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.
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.
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.
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.
