Hope y'all are having a good day! I'm just your average aardvark
enthused entomologist with an interest in art and story telling.
Currently obsessed with Transformers and Azhdarchids so be prepared lol . https://devilscoachman.carrd.co
ArtFight is approaching!! Been slowly working on updating character sheets and lore. Hoping I won’t be as busy this year so I can actually participate in full 😭
I have warrior cats, dinosaurs, daeodons, mechs and more!
Trying to get into the groove of drawing again and prep for ArtFight!
Not sure how I feel about these! I'm trying to find a style I like for these characters and I'm still figuring out how I want them to look. Nomad (the Daeodon) ref and some lore below!
Pls ignore misspellings. I draw best when I'm exhausted for some reason XD
I've had the idea for this girl for a while now! The idea is she lives in an world where Daeodon's are praised as peace keepers due to being the only group that can understand and speak to both herbivores and carnivores. Because of this, many animals will often seek council of these "Judges" to settle long lasting conflicts, hopefully with the decision ending in their favor.
Nomad is seen as an avatar of the moon god, a celestial being scorned by others of her kind and depicted as a chaos bringer/soul stealer. Because of this, she was abandoned as a calf and left for dead. Fortunately for her, a pack of Hyaenodons stumble across her and decide to take her in, fearing the repercussions of killing a judge while also wanting to use her to their favor.
Definitely not going for scientific accuracy with these designs lol; the world is more aligned to prehistoric fantasy. I don't even know if there has been any described fossils of newborn entelodonts; I haven't been able to find anything. I ended up basing them on bison calves, proportion wise. Felt right.
Need to work on my Hyaenodons, especially the head. I didn't really reference anything for these, but the skull anatomy on both is off, especially with the angle they have been drawn in.
Hopefully I'll have time to do more attacks on ArtFight this year! Currently working on going through and updating refs when I can and I still need to make a card (Team Comedy because I love orange lol).
Result from the Wadi al Hitan #paleostream! The "valley of the whales" as it is better known is a classic locality from the late Eocene of Egypt. Most famously it is place filled with the remains of early whales, Archaeoceti, but it's less straight forward as a piece than one...
might think. Since the early 20th century people have recorded fossils from the Wadi and in 2005 it was dedicated a World Heritage Site. Besides Basilosaurus and Dorudon the remains of early sirenians and proboscideans and among the more important finds but the largest...
part of the fauna is probably in the sharks and rays. Keen eyes will notice that some prominent taxa are missing here. This is mostly due to the stratigraphy of the Wadi being an absolute nightmare.While single members are relatively well defined, how they relate to each other...
and into what formations they fit depends a lot on the author. Subsequently we near exclusively used the Temple member here, which includes most of the famous stuff. During the Eocene this part of Africa was largely covered by shallow seas, fringed by mangroves...
this created a paradise for water loving mammals but the sharks clearly dominate. Large marine snakes are also known from the Wadi but from different localities. This size chart was put together by me as well as Discord member Avery with the inverts by Discord member Gnath
Start with a large sheet of cardboard. Stores like home depot have large moving boxes that come flat like this, perfect for this project.
I use a projector to trace my butterfly, but you can also put tracing paper up to a screen and glue it to your cardboard, or ask your library to let you use their projector.
Make sure to trace not just the outside, but also all of the markings and patterns. Doing the antennae as well and keeping the scrap cardboard will allow you to measure out the right length.
2.
Cut around the outside of your lepidopteran and crease where the wings meet each other and the body. I use my hands, but a ruler can help. After bending your wings into a natural position, make the body and head with your clay of choice, mine is foam clay which is cheap and easy to use.
Blend the sides of the body into the wings just enough to stick, this will hold the pose you've chosen.
Prop up the wings with whatever is around and keep in a safe spot to dry. Mine dries overnight at this size. You can see I've used bottles for mine
3.
Once dry and solidified, the clay holds the wings in place in the way you left them.
Measure your antennae wire a little longer than needed and poke it into the clay. If it doesn't stay, add a little dot of super or hot glue at the base.
Glue a mounting bracket on the back. You can angle this however you like to have your lepidopteran upright, sideways, or even upside down
4.
Paint your sections individually so you don't lose your trace lines. I go in with white first to cover up the print on the cardboard, then put the correct colors over that.
If making a high contrast lep like this, go in with black at the end to clean up your edges.
If adding any fur to the body, get a piece larger than you need and hot glue it on, then trim the backing underneath the fibers with tiny snips, as not to cut the fur itself, and carefully glue the edges of the backing to the body as well
5.
Brush a matte finish like mod podge over your final product. Hold your lep up to where you want it to hang, then mount with a nail
First big(ish) paleoart piece of the year: a Mosasaurus Hoffmannii. Its patterns are inspired by rainbow trout, with a bit of influence from the Prehistoric Planet mosa.
Ok, so, I think I will be putting these into video format along with maybe having a bit of a cheat sheet posted along with the videos to use as a reference.
Anything particular y'all want to see? I know for sure I will be doing a head/mouthpart tutorial and will be including different mouth types (sucking, sponging, chewing, etc). General body overview.... wings.... maybe even internals for funsies
Currently prepping everything and digging out my old notes and dissection photos lol
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