Excerpt from Emily's correspondence with CRICKET

I drew the Thunder Rake in profile, flat, so I could work on it without having to worry about turning the shapes in perspective. I took the author's sketch and just embellished it a little bit without changing the structure too much. It seems like Rombol likes finery, so I tried to add a bit of an elegant flair to the front of the Thunder Rake, more like the front of a ship. I have the wheels and claws set up so I can play with them in Photoshop to make them bigger, smaller, change positions, etc. if need be. I was not sure what the function of the chains on the rake arms is since they were described as being worked by gears turned by the "oars" the Urrmsh are rowing.

I included a rough idea of how the bottom of the Rake would look from the front. I imagined it kind of like a ship, and that there would be wells for the wheels so that they could turn. It was hard to see on the side view the first time around, but since the Rake can push its way through trees, I thought a "cow catcher" type wedge in the front would help it do that and deflect other rougher terrain. As far as the chains for the arms go, I was thinking that maybe they extended and retracted from inside the rake, with a type of pulley system, and could be locked in place in different positions. Kind of like how the chains of a drawbridge might be housed inside the building until they are extended.

(back to Emily)
(see Sketches for Part 1 sketches)