{"id":7833,"date":"2017-12-21T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T17:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/?p=7833"},"modified":"2018-01-08T15:00:45","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T23:00:45","slug":"giftwrapped-pixels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/?p=7833","title":{"rendered":"A Christmas Carnivore."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"font-size: 130%;\">\n<p>I thought I&#8217;d give you graphics for Christmas. Pieces of fan art have been accumulating over the year, and\u2014 while a lot of it is truly impressive\u2014 I feel weird using a blog post to do nothing but highlight one piece of art.\u00a0 Seems too easy, somehow. Blogs should be more\u2014 substantive.<\/p>\n<p>And then you wake up one day and realize that you&#8217;ve got twenty pieces of art waiting to be posted.\u00a0 That <em>substantive<\/em> enough for you?<\/p>\n<p>First off, though: for those who don&#8217;t follow me on Facebook (and I salute you; Facebook&#8217;s the only social medium I&#8217;m on and I <em>still<\/em> feel vaguely dirty when I go there), the team at Blindsight.space recently released a 30-second teaser that really is spectacular. The only complaint I have is that I&#8217;ve seen some of the footage that didn&#8217;t make it into this cut, and I wish all of it was ready for prime time right now. Art and stills are fine, but there&#8217;s\u00a0 nothing like\u00a0 watching <em>Charybdis<\/em> cruising through <em>Rorschach<\/em>&#8216;s tangled topography, or watching <em>Theseus<\/em>&#8216;s hab module blow up. Go, if you haven&#8217;t yet. Marvel.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/246726143?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"268\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/246726143\">Blindsight Project | Teaser 02<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/myshli\">Danil Krivoruchko<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\">Vimeo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sketches, \u00a0screen grabs, and other renderings have been posted in the galleries: two in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/real\/gallery\/gallery-rifters.htm\">Rifters Gallery<\/a> (under &#8220;Fan Art&#8221;), the rest in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/real\/gallery\/gallery-blindopraxia.htm\">Blindopraxia Gallery<\/a> \u00a0(the Japanese <em>Echopraxia<\/em> covers under &#8220;Official Cover Art&#8221;, everything else under &#8220;Fan&#8221;). Scroll down on this page for a subset of the new acquisitions\u2014 \u00a0an oil painting, a bit of anthropology, a couple of screen grabs\u2014 even an animated anime gif\u2014 but if you want to check out the whole lot you&#8217;ll have to click on a couple of links. It&#8217;s worth it; there&#8217;s some nice stuff behind the front page.<\/p>\n<p>As always, you can click the pic to embiggen it. Really I shouldn&#8217;t have to tell you by now.<\/p>\n<p>Start with a Valerie triptych, all three by an artist going by the handle <a href=\"https:\/\/keenahmee.deviantart.com\/\">KeeNahMee<\/a>: <em>Echopraxia<\/em>&#8216;s vampire at three stages of her life. Upper left she&#8217;s still wearing the smartweave tunic of a Simon Fraser lab rat, although she appears to have just fed (you can tell by the subtle flushing of the cheeks), and is thus probably about to leave the campus to seek other opportunities.\u00a0 Upper right she looks feral and eager and pretty much the way I imagined her throughout most of her trip down to Icarus, playing with her food.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/valerie-tryptych.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7838\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-7838\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/valerie-tryptych.jpg\" alt=\"valerie-tryptych\" width=\"600\" height=\"783\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/valerie-tryptych.jpg 986w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/valerie-tryptych-230x300.jpg 230w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/valerie-tryptych-768x1002.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/valerie-tryptych-785x1024.jpg 785w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bottom, though, she&#8217;s back in the desert with Dan Br\u00fcks while the world burns around the horizon. As far as I know, no one has illustrated this part of the novel before; while I&#8217;m enraptured by all KeeNahMee&#8217;s art, I think this relatively simple sketch is my favorite.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7835\" style=\"width: 611px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Firefall.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7835\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7835\" class=\" wp-image-7835\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Firefall.jpg\" alt=\"Firefall, from the ground (that teaser I link to above shows a glimpse of the same event from orbit.) Courtesy of Blindsight.space.\" width=\"601\" height=\"257\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Firefall.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Firefall-300x128.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Firefall-768x328.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Firefall-1024x438.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 601px) 100vw, 601px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7835\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">Firefall, from the ground (that teaser I link to above shows a glimpse of the same event from orbit.) Courtesy of Blindsight.space.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<div id=\"attachment_7836\" style=\"width: 611px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/swarmblers.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7836\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7836\" class=\" wp-image-7836\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/swarmblers.jpg\" alt=\"A swarm of scramblers, Rorschach interior. This screen grab cannot do justice to the sight of that wall squirming as it does. As of this writing, this scene is not in the official released teaser, but I've seen the dailies. Wow. Blindsight.space.\" width=\"601\" height=\"331\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/swarmblers.jpg 1100w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/swarmblers-300x165.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/swarmblers-768x423.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/swarmblers-1024x564.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 601px) 100vw, 601px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7836\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">A swarm of scramblers, <em>Rorschach<\/em>&#8216;s interior. This screen grab cannot do justice to the sight of that wall <em>squirming<\/em> as it does. As of this writing, this scene is not in the official released teaser, but I&#8217;ve seen the dailies. Wow. Blindsight.space.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/div>\n<table class=\" aligncenter\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"319\">\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rifter_by_paterczm-davdvmz.