roaexpo

[silverhart-makes-art]

This week's Bestiary Posting is a collection of worms! I opted to interpret 'worms' as wyrms (aka weird little dragons with six limbs), because drawing a bunch of legless, eyeless, boneless cylinders did not appeal to me. Sorry worms, I love ya, but there's not a lot I can do with a worm in a quick sketch like this. So we're going with dragons, some of which are at least a little wormy.

Labeled version and more detailed explanations below.

Lenggalgak - a "worm of the air" needed wings to fly through it. It also has four thin appendages for spinning it's web. Seems odd that an animal that makes a web, and thus stays in one place would need to fly, but maybe they use their wings like spiderlings use silk parachutes to float to new homes, and the sedentary adults just use their wings for display.

Khrezaroth - this was meant to be a frog/salamander type thing, and ended up looking nothing like those animals. Still, I like his silly face, and even curled up he has way too many legs (but it's still six - we've got a very specific body plan here).

Phlerotger - Mix between a leech, a tadpole and a cookie cutter shark. It's lost it's limbs and just has little spurs like you see in some snakes. One of the few actually worm-shaped worms here, since it apparently needs to slide down the throat. Absolutely horrible little creature.

Logkashgae - was thinking what could possibly make a bow shaped wound, and decided a thagomizer might do the trick. So horned lizard-stegosaur with a scorpion stance. It's middle limbs have evolved into spikes.

Burlebroth - the description said it was a leaf worm, therefor it must look like a leaf. A leaf-tailed gecko meets a katydid with a bit of chameleon for color.

Kholruntae - since it's said to curl up in leaves my mind went to the Honduran white bats who are very tiny and roost in leaves. Worth looking up some pictures if you want a smile - they're adorable. Basically drew that, but with scales that make it look like a leaf and a long tail.

Shmigwanog - it's a "wood worm", a little stick dragon with the head of a potoo. It's folded wings look like little branches, to help it camouflage even more amid the branches.

Feabladtae - okay, this one is inspired by something I heard from a vet many years ago, about how you can tear a Labrador's ear off and they'd still be wagging their tail. Said in reference to my own Labrador who was quite happily wagging her tail while being treated for an insect bite/sting that had her face swelling to three times it's size. She always loved the vet, no matter how painful the pokes and prods. So in honor of her can't-get-me-down attitude, I've drawn a lab lending their ear to their good Feabladtae friend. As a parasite it doesn't really need it's limbs, so it only has two stubby front limbs, and instead uses it's tail which is covered in little prickles to hold onto it's host's fur.

[silverhart-makes-art]

My contribution to the @artists-guild-of-exandria Calamity project. The Capture of Desirat.

Proud of myself for pushing through some art struggles and finishing this on time.

[silverhart-makes-art]

This week's Bestiary Posting features a bunch of fun sea creatures! The labeled image and my thoughts for each are below.

Alrittraes - my brain latched onto the idea of this creature being an anemone/sea squirt of some sort. Just this huge invertebrate siphoning so much sea water it creates literal waves on the surface. The description says 'it is alleged that the females conceive by intercourse', and I thought it was an odd thing to remark upon. But if it was a weird sea sponge type thing - yeah, that would be a very odd fact worth including in your bestiary. I don't know how you even begin to figure that out. Blochmokan - it's a sea slug/man-o-war that bobs along the surface. I imagine it can raise and lower it's 'wings' so it can also travel under the water as well as above it. I also drew it very small, when the description literally says it's a sea monster and has "huge wings" so just imagine I drew it very, very far away and it's actually enormous, which it would have to be to be spotted from a ship I would think. Kearmoltir - it's a flying fish, with a dolphin's face, and a serrated back like a stickleback - honestly, a very cool chimera creature. Flying dolphin-fish should be a thing. Meldilragg - I decided to take the term 'swine' literally, and drew a pig's snout, but then the description says they have their mouth in their throat so I did that, and got a very weird shape indeed. From there, I moved it's eyes to the top of it's head so it can see while digging in the sand, and gave it some tassels like the tasseled woebgone, and just gave it a vaguely sharky body shape. Olnranming - goblin shark if it used it's big nose spike for spearing the hulls of ships. Radwahrekh - I went weird for this one. I thought to myself - why would an animal want to saw through a ship? And then I remembered shipworms which burrow into ships. So I drew a spiky shipworm (which is actually a type of mollusk, not a worm) and it looked very unfortunate. So I added more spikes and siphons and frilly things to help. I don't know if it did, but it's certainly something. Shikwaewik - okay, I'm realizing the description specifically says this is a fish and I drew a porpoise. In my defense it "ploughing up the sand with its tail" just seemed like it'd be easier with a horizontal fluke, and I know some dolphins do purposefully kick up sand and mud this way. I then gave it a wolfish face. Gurnwatlea - a sardine, that can fly! Rather then give it a flying fish's big pectoral fins, like I did on the Kearmoltir, I gave a flying fish's big pelvic fins instead. Seems like a very bad way to fly in my opinion, but what do I know?

