cmkosemen
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A singing, alien plant
🕑 Added 2025-09-06 14:47:06 +0000 UTCMy rendition of the mysterious, singing "Llano Vibra" plants from Robert Reed's "Great Ship" universe - created for generous patron J. M.
These plants are not explicitly described - we know from the stories that they can learn songs, listen to commands, and can grow individually, or "in meadows". Here is a passage that describes them:
Every llano-vibra was descended from that single specimen, and because it was an alien to that world, and because there were no explanations about how it was planted there in the first place, nobody knew its true origin.
Mr. Robert Reed also said the following when describing them:
Honestly, I've never clearly picture my singing foliage. [Attached are] some slime mold pictures. Not saying this is how I think of llano-vibra... but the slime mold model is probably truer than a guidebook to garden plants. Not vegetable, not animal. Something else entirely.
Based on these, I started sketching. I turned out a lot of interesting forms, somewhat inspired by slime moulds.
The strange "flower" that first cropped up here was my design for the plant's voice organ - more details on them below.
It was neat to format these sketches like fake herbarium specimens. I worked for one more round, creating an augmented, "mix and match" version based on my patron's feedback.
It was then time to turn this into a fully-inked drawing (at a great local restaurant, after a wholesome meal).
Full page scan:
Cleaned line-art and screentones:
Full colour art with scale bar:
Finally, I prepared a labelled diagram explaining how the organism lives and how its organs work. Writing up these explanations is almost as fun as the drawing itself!
And this concludes another commission! Please let me know if you want me to illustrate your creature designs with this level of detail! Thank you all for your support on Patreon, and beyond.
Comments
C. M. Kosemen
We have made enough collab creations now to potentially make a "Field Guide" to his Great Ship universe...
Eleanor
Robert Reed needs to hire you as an illustrator
Jonathan Mitchell
Absolutely fantastic design, i love this one
