I found this water colour sketch that I’ve made more than year ago and I realized that I hadn’t published it and now I thought…ah why not. I like the concept art/sketch vibe that it has. It’s only A5 size or something and done relatively quickly.
Some people may recall that I’ve drawn Siderians (northern horse sized cats) interacting with crystals -especially if you’ve read my graphic novel. I’ve long been wondering myself what these crystals really are and how they work. I began to get the impression that they were some kind of living organism that could communicate with electrical signals (like an animal’s nervous system) and that they form an underground brain-like network that covers vast areas, if not the whole planet if individual ecals stay connected.
Now I realized that they are actually some kind of fungus. I think that they make ‘crystallized’ exoskeletons to their fruiting bodies which appear like crystals above the ground (particularly in caves). Recently I’ve also come over some scientific finding that fungi may actually be able to produce electrical signals that may mean something…that was a funny coincidence.
Anyway, there is a lot more to explore regarding the ecal life cycle, ecology, body structure, evolution and their relation other living organisms, particularly animals. Some fungi form interactive networks with plants and I was wondering…what if ecals do this with animals? Theories being to unfold finally. That may also mean that some things need to be changed in the graphic novel, but so far, the way that Siderians interact with them is still quite accurate in the novel (aside from some details).
The ecals featured here are the black spikes that stick out from the ground. The species or maybe family/order of called ‘sortal’. They are one of the most mysterious and also potentially dangerous ecals that Siderians know of. Here they appear deep down in a cave on Iceland and only a few Siderians dare to even interact with them. The light that you see in the background comes from other ecals – so it is basically hyper bright bioluminescence. With this level of brightness, ecals make plant life in caves possible.
There is a lot more to say about ecals and even more that I don’t know yet. If I ever get enough time and energy, I intend to make more concept art of them. Will see if I get to that.
Art and concept by me. Please don’t copy/use this without my permission!