[silverhart-makes-art]

This week's Bestiary Posting is a whole menagerie of mammals. Again, labeled version and short descriptions of my thoughts below.

Shmeashagg - needed to be mottled, I also gave it giant claws on it's forepaws so it can "kill at a single bound". Trying to make it look like it could be the parent of a leopard while trying to make it less lion-like. Goggaerker - a bit more of a dynamic pose of it being stuck in a bush; saw-tooth horns, and big fuzzy ears. Brotkarske - a tiny goat with a markhor-style horn, and long legs Revklogwat - I decided to draw a bird since it's feathered and has wings, but I turned it's wings into forelegs. I also gave it ear tufts like a praire chicken, because they're one of my favorites. Shrobshong - was trying to think how horns are supposed to protect you from falling. I went with big curling ibex horns so the animal can never land on it's head and die. Rest of the animal was a combo of a bull and a takin, with a big nose to warm the air up in it's mountain home. Biklanokyo - this one really turned out looking like an alien. Went with a pose/body reminiscent of a horse. Since it needed to carry a huge horn it needed a think neck, and of course, elephant feet and a deer tail Nutogsheag - I don't know where I was going with this one. Just slapped all the mentioned features on it and gave it a long neck for fun. It's got weird protruding cheek bones like an entelodont, or a warthog, but I don't know why - that's just what I was feeling. Raenwegguk - when I thought of animals that embody wildness to me, especially those found in forests, I thought of wild boar and wolves. Smush the two together and add some extra tusks and you get this noble fellow. Klosweisht - originally meant it to be a sort of hyena-like beast, and some of that is still there, but the mention of horns made me redraw the head and legs as more gazelle-like. It's terrifying when it opens it's mouth and I love it. Kregichmon - pouring through the 'what animal groups haven't I drawn' I happened on 'giraffe-moose with bull horns'. Thokragosk - just a puny little friend. Based on a rodent, but the face turned out a little more like a raccoon, which is cute. Kamyaweneg - just a weird little mole. I had the marsupial mole in mind with their weird fleshy snout and sort of extended it into a helmet for this little guy. I know it doesn't have eyes, but I put a dot where I thought an eye would be, because otherwise it's hard to even figure out what this thing is. Moles are just weird. Extremely successful, but weird. Ghrastasag - so the rest of these are primates and I'm gonna be honest: I don't like drawing non-human primates. Even humans-primates tend to be low on the 'things i love to draw' list. So we're gonna have a lot of sketchy stuff heavily relying on references for these last critters. The lack of real description beyond 'ape' for these also is not helping. Ghrastasag is just a fuzzy baboon. Rigfengtog - another baboon, but this one's showing off it's fangs and is significantly less fuzzy. Ngibealgul - a shaggy gorilla creature. This one looks very thoughtful and solemn for some reason. Gerskatrea - these apes are said to have attractive faces, and the two most attractive primates I thought of off the top of my head, are the mandrill and the emperor tamarin. Hence, mandrill with a mustache. No one can resist a curly mustache. Maerdradli - I was pretty burned out at this point so... more of a doodle then anything, but it's an ape, and it's got a beard, and a fat tail, and I also gave it a droopy mustache because I felt bad for it.

