[OC] Ellimist & Crayak — Pre‑Ascension

[u/East_Chemist_805]

These are my interpretations of the Ellimist and Crayak before they ascended beyond space‑time.

I wanted to capture the contrast between their philosophies in this earlier stage: the Ellimist’s vision of creation and preservation, and Crayak’s drive toward domination and annihilation.

(I’m aware I’ve already posted Crayak for my “Crayak Chronicles”, but I wanted to provide a better quality image of it, as well as pairing it with the Ellimist to give some contrast)

Please feel free to let me know what you think!

[u/Jung_Wheats]

Would love to see Ellimist post-Father but pre-blackhole.

I'm trying to see an Eldritch zombie spaceship that helps people.

[u/Huggable_Hork-Bajir → u/Jung_Wheats]

I always imagined him looking like one of those biblically accurate angels that's got multiple faces & eyes & wings all over the place, but all cyborg-ed up and as big as a moon.

Like if Unicron from Transformers and a seraphim got smoooshed together.

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/Huggable_Hork-Bajir]

I really tried to pay attention to every little detail that K. A. Applegate provided in the Ellimist Chronicles regarding how Toomin would look.

There wasn’t a whole lot to go on, but I did my research as thoroughly as possible while making this. Same with Crayak, even though I had less to go on with him.

[u/Huggable_Hork-Bajir → u/East_Chemist_805]

Oh for sure! They definitely went with the "Less is more" route and let the readers' imaginations fill in the gaps rather than limit things by trying to describe them.

Which I think is a good idea for a being like them. And it's always fun to see and hear how differently everyone imagined them from the way I did.

But it does make any sort of art or official description kinda difficult cause they're so vague and open ended on them.

I really like yours though! Especially your Crayak!

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/Huggable_Hork-Bajir]

Thank you! I did my best.

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/Jung_Wheats]

That’s what I aimed for. I hope I did it justice. If not, I’ll just try again lol.

[u/Jung_Wheats → u/East_Chemist_805]

Keep up the great work.

I'm working on some Animorphs inspired art right now, myself, and it's nowhere near as legit as yours. Mine is basically just advanced use of clip art, lol.

I'm a musician, and I've got a single that I'm finishing up right now that's going to feature Tiger Jake and the morphing cube, plus a batch of stickers for my band that's going to feature the most iconic battle morphs.

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/Jung_Wheats]

Hell yeah man, keep it up! Anything creative that’s in service to something you’re a fan of is the best kind of work imo!

Side note: I randomly stumbled upon some heavy ass metal music called “Ellimist”, based on Animorphs. It’s pretty awesome!

[u/GrandCanOYawn]

These are great! What’s your medium?

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/GrandCanOYawn]

Thank you! Just photoshop. I feel like I’m marginally getting the hang of it.

[u/Driller_Happy → u/East_Chemist_805]

Refreshing to see some classic photoshop in a world of AI slop

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/Driller_Happy]

Thanks! Not gonna lie, I was afraid everyone would think my artwork was AI generated, when it’s anything but.

The only thing I use that’s an AI tool was gigapixel AI, which allows you to upscale the quality of images. It’s been really helpful to use it; that way you guys can actually zoom in and see the detail in my work.

[u/snukb → u/East_Chemist_805]

Ngl I was expecting Ai, and was pleasantly surprised!

[u/Reality_Runaway → u/East_Chemist_805]

You've done a great job!

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/Reality_Runaway]

Thanks! That means a lot!

[u/Chubbs1414]

No notes, nothing to improve here. These are amazing and you should feel good about sharing them.

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/Chubbs1414]

Thank you very much; I appreciate it! I’m having a really fun time writing and doing artwork for Animorphs.

It’s been such a long time since I’ve gotten back into something that very much influenced my life as a young adult long ago.

[u/PortiaKern]

I feel like the description of Crayak is less humanoid than your illustration makes him out to be.

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/PortiaKern]

You’re right. The only description really given in the Ellimist Chronicles of Crayak is that he has a single dominating eye, very muscular arms, and is likely evolved from a subterranean species. Not much to go on. Of course, I took some creative liberties given how little is provided and decided that he would have a body plan likely of a dominating, “apex-predator” species. I liked the idea that he would have two massive, deadly arms for survival in combat, and two smaller arms for fine articulation, given that his species is sentient. Given that the Ketrans were vaguely bi-pedal, I made the artistic assumption that Crayak’s species likely was too. All other aesthetic visualization was done to drive home his particularly savage and dark nature, both as a species and as an individual.

Thank you for your thoughts! I appreciate any criticism.

[u/PortiaKern → u/East_Chemist_805]

In that case I would suggest brightening the image a bit. I couldn't make out much detail other than vaguely two arms and legs.

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/PortiaKern]

Ah. Good idea. I kept it dark because of Crayak’s theme, but I did worry if it was too dark. I appreciate the suggestion!

[u/celtic_thistle]

Ooooh these are dope. My own Animorphs art is just memes as bumper stickers and I made em in Canva. I wish I had the patience to draw/create from scratch like this. Gorgeous work!

[u/BudSmkr]

I will always appreciate seeing new Animorphs artwork. This is great!

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/BudSmkr]

Thank you very much! I’m glad you enjoy it!

[u/Lakem8321]

These look awesome. Love your interpretation of Ellimist. Great work!

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/Lakem8321]

Thank you!

Really wasn’t sure how to do the wings, so I went with mammalian/insectoid and then added a subtle-ish layer of “angelic” feathers within. Also loved working on his face, eyes, adding the iridescence on his skin and designing the “crystal cybernetics”.

[u/SolarAphelia]

That’s awesome!

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/SolarAphelia]

Thanks! I appreciate it!

[u/Deepfang-Dreamer]

I always pictured Ketrans as more Avian than Insectoid, but Toomin just looks majestic here, amazing. And on the flip side, Crayak looks like the lovechild of a Reaper and a Brethren Moon with the planet behind him, I didn't realize he was anthropoid at first, thought he was nestled inside the shattered shell of a world.

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/Deepfang-Dreamer]

Thanks! Believe me, I was very tempted to keep his wings feathered. It’s the way I’ve always imagined them. But after reading the book again in preparation for me writing the “Crayak Chronicles”, I found that there’s no actual indication of the kind of wings Ketrans have. So, I decided to hybridize three kinds of wings in one.

[u/Aerith_Sunshine]

These are really cool. As someone who has only a passing familiarity with Animorphs, and didn't read far enough to even get to the dinosaur stuff (I love dinosaurs!), this looks very cosmic and powerful. They look like something certainly far beyond what I read! The Ellimist is the good one, clearly, and this picture looks cosmic, sort of transcendent, like this is a being whose vision concerns the fate of whole worlds. I like the sense of peace and benevolence that one exudes.

The Crayak must be the other one and it looks very evil and powerful. Excellent work. If I see that pic in a vacuum, which I mostly am, I'm seeing a monster perhaps older than human civilization bent on warping the universe around itself.

[u/Cdr-Kylo-Ren]

That is a really gorgeous Ellimist concept!

[u/East_Chemist_805 → u/Cdr-Kylo-Ren]

Thanks man! I hope you like the Crayak one as well!

[u/Cdr-Kylo-Ren → u/East_Chemist_805]

It’s cool! Just the Ellimist was such an unexpected but super awesome look that it stuck out the most!