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So many wildflowers in this one spot. ;o;

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I think it's nekko time.

Last month I decided I wanted to doodle some nekkos. I could have just looked for game model pics or snapped images in game and strictly referenced those. But no, my creature designer brain wouldn't let me do that. I had questions about certain design choices and needed to find real animals to reference. I also questioned the use of "avian" to describe them on the Wookieepedia entry.

Cal and his homies.

First thing that bugged me design wise was the feathers (?) growing on the armor plates. I was like why? How? Then I remembered that some armadillos seem to have a bit of fur on their armor. I calmed down. (Still not nearly as much as nekko's seem to have growing, but whatever.)

Nine-banded Armadillo via Wikimedia

I drafted this before I got the art books and the nekko image used in the Survivor art book actually has a smoother plate edges and a hint of more armadillo like texture. So guess I nailed that.

My next beef was their goofy leg angulation. They have video game creature legs. So, I looked up ostriches so I'd draw my nekkos with slightly more realistic proportions.

source: PBS

I feel like their flightless bird proportions and feathers are about the only "avian" features these critters have. Apparently they also lay eggs, but I'd argue these guys more closely fall into the "reptomammal" category like a tauntaun.

I think ostrich feet a pretty obvious source of reference. But you could actually reference another mammal for something similar.

Llama's have great 2 toed feet!

Then we've got their heads. I think this is where they really lack any avian influence (other than the feathers)

I had to go find teeth to look at since I couldn't find anywhere that had a reference to their diet. I wasn't sure if they were herbivores or if they might actually be predators. Their knobby little teeth say herbivore to me.

Then I saw some animation of them eating off the ground, so that answered that.

I have not quite figured out wtf their ears are doing. The ears seem to curl and uncurl. When I looked up llamas for feet, I had a "hmm ears?" moment, but looking closer at the models I'm not sure about that. But they're obviously some big ears that are not avian at all.

I also think their snoots have a lip and not a beak, so no avian influence there. At first I thought about horses, but looking again I'm like oh, I think I've seen that profile and nostril shape/placement on rhinos.

Image by Joel Sartore

I am actually working on a bigger piece with multiple nekkos, but here's a digital sketch because I felt like I should have some art on this post. I pushed the ostrich on the legs by like...reflex. I'd like to play with more details on the face, but I picked a weird angle for that.

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Man, I thought this orange flower might be based on yarrow, but looking at it closer, the flowers are big tubes. No Asteraceae vibes there. Imma still talk about yarrow anyway.

New Vintage Terracotta Yarrow

There's like a million cultivars of Achillea millefolium aka yarrow or common yarrow. Multiple different series and lines all with multiple colors. Very good pollinator plant. I neglect mine a lot and it's still plugging along. It does spread by runners, though so you have to keep that in mind with where you plant.

Enough about yarrow. I vaguely got vibes of Asclepias tuberosa aka butterfly weed, even though the flower shape isn't right at all.

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Could pretend this is space milkweed for the space monarchs that are in the garden. A. tuberosa is a milkweed, but it's one of the less toxic species, and I've read it is less attractive to monarchs than other more toxic species. Doesn't mean they'll never host on it. I like it because it's colorful and native to my region. Also other insects love the nectar, so it's not just beneficial for monarchs.

The flower shape really is hitting me as familiar but I can't totally place it. I'm thinking it's one of those commonly cultivated things that isn't native to the southwestern US, lol. Maybe phlox?

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Or verbena? (Though there are native verbena.)

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Also gonna throw in an unexciting SW US native because it lives in my yard. It is smol. I think it's Lithospermum incisum. I was looking at some of the other species in the same genus and the flower isn't too far off. The arrangement is totally different, though. This is my own photo. :')

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My Survivor art book came. \o/

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It's a space pollinator garden???????????? There are butterflies and stuff???????????

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My Fallen Order art book came today and I laughed at this.

Like, photobashing is totally an accepted technique in entertainment concept art, but maybe don't pick the images lifting other Star Wars art to print in the book.

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Got this cool pic of one of those giant serpentine creature skulls tonight.

Looks heavily based on a crocodile skull. They just made the orbit(?) enormous. Big eyes? I kinda want to attempt life reconstructions of the things that only seem to exist as skulls.

Source: Bone Clones

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The gonk droid planters slayed me.

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I ordered the art books last night because I was like...I need to know more. But I also don't need too much of an excuse to buy art books.

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Just noticed tonight that the sutabans have slug texture. I googled banana slugs first, but their texture wasn't quite right. So I just googled "orange slug" on the off chance something a similar color would pop up. Apparently there's a "red slug", Arion rufus, which looks pretty spot on for texture. I do not know if this is the species represented in the photo below, but it's such a nice picture, haha.

Source

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I started a post about nekkos but I need to finish some art because that feels like the whole reason I had thoughts.

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Just gonna share this cap with a blurry mee because I wanna make a shout out to my favorite Star Wars book of all time, The Wildlife of Star Wars. It's in the Legends continuity now, but Terryl Whitlatch is an idol and that book was formative for me.

Art by Terryl Whitlatch

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I haven't drawn "finished art" of an oc in like years (other than one off cynos for shows lol), but to prep for the furry con, I'm trying to see if how my pet portrait style will work for those types of characters. Why do both of these have two characters? I don't know. Just happened that way, lol.

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I found actual dragonfruit.

So Cal gets out of the Mantis and I'm like...is that a euphorbia?????? It's pretty close to African Milk Tree/Euphorbia trigona. The shape of the stalk actually reminds me a bit more of dragonfruit, though.

Euphorbia trigona via wikipedia

Dragonfruit via wikipedia

As a note, most very "cactus like" euphorbias are native to Africa and not the US. Dragonfruit is native to the Americas.

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Another concept artist's page that I'm saving for myself.

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Dude this one pot design looks like it has little rontos on it?

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Another Artstation account I want to keep on hand. Thanks for the rawka head pics, sir. I was like where tf are the eyes and how does that head work?