The Origin of the Ston'emm & Original Drawings Redux

This blog entry was taken from over at my blogger account but I figured it was relevent to let all the new fans out there know just how long the Ston'emms have been running around in my subconcious. I also made some additions to it as I managed to scan some other drawings that previously had not been shown. So please enjoy this look back into my younger days and see what used to be AND would could be again. :-D

September 24th, 2012

As I think I mentioned before, growing up I always loved to draw & create new things. I had a few different "toy lines" (for some reason I always drew like I was making toys- go figure right?), the "Reptile Fighters", the "Bug Warriors" and then a 3rd series that I have no drawings from so I barely remember it. None of those seemed to last though, as I grew bored with them. Then, everything changed.

One day I rented a new game from my local Block Buster video named "Demon's Crest" for the Super Nintendo and was blown away by it. The designs, the music and the world; a whole world full of monsters instead of people. After that I started drawing all these interesting characters based off of my own world full of monsters and had dubbed that line: "Monster Wars". Eventually that line's name changed into what it is now known as: "Creature World".

In Monster Wars there was all sorts of different beings, people made out of mud, plant/creature hybrids, living trees (inspired more by the Inhumanoids Redwoods as I'd never even heard of Lord of the Rings or Ents until 2001), etc. Eventually, rock people made their way into my world by the name of an evil Ston'emm named 'Crackapart'. I can't recall exactly caused the inspiration to draw these rock people but I believe they come from my love of the Granites from Hasbro's Inhumanoids, as to this day that is one of my favorite childhood cartoons & toy lines.

It's funny that first Ston'emm we see in my stories was evil as now their race are generally very much the opposite (although there's always a bad egg or two floating around). It wasn't until further down the road, probably towards the end of the 90's & the early 2000's that I started to flesh out the Ston'emm race and explain their existence more (I'll get into their story-based history in another blog post).

Here are two drawings I did of Crackapart, I liked drawing ston'emms with Gray but you really loose alot of what the original drawing was by using these colors in the way I did:

Crackapart Original Artwork

Below is a variant I made of him called "Shatter Crackapart" as all my characters, just like the toys at the time, would get variations of themselves as the line went onwards. Here, he got a furry loincloth instead of being just naked stone and now had the ability to telekineticlly control stones and form giant hands to grasp opponents.

Shatter Crackapart

This version of Crackapart came out in Series 15 and it would be another 5 series (I always numbered my drawings as if they were releases in a toy line) before we saw some Ston'emms again. He was a heavy-hitting member of the 'Bringers of Bloodshed' aka 'the Blood Lords' and would show up occasionally to be a thorn in the side of my stories' heroes. For whatever reason he didn't stick around as the Creature World story progressed and this would be the last time he was ever mentioned. It's possible I killed him off, but I don't think he even got that much attention; he just sort've faded away into obscurity.. The Shatter Crackapart drawing is a little better then the first one I made, but even then it's hard to make out the face on him due to the dark colored pencils I used. I really need to re-draw him with less black & dark gray, he's definetely due for an update. 

These next two debuted in Series 20. First we have another evil but very odd looking ston'emm with an almost snake/reptilian look to it. His name, is Sword. I know, very original name:

Sword

I believe this design was based off an earlier drawing that some sort of long-necked creature, but I liked the idea of merging the two together and drew this. I'd like to re-visit this character also, especially to give him an updated design and even sculpt it. I'd probably change his name to 'Swordstone' or 'Snakestone' as at least that sounds better then just 'Sword'; that's like naming a barbarian 'Axe' or 'Club'. Keep in mind I drew this character before I even knew Poke'mon existed so the idea of a rock-snake creature wasn't inspired by Poke'mon's Onyx. Odd similarities though, especially with the little crest on the back of the head that I think Oynx also shares (very eerie....O_o..). Sword was an expert Crystalline Swordsman and wielded 2 of these blades with deadly accuracy. The tail he has even ends in a razor-sharp crystal blade that he used to attack a 2nd opponent in combat. 

Since I made this blog entry, I've actually begun work on a sculpt using concepts from this character. Basically imagine a Ston'emm with reptillian qualities and you'll have an idea of what's in store.

Next we have the 1st Heroic Ston'emm character I created, the rocky member of the 'Warriors of the Woodlands' (aka the Wood Lords): Rokk! It always amazes me how I thought some of these names were awesome choices, but hey like I said: I was 15 and didn't think it that through.

Rokk

Actually, Rokk may have had a different name as I can make out in my drawing book that I'd erased a name & wrote 'Rokk' in it's place. I can make out an 'R' at the end so maybe he was named 'Boulder' until I remembered the Rock Lord of the same name? Who knows, it's a mystery for the ages. Rokk has the ability to morph his hands into stone hammers, shoot his fists like missiles at his opponents and re-grow a new hand. With him was his pet Rocklecta named 'Clamp Jaw' but also known as 'Lil' Grind' which I feel is a much better name and less the love-child of Clamp Champ & Trap Jaw from Masters of the Universe.

I had a very small amount of this gray colored pencil so that was the major reason why Rokk got clothing; this is also the 1st Ston'emm I drew where you can actually see his mouth & eyes clearly again thanks to the lighter gray. In additional to his attack pet Lil' Grind he had a Ra'lok which are large stone creatures that the Ston'emm used as steeds and battle mounts on Slauria. This is Rokk's steed Grinder:

Grinder, the Ra'lok

A Ra'lok is a rock-bear type of creature, they run on all fours but can rise up on their hind legs to attack with their front legs. They have some pretty large, wicked claws on the front paws so they're very dangerous when angered. They lived primarily on Slauria so you don't find them with the space-faring Ston'emms that are fighting the Armovors. Ston'emms are able to forge weapons from stone & rocks with their hands and you can see Rokk's axe on the saddle strap for Grinder.

I was actually 16 years old when I drew these last three drawings as on the page above Grinder a date was written down: August 28th 1996. So at just a hair over 16 years ago I drew these Ston'emms. I wonder what my 16 year old self would say if I showed him the sculpted Ston'emms I created today?

Actually, I was able to re-create one of my old Ston'emm characters by the name of "Dy-Mond" into a new Ston'emm figure. Here is his original drawing....and yes he has nipples. I don't know why, I can only guess I was trying to show him being buff and this was the best thing my child-like mind could come up with.

Dy-Mond

One of these days I'll have to sit down and try to sculpt him up or just re-invent him in a form closer resembling his original character....minus the nipples of course. He used to be a warrior for the Wood Lords but then I changed his faction to "Jeweler"....which makes sense as he IS a diamond man. Who better to make jewelery?? I think this bit of info was from an RPG version of Creature World I used to play with my friends and in the town there was a Jewelery Store owned & operated by: Dy-Mond. He, times are tough you gotta do what you gotta do.

I still have about three or so more drawings to show you from years ago, but I'll save those for another blog post. Until next time gang. 8-)

-Bah'glenn