The main panel would make an Awsome poster ! ( or wallpaper ! ) It’s nice to see such a dramatic perspective once in a while . I think it really adds alot of energy to the picture.
How about take it and put a “frame” on the sides that are too “short”? The gears on the sidebar, say… (Maybe flipped upside down for the bottom corners as well.)
I look at the last picture and my brain is insisting there’s a major disconnect between Diamonds’ legs and that the front ones are set to “walk” and the back ones to “run”, even though I know the position itself is perfectly sensible, as can be seen from Eadweard Muybridge’s 1878 photo work “The Horse in Motion” (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/The_Horse_in_Motion.jpg , middle row, last on the right), which you probably used as photo reference anyway…
Guess I’m just not used to seeing this or seeing it from this angle.
Well don’t strain yourself looking for something — anything! — to nitpick. 😉
I’ve never seen a horse walk with that much extension. Even saddlebreds & their gaited ilk don’t kick their forelegs straight out like that at a walk.
And no, didn’t reference Muybridge (a flat silhouette at a 90 degree angle is pretty uninformative for drawing a 3 dimensional object from a low angle); I have a passing familiarity with the horse & its gaits is all. I’m sure My Little Annie could write 5 paragraphs on this topic telling me what for, though.
Anyway thanks as always for the kind words, even if they remain hilariously backhanded.
In this case, I’m not even looking for something to nitpick, even though I must admit I do that on occasion (see the previous thing, with the screw – by a funny coincidence, I did run into another of those wood screws yesterday, while taking off the buttplate on a newly acquired Mosin-Nagant M91/30).
No, here I was just voicing my confusion that a part of my brain, for all it’s familiarity with horses (at one time I even worked on a ranch in the Colorado Rockies for three whole months) is insisting something is amiss, even though another part is perfectly aware that the position you’ve drawn is perfectly normal, as I noted in my original post.
Muybridge originally did his work as full photographs, the black silhouettes were probably just a convenient way to mass-produce the images in an era where the first viable method of printing photographs using a halftone was still at least three years in the future…
And this, coupled with what My_Little_Annie said I think also gives me a rough explanation for my brain’s confusion – normally, when you look at a horse galloping you don’t register all the intermediary positions it’s legs get into, you just sort-of-see that it spends a lot more time with it’s legs bent than with the legs straight during movement, so a freeze- frame of that particular moment will indeed appear a bit odd.
Also, My_Little_Annie, I must contradict you there. While, what Diamonds is doing is perfectly possible (as we both noted), he’s tearing along at a full gallop rather than a canter as you suggest, because in a canter you’ll never see the legs lift up quite this much off the ground.
Interesting point about the prosthesis making him faster though. Of course in real life you can’t just slap on an artificial limb and go, you need months and months of practice and physical therapy until you can walk with any degree of reliability, since the prosthesis will lack all the feedback from a real limb and will necessitate completely different muscular cues to perform an action which would have been completely instinctive before. So yeah, in real life, even fitted with modern, myoelectric computer controlled prosthesis, Diamonds would simply have collapsed in a heap instead of galloping out of the stable mere hours after losing his front limbs, but then again this is a comic with a pyrokinetic guy who can survive being impaled with a grapnel, a reanimated bounty hunter for which being hanged is merely a temporary setback, and so on and so forth… Who knows what is possible in this world? (well, Erin, obviously)
As opposed, I’m assuming, to your own replies, which are laconic, thoroughly informative and to the point?
I’m not at all opposed to argumentative discussions, on the contrary, but dismissing everything one says as drivel seems a bit lacking in courtesy, don’t you think?
Horse gaits ARE odd-looking when drawn as “stills,” but this one is indeed perfectly accurate– Diamonds is shown here at a canter, a smooth gait above a trot and below a gallop in speed (about 10-17mph). You can tell it’s a high-speed canter, because his rear legs are flung further back than in a slower, collected canter– I’m guessing he’s about to gallop. If there’s anything to nitpick, it’s that his right rear leg should be slightly more forward of his left rear, since he’ll come down on that leg first as he pistons his legs back forward, completing the opposite-side three-beat gait (see image here: http://www.angelfire.com/tx2/kidshorses/images/cantergait.gif). However, it should be noted that this is a goddam cyborg horse, compensating for his new “front end,” having just endured sorcerous surgery, traveling over rough terrain, in an alternate universe in which horses may well be very different than traditional ones. So he can move however the crap he likes.
