otto.von

a feathered male tarbo inspired by a turaco, my head canon for tyrannosaurs is that larger featherless species either had minimal manes to protect from competition, or grew manes during sexual peak season for display, all while gaining wonderful colored feathering.

an epicyon haydeni taking on a melanistic pliohippus, bg was rushed as i had to drop this while at work :(, but i feel like the epicyon and pliohippus had enough invested into them, will be practicing bgs to pump em out quick. i love epicyon, its one of the few animals where i just wish it didnt leave us just because of how interesting it was, ambush hunting tiger dog, crazy stuff.

realized i havent drawn a mammal in ages so i decided to take a break from dragons and reptiles with an arctodus. i wanted to give it some fluff to show that this was a large male in his prime searching for a mate. colors were inspired by the sun bear, next in line is gonna be a dinosaur since i havent done one in ages and i miss drawing dinos, have a few in the backlog to continue working on

few decisions ive made, FULLY on purpose, its a huge pet peeve of mine when people draw these fully terrestrial super derived crocs as crocodile like armored flat lizards despite the fact they had even more time to adapt to a terrestrial way of life than even mammals. and when plantigrade (yuck), since these explosive ambush hunters clearly don't benefit from a plantigrade stance, especially at their humongous weight that needs load bearing. i will die on these hills until we have post cranial remains, but god knows i will see this agenda till the end. used ornithiscian dinosaurs as modeling for the musculature as they are the closest large bodied quadrupeds while taking into account as many crocodylomorphs with post cranials to make sure its an educated take atleast lol.

back after ages to post what i can call my biggest most exhausting piece yet, very very proud of the end result, wanted it to still have that natural element to feel like a real living snapshot, so the background had quite some time invested into it. references were severely abused which ended up allowing it to be more coherent, dont sleep on refs. this project focuses heavily on the cultural and spec evo side of things, id love to post more about the dragon phylogenies and lineages and whatnot, as for the cultures and the settings of the world, they allow me to indulge in my love for anthropology linguistics and worldbuilding, though i do prefer to keep it loose to avoid funlessness (meaning dont expect too much accuracy, rule of cool still applies).

wip while i get my shit together, using the asaro head is goated, excuse the rough fast hair lmao im playing hairdresser to see what works

spec evo macaque from a spec evo project im working on that includes dragons, macaques that evolved to fill the apex land carnivore niche, making sure to keep anatomy of shoulders more monkey like and flexible, color exporting on csp from my thinkpad killed me so guys if anyone can help pls im begging. on another note i took a bit of a break due to exams so have a bit of a backlog to work through, but we will get there, expect dragons and paleoart soon tho

since the Thylacoleo seems to have gotten a bit of attention, ill be dropping a lil spoiler on what I'm working on next, and this one is a full scene with two(2!) beasts, epicyon haydeni and Pliohippus pernix. epicyon haydeni is the largest canid ever found, belonging to the borophaginae family, one of the three true canid families (caninae and hesperocyoninae), reaching sizes of around 120 kgs to 170 kgs, easily putting it in the range of a modern lion, with robust bones that suggest pouncing ambush hunting style. while Pliohippus is the last of the three toed horses, being one of the last horses to graze north America before the appearance of the true one toed horses, with modes sizes around 350 kgs. if anyone who sees this likes the work and wants to see a certain beast then drop em in the comments and if i like them i may pick em up (but commissions would guarantee it being picked up *wink wink* pay me) will also be dropping some spec evo stuff here in the middle of all the paleo stuff so stay tuned (also do commissions on that *wink wink* pay me pls its cheap i promise)

after seeing prehistoric planet ice age, i sincerely hope it inspires a cascade of thylacoleonid paleoart, since it doesnt have much paleoart for how famous it is. I decided to go for more quoll inspired markings, coupled with rough inspiration from some supposed cave art of a thylacoleonid.

drawing that took me ages, spanish catholic inspired world of mine, i even paintied the lil painting in the frame behind him lol. the two characters are lao the miracle and father angelo, you can tell the relationship between them is very tense to say the least. lao is the polished version of another character i posted a sheet for ages ago, lou, how joyous to see time change everything, never would have imagined id get this far, yet we have much more to come.

the effigy of death aims to wipe all of sapience lest it cause the golden spiral of evolution to kick off once more and culminate in the same near perfect beings that almost ended the cycle of death once more, but raudda believes that the only reason it could start up again is because death creates the pressure for life to fight once more, cyclical all the way down.

although rauda's blood doesnt cease and his flesh doesn't relent, the war god sees it as an invite and not challenge, war had always existed, awaiting its perfect master, and though humanity's age has long gone and sapience was snuffed from every star, rauda's arrival brough a golden age of life and mind. war persisted on scraps until its time was here once more, and it will persist long after.

''and though i knew it was you or me, soaked in our shared blood part of me wished it was me.'' tw for blood and light gore. id die to share rauda's story(and i will), and funny enough it involves plenty of death, but his story isnt about death as the end, but merely the beginning, think like whump but hopeful in the very bitter end.