Early 1993

 

In 1993 I was in 7th grade and first got interested in science fiction.  One day in health class I started drawing these alien critters.  Based loosely on a description in John Christopher's Tripods trilogy, they have green skin, three legs, antennae and tentacles.  No fingers.   The males have three eyes and brown markings on their skin, which are unique to each individual.  Note the structure of the snout as more or less a circle in the middle of the face.  The two Secret Service aliens shown here are guarding a Chelsea Clinton-like alien at the pool. >_<  They were the earliest prototypes for Bronzar!  

Mid-1993

Later in 1993 I started borrowing some character ideas from first season of the War of the Worlds television series, or, more importantly, the novelization of the series premiere.  The aliens on the show were brown, slimy, stumpy little things with essentially no neck or head, one eye and long, three-fingered hands. 0_o  Much of the time, though, they took over and inhabited human bodies.  Yucky and boring.  So I ran with my own ideas about the characters and used my own design for their appearance.

No major changes occured to the look of the aliens at this time, although I did start drawing the balls on their antennae somewhat larger.

That's Xana in the black-and-white dressing gown, inspired by a pic of Mae West.

My "Big Snout Period" (late 1993 and early 1994)

By this time I was also familiar with the second season of War of the Worlds, although most of my character ideas stemmed from the very last episode.  This is what I refer to as my "Big Snout Period" (hey, I can have one, if Picasso had a blue period! :-p   During this time, for some inexplicable reason, I drew the aliens with very large, square snouts.  Their antennae balls continued to grow, as well.

That's Xana again with Malzor.

Early or Mid-1995

By this time the antennae balls had shrunk to a more reasonable size, and the snouts weren't quite as large--closer to the original size.  I tended to draw their tentacles and feet smaller, though.

That's Tila with little Darice.

Late 1995

Now I had abandoned all borrowed characters and plot elements and created my own universe, but continued to use the same look for my aliens.  Heritage in the Stars was born!

No major changes to the look of the aliens at this time.  At left is the first colored picture of Vazali (unfortunately cropped to avoid major spoilers.)

**Here's a gallery of the first-ever sketches of the main Heritage characters!**

Early 1996

I'm not exactly sure how to explain this, but the snout structure changed around this time.  It got to be more oval-shaped, and the "nose" area protruded beyond the line of the face farther.   Otherwise no major changes.

Vazali and Bronzar shown here.

Mid-1996

This was the style most of my old Heritage art had.  "Old" means the art I drew while I was still writing the first draft of the novel, more or less.

Arms/tentacles tended to be a little short, and their antennae balls were usually about the size of their eyeballs.  Again, no major changes here.

Vazali and Bronzar again, looking extremely peeved about...well, that's a spoiler.   ;-)

Late 1997

I finally gave up using a combination of Crayola markers and colored pencils, and started using just colored pencils.  This pic of Delzeena was one of the first shaded pics of an alien that I really liked.  Aside from a move toward realism in texture and shading, no major changes here, however.

Note that in this pic and next one, Delzeena is somewhat older than she is in Heritage in the Stars.  Think sequel.  ;-)

1998

I didn't draw many aliens through this time period, so I got quite out of practice.  Snouts got longer again and the antennae stalks got thicker.

In late 1998 I decided to discontinue drawing a third eye on the males and a third leg on any of them.  Too hard to draw, and a little too weird. 

Delzeena models a plain yellow gown while apparently something ominous happens above her and off-camera.  0_o

Early 1999

This was a very awkward attempt at rendering Bronzar and Vazali in a different style, and I was not at all pleased with the result.  Bronzar got especially deformed from the neck down.  I do like Vazali's eyes in this one, though.

The brown patches have now disappeared from male skin coloring.  They got thumbs!  Antennae got much, much, much thinner.  Eyes went from a vertical oval to a more human horizontal oval.  I started using colored pencil to show Bronzar's eyes through the sunglasses. 

The snout/nose structure was the biggest problem at this point.  I couldn't decide how to make it look...well, realistic, for want of a better word.  I wanted something more 3-D than the old style.  No luck yet.

Also note that between the last pic and this one I discovered the glorious majesty of Prismacolor pencils! ;-D  I was soon to become reasonably proficient at computer paint programs, too.

2000

This was the first good, colored pic I did in what is now (more or less) the current style.

The butterfly-like antennae stayed, as did the thumbs, etc.  The only big change from 1999 is the snout/nose area.   I added a bridge to the nose bisecting the face to add a more human quality to it.   Doing so made it easier to place and draw the realistic eyes, as well.

Vazali shows off her crown.

2001

Still tinkering with the style at this point.  The snout is slightly smaller and more rounded now.  I also experimented with how realistic vs. cartoony I wanted to draw the eyes.  No huge changes, though.

I tried some more anime-style hairstyles but eventually decided I liked the original hairdo best.

Vazali in business dress.  She stole both of those necklaces from me! ;-)

Early 2002

And...tada!  The current style!  Except for the green skin and lack of fingers, they're pretty much human from the neck down.  Extremely thin antennae with very small bulbs, human-like eyes, and a smaller, rounded snout with a bridge.

Part of this evolution was, of course, due to the improvement of my artistic skill, and some was due to the fact that these alien critters inhabited three distinct "universes" in less than ten years.

Vazali and Bronzar have a gloomy conversation.  Apparently they don't appreciate all the years of work that went into developing their look! ;-)