Side Note: Diamonds may have actually INCREASED in speed since his implants– in humans, athletes with two artificial legs are consistently faster than athletes with two fleshy legs, because the latter has to deal with added weight, loss of kinetic energy during limb-bending, and other factors. It’s gotten to the point that there’s grumbling about it. Study here: http://jap.physiology.org/content/108/4/1011
in humans, athletes with two artificial legs are consistently faster than athletes with two fleshy legs, because the latter has to deal with added weight
…image of Diamonds deciding “heck with it” for his poor rear legs, and just running on the front ones, like a human doing handstands.
(I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so very sorry. The only way to get the image out of my mind is to inflict it on everyone else.)
I agree, stunning page. This whole comic is gorgeous and beautifully written. I feel the urge to post something similar every week but instead I am conservative and save my compliments for nights when the beer is strong in the belly 🙂
Welll.. Just got through the archives. And I have to say, not only do I love the art, theme, and storyline so far, I do also love the idea of a steampunk Horse. I want a steampunk horse. XD
Anyways, I look forward to learning more about Ms. Black (Was her name ever mentioned? O_o), and seeing the evolution of Diamonds to a full-steampunk horse. “We can rebuild him, we have the technology.” XD
I love westerns too, dude, you are spot on with the accents. I imagine Hunter sounds like Foghorn Leghorn, though. XD
You know looking back I’m surprised we devoted like 4000 words to horse gaits on this page and no one said anything whatsoever about the reappearance of Mark & Lawrence.
The main panel would make an Awsome poster ! ( or wallpaper ! ) It’s nice to see such a dramatic perspective once in a while . I think it really adds alot of energy to the picture.
Agreed. Absolutely stunning.
Thanks much guys! If not for its inconducive aspect ratio I’d offer it up as a wallpaper.
How about take it and put a “frame” on the sides that are too “short”? The gears on the sidebar, say… (Maybe flipped upside down for the bottom corners as well.)
…or, well, awesome page! 🙂
It’s odd.
I look at the last picture and my brain is insisting there’s a major disconnect between Diamonds’ legs and that the front ones are set to “walk” and the back ones to “run”, even though I know the position itself is perfectly sensible, as can be seen from Eadweard Muybridge’s 1878 photo work “The Horse in Motion” (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/The_Horse_in_Motion.jpg , middle row, last on the right), which you probably used as photo reference anyway…
Guess I’m just not used to seeing this or seeing it from this angle.
Anyway, stunning work, as usual.
Well don’t strain yourself looking for something — anything! — to nitpick. 😉
I’ve never seen a horse walk with that much extension. Even saddlebreds & their gaited ilk don’t kick their forelegs straight out like that at a walk.
And no, didn’t reference Muybridge (a flat silhouette at a 90 degree angle is pretty uninformative for drawing a 3 dimensional object from a low angle); I have a passing familiarity with the horse & its gaits is all. I’m sure My Little Annie could write 5 paragraphs on this topic telling me what for, though.
Anyway thanks as always for the kind words, even if they remain hilariously backhanded.
In this case, I’m not even looking for something to nitpick, even though I must admit I do that on occasion (see the previous thing, with the screw – by a funny coincidence, I did run into another of those wood screws yesterday, while taking off the buttplate on a newly acquired Mosin-Nagant M91/30).
No, here I was just voicing my confusion that a part of my brain, for all it’s familiarity with horses (at one time I even worked on a ranch in the Colorado Rockies for three whole months) is insisting something is amiss, even though another part is perfectly aware that the position you’ve drawn is perfectly normal, as I noted in my original post.
Muybridge originally did his work as full photographs, the black silhouettes were probably just a convenient way to mass-produce the images in an era where the first viable method of printing photographs using a halftone was still at least three years in the future…
Here are the original Muybridge photographs arranged as a looping .gif: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Muybridge_horse_gallop_animated_2.gif
And this, coupled with what My_Little_Annie said I think also gives me a rough explanation for my brain’s confusion – normally, when you look at a horse galloping you don’t register all the intermediary positions it’s legs get into, you just sort-of-see that it spends a lot more time with it’s legs bent than with the legs straight during movement, so a freeze- frame of that particular moment will indeed appear a bit odd.
Also, My_Little_Annie, I must contradict you there. While, what Diamonds is doing is perfectly possible (as we both noted), he’s tearing along at a full gallop rather than a canter as you suggest, because in a canter you’ll never see the legs lift up quite this much off the ground.
Interesting point about the prosthesis making him faster though.
