop.
#9 · 1
·
It did turn out well! I really like the way you draw the rats. Definitely feels like there's a story there.