[silverhart-makes-art]

I was planning on doing all the snakes in this week's Bestiary Posting, but most of the critters listed don't have any description, other then how you die if they happen to bite you. Not really the most helpful field guide, is it? I can just imagine some poor fellow getting bit by a snake and having only these bestiary descriptions to try and identify it so he could be treated.

Also, I was feeling lazy, so I just went with the four that I had a fun idea for.

For the Mlegtugwam, the idea of a snake moving with it's mouth always open, made me think of fish, so I decided to make them a sea snake with gills, so it always has it's mouth open to breath under water. The entry also says they live in caves much like eels do. Actually it might just be an eel and not a snake that I have drawn.

The Kramlengga, is just a cute little fella, based on a flying snake who's gone just a bit more extreme, their flared ribs becoming a sail similar to a draco lizard. I think he ended up looking like a very sad umbrella.

The Samgleshti has four horns, two of which are ram-like. It's described as burying itself in the sand except for the "part with which it catches the birds or animals it has attracted". Seems like a lot of words to say 'mouth' unless it uses some other mystery part to catch it's prey. I'm gonna stick with mouth, since snakes notoriously don't have many other parts for catching things. I decided to make it's head look somewhat skull-like so it can lure it's victims into thinking it's dead. I also made them very twisty, because it's said to be especially bendy.

The Krefemklog came from my thought of 'what if you combined and asp with a gulper eel?' Just a snake with a crazy big mouth.

[silverhart-makes-art]

This week's Bestiary Posting led me to conclusion that lizards have too many toes. Their skinny little legs and itty bitty feets are way too small to have so many toes. How am I supposed to draw all those teeny little lizard toes? They can't possibly all fit on there. I think someone somewhere is playing a joke on me, and every reference photo I looked at is wrong.

Anyway, these three are pretty easy to identify so I didn't bother labeling the picture this time.

In the top left we have the frog-faced Nglushogog (what a great name). For inspiration I looked at the Australian green tree frog. I also thought it'd be fun to make it a little dragon-like. Like a big frog dragon.

Top tight is the Hrutdearya, which I based on the tuatara. It's technically not a lizard, but I loved the idea of it's third eye being used when it's regular eyes go blind to find the sun and restore it.

Bottom middle is the Rukhgarukh, which is just a gecko with stars on it's back. I feel like I've seen old drawings of lizards with stars on their backs, so I tried to evoke what I remembered of those. He ended up looking very silly.

[silverhart-makes-art]

This week's Bestiary Posting is a doozy. We've got quite a collection of miscellaneous birds, and I decided I would just draw them all, for whatever reason. No color this week though, since I'm lazy, and also my computer is acting up, so I'm just gonna call it done before it crashes on me again.

Below I give a quick little blurb about each bird's inspiration, and under that the same picture with the birds labeled so you can guess for yourself which bird is which, and then scroll down to see if you were right.

Tluftasong - demon lovechild of an owl and a potoo Lokfotreag - a chickadee-type bird with a casque Hurrashbeg - a parrot that hangs upside down like a bat Konchilkuk - no real reason for this design other then I wanted a bird that looked smug Wobrahfmet - a corvid with a bald head Hrongnewit - a hummingird-kestrel creature on account of it 'hovering' around kitchens and meat markets Klomurgrae - an Egyptian vulture but with the long legs of a wading bird - I think he looks very charming Zagsmenrok - teeny little bird with a bit of a feather crest over it's eyes and beak like a helmetshrike Hreakgleav - a shaggy vulture with the posture of a bat Wahrembeag - a penguin-gull with a brood patch that has evolved into a marsupial-style pouch - might be my favorite of the bunch Sarbrufeat - bar-headed goose inspired, but with a hooked beak to fend off chick snatchers Keltrumram - a flightless pheasant/moorhen type of bird. Very round, very cuddly Grozfarwat - a little kildeer inspired bird Mortelgeng - if an albatross became an eagle for some reason Burngraega - a terrifying swan-heron beast - would make them bigger if it would've fit because I think the idea of giant stick birds with haunting voices is awesome Klethghrom - a crested pheasant with a beak like a snake's head

And that's all the birds.

[silverhart-makes-art]

Struggling for words, These haikus are tough to end, Your mom eats pudding.

