#sirpaverse

[ranchwamen]

Fun fact: the Man doesn't play any instruments, but if he did, it would never be a wind instrument! :)

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

I’ve been trying to get better at not drawing totally accurate spider anatomy all the time and also doing more interesting poses for taurs because they’re not just an expressive human upper body on top of some animal legs. So here’s Karleeen doing things !

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Felt inspired! Drew my character as this :]

[ranchwamen]

Here’s another Sirpaverse resident, “useless dream hedgehog” (as I rudely referred to them in 2019), currently called hedgedogs (Mordetarso brutus)! A very exotic-looking, small, forest-dwelling…. Reptile…?.. Mammal….?

In any case, you’ll find these friends in the northern hemisphere old growth evergreen forest near you, ready to snarl at you and bite your ankles. Their hard, spiky back makes them impervious to scratches and bites, their venomous teeth in their second jaw make sure that any predator regrets coming close to them, their unwavering moxie and aggression makes them more than ready to waddle on towards their goals in life (to eat lots of forest invertebrates, and other small animals if sneaky enough). Their blue colour is enough to tell anything with working eyes, “hey, back off now, I’m not one you want to mess with!” They make little burrows and usually live in pairs, one male, one female.

Females lay extremely big eggs, containing one developing pup, which a mated pair of hedgedogs attach to a female’s back with a kind of biological glue. This would usually keep the egg safe, after all, you don’t want to get close to an angry hedgedog, certainly not within biting distance! Unfortunately for hedgedogs though, humans have invented such things as “shoes”, and are tall enough to reach over the back of a female hedgedog and grab the egg. Due to purposeful extermination — humans tend to think of hedgedogs as nuisances and even a danger to people and livestock — and loss of habitat, hedgedogs are endangered.

[ranchwamen]

Restarting scuba diving as a hobby basically made me go “…oh, shit, the merfolk, the merfolk need to equalise pressure too” so now I’m reading about marine mammal middle ears and lungs

Merfolk probably have more rigid and more easily opened eustachian tubes, for one!

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Saw a dream where there was this three-dorsal finned species of dolphin. Mistook it for both an orca and a southern right whale dolphin, until I saw those fins poking out and had to go, "yeah uhh.. I'll google this species later."

The species was very friendly, two older dolphins let some young offspring of theirs (parental care from both parents? Maybe, more likely two sisters with their children) play and interact with me.

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Ohoho prev! Your blorbo sounds awesome!!! She must be one amazing and tough fighter! Who is it!?

Alas, you did eventually figure out who I was talking about (it’s okay, I always speak of the Man very cryptically ;)), but Pigeon Washing Machine Man who you guessed first…. He uh, I’m not sure if he can be won in battle. He wields absolutely zero weapons, but what makes him dangerous is the everything else he does! He is able to rewind time and delete physical space to his liking, for cod’s sake. I imagine that he would not get into battles, but that is simply because he would not create a situation that ends up in a battle. If a battle was initiated on him he would not be there, that’s not a world where that’s possible. In my mind I imagine that if I ever made a comic where someone tried to attack him he would exit the panel and walk several pages away to a point in the comic his opponent has fucking vanished.

My sister has previously asked me the question of “who of your characters would win in battle?” and I think the answer (at least excluding the idea people ones) is indeed Pigeon Man, but we like, never learn in any way how he wins, we just cut to six months later from the start of the battle and he’s there, alone, standing.

….Also yeah your blorbo would obliterate the Man he stands no chance at all

This request was sent to us and we made a poll in response to it. Send any Blorbo-related question you want to our inbox and we’ll make a poll on which people can vote with their own Blorbos in minds

[ranchwamen]

Merfolk have special oils in their hair that makes it waterproof! The purpose of the oils is to reduce heat loss through the head, and as a lovely bonus it makes merfolk look immediately presentable after getting out of the water. Straight from the beach to a job interview lol. If the oils are washed away or harmed, the hairs absorb water instead (which used to be a big deal like a thousand years ago when hypothermia was a very real and concrete threat, but in the modern day it's not really an issue).

Merfolk also have waterproof clothing, it's just a lot more comfortable that way. Most of the time clothing is made waterproof through spells, a method that merfolk pioneered and mastered over the centuries.

[ranchwamen]

Sea serpent, in colour! This one is blue and yellow, but domestic ones range through the entire rainbow pretty much.

Also a bird from the same canvas. Green as can be!

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

My vacation has given me ample opportunities to find inspiration and references for the sort of architecture merfolk have. Most everything is made of stone and decorated with colourful mosaics and tiles!