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7837\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-7837\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rifter_by_paterczm-davdvmz-724x1024.jpg\" alt=\"A deep-sea duet, courtesy of Marek Paterczyk. This is one of my favorite rifters pictures ever.\" width=\"301\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rifter_by_paterczm-davdvmz-724x1024.jpg 724w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rifter_by_paterczm-davdvmz-212x300.jpg 212w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rifter_by_paterczm-davdvmz-768x1086.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/rifter_by_paterczm-davdvmz.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 301px) 100vw, 301px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A deep-sea duet, courtesy of <a href=\"https:\/\/paterczm.deviantart.com\/\">Marek Paterczyk<\/a>. This is one of my favorite rifters pictures ever.<\/td>\n<td width=\"319\">\u00a0<div id=\"attachment_7847\" style=\"width: 311px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/mutiny_of_ship__by_canaury_by_canaury-dalq492.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7847\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7847\" class=\" wp-image-7847\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/mutiny_of_ship__by_canaury_by_canaury-dalq492-734x1024.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;Canaury&quot;'s animesque vision of a bloodbath on Theseus should actually be pulsing with a reddish alarm light. Unfortunately, my attempt to upload the gif into WordPress failed three times out of three, so if you want the full effect you'll have to go over to the gallery.\" width=\"301\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/mutiny_of_ship__by_canaury_by_canaury-dalq492-734x1024.jpg 734w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/mutiny_of_ship__by_canaury_by_canaury-dalq492-215x300.jpg 215w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/mutiny_of_ship__by_canaury_by_canaury-dalq492-768x1072.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/mutiny_of_ship__by_canaury_by_canaury-dalq492.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 301px) 100vw, 301px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7847\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/rocinante-corazon.deviantart.com\/art\/Mutiny-of-ship-by-canaury-641152360\">Canaury<\/a>&#8220;&#8216;s animesque vision of a bloodbath on <i>Theseus<\/i> should actually be pulsing with a reddish alarm light. Unfortunately, my attempt to upload the gif into WordPress failed three times out of three, so if you want the full effect you&#8217;ll have to see it in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/real\/gallery\/gallery-blindopraxia.htm#prettyPhoto[pp_gal]\/77\/\">the gallery<\/a>.<\/p><\/div><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div id=\"attachment_7846\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/valeries.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7846\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7846\" class=\" wp-image-7846\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/valeries-987x1024.jpg\" alt=\"A couple more Valeries for you (Valerie really seems to be getting the love this year, doesn't she?) The sepia animesque one is by Ivan Yakushev; the inset is an actual oil painting by Janet Bruesselbach, based on a flesh and blood model (Marina Marchand). I think this may mean I've arrived.\" width=\"600\" height=\"623\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/valeries-987x1024.jpg 987w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/valeries-289x300.jpg 289w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/valeries-768x797.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/valeries.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7846\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">A couple more Valeries for you (Valerie really seems to be getting the love this year, doesn&#8217;t she?) The sepia animesque one is by <a href=\"https:\/\/vombavr.deviantart.com\/\">Ivan Yakushev<\/a>; the inset is an actual oil painting by <a href=\"http:\/\/bruesselbach.tumblr.com\/post\/152302221712\/janet-bruesselbach-valerie-oct-2016-oil-on\">Janet Bruesselbach<\/a>, based on a flesh and blood model (Marina Marchand). I think this may mean I&#8217;ve arrived.<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_7852\" style=\"width: 612px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Vampire-skull-morphology-by-Ekaterina.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7852\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7852\" class=\" wp-image-7852\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Vampire-skull-morphology-by-Ekaterina-1024x696.jpg\" alt=\"This is anthropological and unprecedented: a side-by-side comparison of vampire and baseline-Human skulls. I don't know much about the artist except that she's from Russia, she reads Dawkins, and she goes by the handle Ekaterina. Also I suspect she is awesome. She says there are ten differences. I don't know if she's kidding.\" width=\"602\" height=\"409\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Vampire-skull-morphology-by-Ekaterina-1024x696.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Vampire-skull-morphology-by-Ekaterina-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Vampire-skull-morphology-by-Ekaterina-768x522.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Vampire-skull-morphology-by-Ekaterina.jpg 1146w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 602px) 100vw, 602px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7852\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: left;\">This is anthropological and unprecedented: a side-by-side comparison of vampire and baseline-Human skulls. I don&#8217;t know much about the artist except that she&#8217;s from Russia, she reads Dawkins, and she goes by the handle Ekaterina. Also I suspect she is awesome.<\/p>\n<p>She says there are ten differences. I don&#8217;t know if she&#8217;s kidding.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/div>\n<p>So there you have it\u2014 or at least half of it, with links to the rest. Looking back, it&#8217;s a bit, well, Valerie-heavy, isn&#8217;t it? A certain preponderance of predators and bloodbaths. Then again, this <em>is<\/em> that time of year: when the predatory prey on the gullible, when the bloodsuckers come for your money and your brains. Really, vampires fit right in at Yuletide.<\/p>\n<p>Why do you think Santa wears red?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I thought I&#8217;d give you graphics for Christmas. Pieces of fan art have been accumulating over the year, and\u2014 while a lot of it is truly impressive\u2014 I feel weird using a blog post to do nothing but highlight one piece of art.\u00a0 Seems too easy, somehow. Blogs should be more\u2014 substantive. And then you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-on-ink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7833"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7873,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7833\/revisions\/7873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rifters.com\/crawl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}