English class project, Seconds count down to finish, Your mom eats pudding.

[silverhart-makes-art]

Sunlight catching dust, The stars of distant planets, Your mom eats pudding.

English class project, Seconds count down to finish, Your mom eats pudding.

[silverhart-makes-art]

Leaves crisp underfoot, Ahead geese take flight southward, Your mom eats pudding.

English class project, Seconds count down to finish, Your mom eats pudding.

[silverhart-makes-art]

Checkered tablecloth, Pies in abundance delight, Your mom eats pudding.

English class project, Seconds count down to finish, Your mom eats pudding.

[silverhart-makes-art]

In the kitchen abides, A single silver spoon, Your mom eats pudding.

English class project, Seconds count down to finish, Your mom eats pudding.

[silverhart-makes-art]

English class project, Seconds count down to finish, Your mom eats pudding.

[silverhart-makes-art]

So just coming in from the IHS dub! What do you think of the voice they gave your boy Manemane?

Gonna be honest, I haven't been keeping up with 'I Hope So'. I wasn't even aware that there was a dub of it! I will have to check that out sometime. I can't even remember the last time I read the comic, but I'm sure I'm very behind.

Exciting to hear Manemane got a voice! I don't think I've ever had a character I designed voiced before, so that's very cool. I'm sure the voice actor did a great job!

Thanks for the reminder that I need to start reading it again!

[silverhart-makes-art]

We've done bird and beasts, but have we done crabs for Bestiary Posting? I don't think I have, and this week's challenge seemed suited for a little crustacean critter.

There were only a few thins to go off of for the Nirmosho- it can bite, it enters croc's mouths while they sleep on shore, and it can tear said croc open from the inside. I decided to design a horseshoe crab-type creature (arguably not a crustacean at all - more like a big sea spider). I also took inspiration from mudskippers, which is why I decided to give it a fin on it's back, which it can raise and lower and which has sharp spines to aid in it's attack on the crocodile. It's tail is it's main weapon against the croc, however. In addition it also comes with a nasty set of tooth-like spines on it's underside to envemonate it's prey. Lastly I gave it some stout crab legs so it can navigate the shore a bit easier and roll itself around in mud.

Overall, one of those kinds of creatures that just looks like a sweet little guy until you learn how it eats.

[silverhart-makes-art]

This week's Bestiary Posting is the Olkorwae. And the thing I found the most striking was the depiction of it's babies being born as a shapeless piece of flesh - sounds like a marsupial to me!

My original thought was to do something like the extinct thylacoleo, but I ended up leaning more towards a giant wombat mixed with a bear. The description seems to indicate they primarily eat insects and honey - so I gave them long sharp claws like a pangolin's for opening up ant's nests and beehives, as well as some toughened skin on their pads and noses. Since they can stand upright that meant they needed big wide feet to balance on. The text also states their "head is not strong", but it's arms and loins are, so I gave it a relatively small head, and big beefy arms - perfect for tearing open a beehive and sticking your head inside. Lastly a long, sticky tongue to fish out tasty grubs and honey. I did try out some pangolin scales as well, which looked cool, but I decided they didn't really fit the description of their 'shagginess', so I took them off.

[silverhart-makes-art]

This week's Bestiary Posting was certainly interesting, though it didn't offer much physical description. We know the Gibemlut is a bird, it has a beautiful call, and it seems to be nocturnal from the sound of it.

I decided to base my gibemlut on the oilbird, which is a nocturnal bird that lives a life very similar to a bat - they even use echolocation. I did have a thought to combine it with a mockingbird, given that it's a bird that is often up late and has a variety of calls, but I've already drawn a beastie inspired by a mockingbird. Instead I went with an American robin, which is a very talented little bird with a lovely voice. Hard to see in the pose here, but I like to imagine the red patch on their chest is shaped like a heart to reflect their being a good partner. In addition I've given them large eyes to help them see if low light. I also included long bristles around the face as I saw them in my oil bird references. I've seen them in kiwi's as well, so I'm curious if they're used by nocturnal birds like a cat's whiskers? Couldn't find much info on this, but they must be useful for something.