City centers are like massive, maze-like, colourful swimming pools. Everything is very smooth to try and stop algae, bivalves and other undesirable stationary animals and plants from growing everywhere. Naturally, it doesn’t always work. But that’s why we’ve got our friends the cleaner snails, slugs, shrimp and fish!

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!!!!!! YOU DREW SIRPA FOR ME???? FOR FUNSIES???? Your attack on Artfight was already a great piece of art, my friend, and this! This is simply brilliant! You’ve done Sirpa good, thank you so much :] <333

a gift for @fishyfishyfishtimes!!

I was really burned out by the end of last year's artfight event and I felt bad when I couldn't do your ocs justice because of it. and I love!fantasy character designs!! which keep!!! real life species in mind!!!!

so here you go, your baby Sirpa, as a sorry and as a thank you for all you do on your awesome aquatic blog! <3

(I also gave her an ear-fin because those are very very cool. hope you don't mind)

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

KARLEEEN CLOTHES KARLEEEN CLOTHES!!!!!!!!!

I've been itching to redraw Karleeen's various outfits and design her new ones since forever and now I actually sat down and did it over the past few days. I wonder what her favourite colours might be !!

Not much to say here that wouldn't be obvious. When it's cold, Karleeen wears more clothes, and when it's warmer, she prefers to be barefoot and wears less clothes. They don't always cover her abdomen because culturally having your abdomen (arachnid, insect or otherwise) exposed is the same as wearing a top or a short shirt that leaves your human stomach exposed, since taurs don't have anatomy that's one to one with their "species of inspiration". Karleeen's pants tend to be loose because her legs can bend at so many places, and they open at the top (at the top of the cephalothorax or "spider back")!

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

A comic, in which Karleeen has an extremely normal reaction to the idea that her friends might ever interact.

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Drew a Sirpaverse resident, a favourite of marine biology enthusiasts everywhere and a loyal companion: the sea serpent!

Sea serpents are marine reptiles native to the Pacific Ocean. Despite the name they are actually lizards who’ve evolved into an elongated form and fins! In the wild, they’re pack-hunting predators that typically hunt fish and squid. With their strong sense of smell and good vision, they’re able to locate prey and take them down with teamwork. Adults are pelagic hunters but juveniles tend to stick to rocky and coral reefs.

I say they’re pack hunters in the wild, because there exists both a wild form and a domesticated form of the sea serpent! The wild form has a sleeker face, while the domesticated form has more exaggerated “eyebrows” and snout. The domestic form is friendlier, more trusting of humans, and can be trained! More often than not domestic sea serpents work as hunting companions, locating and helping to take down target fish. Many a fisher in the Pacific Ocean region keeps these slippery fellows as pets, and in recent decades they’ve also found their way to domestic households.

These doodles aren’t coloured but sea serpents have been bred to come in many vibrant colours, meanwhile the wild type appears blue or grey with countershading. They're ovoviviparous and the babies look like this:

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

The pike features are very cool to see on a merfolk like this! Especially the big and flat slim face, it’s so different from the usual merm. It’s very fun to go for a specific design and try to translate it in another worldbuilding project, both design-wise and also lore-wise! Like, ooh, drawing a grey spotted merfolk is one thing, but what are the specific conditions required to make that happen? In this case, it was hybridisation due to an invading empire giving its royals a new playground to mingle in :) Gosh this mix is shockingly accurate to Ahti II even in the history of how he would’ve come to be. Never forget that the Osmerian Kingdom of Sirpaverse was once several non-unified merfolk settlements scattered here and there across the Baltic until King Ahti I “kindly” made everyone be the same people.

I enjoy the lore greatly!!!! The Middle Royals seem very handy indeed, you get to have the people change around while the rule still stays the same. Interesting how they can still mostly do their own thing, be their own stuff…. How does the hierarchy of the merkingdom look like, all together? Where would everyone be situated? Do I understand this right, Low Royals are a bigger deal than the Middle Royals?

Crossing the merfolk streams by doodling @fishyfishyfishtimes's Ahti II as one of my merfolk. :>

In this case, I decided to go with Atlantic Migratory merfolk, but due to the location and position, with a high amount of hybridization with Arctic merfolk. Similarly, I feel like he would slot nicely as a Middle Royal, typically being rather powerful players over wide swathes of area inside the Merkingdom.

The second sketch is just Miri checking out this weird landfolk-fish. More traditional merfolk are odd for her too!

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

Ahti II redraw

I took a break from artfighting to do some personal art. Behold: I redrew my profile picture image! I added more fish and Ahti's pet pike Kultakutri :)

Here's the old one in full, made in 2021: