#benthiary

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🌊🌊 🐚 BENTHIARY 🐚 🌊🌊 day 23-24 Ostracods are microscopic crustaceans that's been around since the Ordovician period; countless documented fossils have been found of it, most famously being used to confirm they have the oldest penis + largest sperm in any animal ever. Congrats...? Some have bioluminescence, making their presence known whenever they gather in the ocean ✨🌌✨ I like the idea of these sea-fireflies as sea witch familiars; they look pretty magical on their own. A pact with ostracods means you gotta conjure algae all the time for eats though! I had fun designing cute ostracods being excited for all types of algae 🍀🌿🍀

[e-ziara]

🌊🌊 🐚 BENTHIARY 🐚 🌊🌊 day 13-14 Thaumastochelidae is a family of deep sea lobsters, one of them includes the Thaumastocheles zaleucus, the Atlantic deep-sea lobster. They're blind and have an enormous spiky claw that looks like a secondary mouth! I wonder how they balance themselves with such a huge size difference on one end... 🦞 ❤️ 🦞 By the way, I have historically been bad at drawing animals. But here I am trying to draw a lobster for the first time, let alone a side view of it..! This was my third draft of it, reeeally wanted to showcase that huge claw somehow. I wonder what colour they are in the wild, never did figure that out.

[e-ziara]

🌊🌊 🐚 BENTHIARY 🐚 🌊🌊 day 9-10 Thysanozoon nigropapillosum is a polyclad flatworm found in the Indo-Pacific. They have so many nicknames relating to their gold dots decorating their dark body; I think my favourite is gold speckled flatworm. I drew them as if they were an underwater nebula. They swim around in a hypnotizing undulating manner, and have these cute ears on their heads (kinda like snails?) ⭐️ 💫 🌟 I think I spent a lot of time narrowing down which flatworm I chose for my Benthiary prompt lol. There's too many that almost made the cut, like Pseudoceros susanae? What is even happening with them? Anyway, I've been busy with work a bit, but I'm still making time to do the rest of Benthiary _(。_°/

[e-ziara]

🌊🌊 🐚 BENTHIARY 🐚 🌊🌊 day 19-20 I forgot to mention but starting from the previous monstrilloida, Benthiary is getting more microscopic lol. Here's one of them: gastrotrich! They're named for their hairy appearance and they have a whole brain which is kinda amazing. One species all produces eggs and breeds asexually within 4 days of living! Gastrotrich comes in many shapes but generally I wanted to do a stylized design from their most defining characteristics. I think they look like batik patterns come to live. Also, I started watching Journey to the Microcosmos on Youtube while drawing this. I'm gonna binge all episodes now lol.

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🌊🌊 🐚 BENTHIARY 🐚 🌊🌊 day 11-12 Everyone hears about starfishes aka sea stars. But what about their close relatives, the basket stars? Their main physical attributes are their many arms that extend repeatedly into branches! That's partly why the Gorgonocephalus arcticus gets their name; their curled branched arms looks like a Gorgon's head. Of course, these curly arms help them in getting their dinner on 🌟☀️🌟☀️ Basket stars have such a naturalistic look to them for a deep sea creature, which reminds me of the Tree of Life mythologies. I really in particular like the Muslim and Chinese versions of the myth. It would probably look great as a pattern or a plate design lol 🌱🌳🌿

[e-ziara]

And that's it for my entire Benthiary art prompt! 🌊🌟 🌊 (Please excuse my poor camera focusing, I don't have a tripod lmao. Just look at the art and the cat plushie!) Music: Mercury by Bye Bye Badman

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🌊🌊 🐚 BENTHIARY 🐚 🌊🌊 day 29-30 This is the last of my Benthiary, the Pliciloricus enigmaticus! It's a microscopic animal that's still being discovered and studied recently. Partly why they're so elusive is their tendency to attach themselves to marine gravel. Maybe that's how they got their name? Their main characteristic is their armoured shell that protects their brain because yep they have a brain in there 🧠 Because of their shape, I like the idea of them as a fancy Faberge egg. Was really inspired by the 1552 manuscript Jewel Book of the Duchess Anna of Bavaria. It's literally an illustrated showcase of her jewellery! 💙💎💛 I won't be doing another art prompt anytime soon. I've got literally a list of projects I need to finish or haven't even started... it's an art frenzy ( ﾟ，_ゝ｀)

[e-ziara]

Soo... I wasn't 100% confident on what I was doing when I coloured my Radiolaria art piece. But I did take a photo of the before stage so we can compare 👐🏻💦 Also, I was feeling silly and got a flamingo guest judge. Do you think the flamingo likes the final colour or not? 🦩 🦩