Of course in real life you can’t just slap on an artificial limb and go, you need months and months of practice and physical therapy until you can walk with any degree of reliability, since the prosthesis will lack all the feedback from a real limb and will necessitate completely different muscular cues to perform an action which would have been completely instinctive before.
So yeah, in real life, even fitted with modern, myoelectric computer controlled prosthesis, Diamonds would simply have collapsed in a heap instead of galloping out of the stable mere hours after losing his front limbs, but then again this is a comic with a pyrokinetic guy who can survive being impaled with a grapnel, a reanimated bounty hunter for which being hanged is merely a temporary setback, and so on and so forth…
Who knows what is possible in this world? (well, Erin, obviously)
Mister, you use a lot of words to say very little of note.
As opposed, I’m assuming, to your own replies, which are laconic, thoroughly informative and to the point?
I’m not at all opposed to argumentative discussions, on the contrary, but dismissing everything one says as drivel seems a bit lacking in courtesy, don’t you think?
Don’t make me turn this car around.
Internet Fight?
http://i.imgur.com/tHw0b.gif
Nope, sorry to disappoint the gathering audience, but you won’t see any more posts from me on this topic… the incident is closed.
Erin – if we misbehave you could always threaten to turn the strip around – start posting pages backwards until we get back to the first one…
Too many memes, maybe?
“Ministry of Silly Walks–Steampunk Horse Division”
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2010/09/28/funny-pictures-ministry-of-silly-walks/
Ha! 😀
Horse gaits ARE odd-looking when drawn as “stills,” but this one is indeed perfectly accurate– Diamonds is shown here at a canter, a smooth gait above a trot and below a gallop in speed (about 10-17mph). You can tell it’s a high-speed canter, because his rear legs are flung further back than in a slower, collected canter– I’m guessing he’s about to gallop. If there’s anything to nitpick, it’s that his right rear leg should be slightly more forward of his left rear, since he’ll come down on that leg first as he pistons his legs back forward, completing the opposite-side three-beat gait (see image here: http://www.angelfire.com/tx2/kidshorses/images/cantergait.gif). However, it should be noted that this is a goddam cyborg horse, compensating for his new “front end,” having just endured sorcerous surgery, traveling over rough terrain, in an alternate universe in which horses may well be very different than traditional ones. So he can move however the crap he likes.
Side Note: Diamonds may have actually INCREASED in speed since his implants– in humans, athletes with two artificial legs are consistently faster than athletes with two fleshy legs, because the latter has to deal with added weight, loss of kinetic energy during limb-bending, and other factors. It’s gotten to the point that there’s grumbling about it. Study here: http://jap.physiology.org/content/108/4/1011
Everything about this is fantastic! 😀
in humans, athletes with two artificial legs are consistently faster than athletes with two fleshy legs, because the latter has to deal with added weight
…image of Diamonds deciding “heck with it” for his poor rear legs, and just running on the front ones, like a human doing handstands.
(I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so very sorry. The only way to get the image out of my mind is to inflict it on everyone else.)
Man, I love the art.
Thanks once again. 🙂
I agree, stunning page. This whole comic is gorgeous and beautifully written. I feel the urge to post something similar every week but instead I am conservative and save my compliments for nights when the beer is strong in the belly 🙂
I really dig the perspective in the last panel.
Yes, hello, me also.
Fudged as it is? Thanks, you two.
Fudged? No! Stylized!
Stylized? No! Forced & guesstimated! Regardless I am taking your compliments and running.
No nitpicking from me, just admiration and enthusiasm!
Thank you kindly Karyl.
Welll.. Just got through the archives. And I have to say, not only do I love the art, theme, and storyline so far, I do also love the idea of a steampunk Horse. I want a steampunk horse. XD
Anyways, I look forward to learning more about Ms. Black (Was her name ever mentioned? O_o), and seeing the evolution of Diamonds to a full-steampunk horse. “We can rebuild him, we have the technology.” XD
I love westerns too, dude, you are spot on with the accents. I imagine Hunter sounds like Foghorn Leghorn, though. XD
Ha!
Thank you, sir.
You know looking back I’m surprised we devoted like 4000 words to horse gaits on this page and no one said anything whatsoever about the reappearance of Mark & Lawrence.
We were distracted by the scuffling on the playground. Wondering if a fight was going to breakout. Good job Mom! Now can we order pizza?
Hey! Jasper the blacksmith got himself a horse. But where is his hat?
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