The Purple Slow Walker is primarily photosynthetic, but occasionally it must travel to acquire additional resources. It retracts its mobile roots, extends its tube legs, and begins the tedious journey to better feeding grounds. Groups of slow walkers congregate around a large carcass, exogenously digesting the flesh and absorbing the coctail through their extended roots. This is the opportunity the passengers have been waiting for. Not only do they rely on the walker for shelter and free transport, but also as a source of pre-digested nutrients they can pilfer from their host's method of carrion consumption. Whether the passengers provide the walker anything in return for its efforts is unclear.
A few species profiles out of the many inhabitants of the oceans of Veteris.
I saw you're a graphic designer.
Are you commissionable for creature designs or similar projects?
If not that's OK. Like your art
I’m not currently available for commissions, sorry. I definitely will keep making art though. Glad you like it!
More strange megafauna.
Life on the Seafloor
Some habitats are very consistent from planet to planet across the universe. The bottoms of deep oceans generally experience similar conditions—extremely high water pressure, zero sunlight, and a constant rain of organic debris known as marine snow. Thus, organisms on the deep sea floor of Veteris developed common traits in parallel to their counterparts on Earth. The darkness eliminates the need for most pigments, so most creatures are rather drab. In order to grab bits of food from the water column, many utilize grasping appendages covered in sticky setae. For every scrap of nourishment that can be found here, there is a creature that has evolved to exploit it. Far from being a desolate wasteland, this seemingly inhospitable environment is full of bizarre, perfectly-adapted inhabitants.
Finally a planet to house (most of) the creatures I've designed so far. A terrestrial planet with about 2/3 the mass of Earth, it orbits its K-type star, Veteris, within the habitable zone. This system is around 8 billion years old - about twice that of ours, hence the name Veteris, which is Latin for "old". It sits at the outskirts of the nebula behind it, which will still be busy birthing star systems for billions of years to come. Veteris is a good analog for earth- it has a similar chemical composition (including its atmosphere, which is slightly more dense - at about 1.5 atm) so it's a good place to begin our journey.
I haven't posted in a while, so I'll be adding some of the work I've been doing for the last couple years.
Like a giant pink warship, the Rosy Frigate punctuates the endless sea of tendrils. It hosts a crew of disk-shaped ravenous eating-machines called orbics. It is the orbics’ duty to keep the creeping tendrils from strangling and overtaking their home. Fading daylight signals their departure from the safe cluster beneath their giant companion to begin the night’s work of clearing new growth in the near vicinity. Each orbic can consume half its body weight in tube-carpet flesh every night, ensuring they will always have a place to return to at dawn. A Dwarf Blue Cortina observes the melee in confusion. Anything larger than an orbic will send it leaping away for cover, as its curiosity is matched only by its caution. The stoic quartet of Reponos standing solemnly in the background is incapable of seeing or hearing the events taking place nearby. Their role in this ecosystem turns out to be rather bizarre…
Quick sketch I hope to make into a full painting later.
I've decided to start posting sketches more often, as they comprise over 90% of my artistic time. This is the Greater Parvasalia. It travels in large groups, is about the size of a hamster, and is generally non-aggressive. More details as they are developed.