15% flailing through life

their (live!) young gestate for. wait for it. eight to eighteen (??) YEARS. can have up to 10 at a time. good grief.

longest lifespan of any vertebrate, up to five hundred years

toxic flesh

has giant eyes but is usually blind because of a weird little crustacean that's evolved to live on and eat their eyes. this doesn't seem to bother them much.

lives in deep cold water and has the lowest swim speed and tail-beat frequency for its size across all fish species. just generally lives life in extreme slow motion

largest genome of any shark

eats everything including moose and polar bears

Both polar bears and moose will go diving to find food. Polar bears hunt seals (and occasionally fish); moose forage from kelp forests.

'gifure'

I wanted the birds to look like they were actually in the space so first thing after doing the draft was to do a lighting study

after that I covered the walls in letters in lieu of a projector/vr headset bc i have neither of those :) Then i take a picture of the section of wall and superimpose the lineart over top of it so I can pencil in the lines

et voila

GIVE IT UP FOR BIRD NUMBUH 5, THE CANADIAN GOOSE, Branta canadensis!!!!

bird 5/14, Bluejay, Cyanocitta cristata

birds 6 and 7: American Goldfinch, Spinus tristis, male and female

BIRD NUMBER 8, (yellow shafted) NORTHERN FLICKERRRRR, Colaptes auratus

genuinely made me start questioning my sanity around day 3, it's half the size the of the goose, WHY did it take me 4 days to finish??

Bird number 9: Red-tailed hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

my chains are broken i am FREE. although i did have a great deal of fun with this, the barring on the wings itself took me like four days and i am READY to move on

this was a week and a half of continuous work so please excuse me for getting a little emotional in the bg 🙏

BIRD NUMBER 10!!! The Male Mallard Duck, Anas platyrhynchos

the male and female ones are gonna be posted separately bc they're taking a lot longer lol but yea! super happy i was able to capture the iridescent green of the head, i found metallic green and blue paint at a craft store that really made his head POP. it looks better in person i promise

ALSO!! As this is the 10th one, BIG announcement. The end is in sight!!!!! I plan to finish within the next 3 weeks and there will be a small dedication ceremony/ unveiling happening at the library to commemorate its completion on the 16th of May. If you live in the Western New York region and want to check it out for yourself shoot me a dm!

Girl Genius Characters React to Being Picked Up By the Machine for Picking Up Girls:

Agatha: it's a big clank, are you kidding? She's delighted. She has 12 suggestions for Spontaneously Improving it that she's going to try out right now, and then she's going to conduct a controlled trial of its upgraded ability to Pick Up Girls. For the rest of this post, assume that Agatha is operating the Machine.

Zeetha: spontaneously invents the Fastball Special. Is removed from the experiment pool until the next time we need someone to do that, which will probably be, y'know, tomorrow or something. Stuff happens.

Violetta: tolerates it once for Agatha's sake. Is unfindable for the rest of the trial.

Bang: if she sees that clank again she'll murder it and Gil.

Colette: she'll take five of them, but Gil will never hear the end of it. Spontaneous Improvements are made.

Seffie: not sure why she's tolerating it. [Colette is operating the Machine, is why.] You can put her down now.

Sleipnir: "Hey Agatha, I can see your house from up here!"

Larana: already best friends with Zoing.

Trelawney: thinks its hilarious. Comparing notes with Zeetha about the Fastball Special ideas.

Neena: can she have one for her mom's next party, and also can she take it on expeditions. Also spontaneously best friends with Zoing.

Albia: we didn't try this.

Francisca Monahan: talked about rats until the experimenters went away. File under "unsuccessful", and possibly under "god-queen influence used".

Prrrriti M'reau: absolutely not. Experiment cancelled on account of Angry Cat Glare.

Zola: I think we should do this in canon, actually.

Lucrezia: I don't think we should do this in any context, actually.

Mamma Gkika: has a VERY scandalous story about picking up girls. Experiment paused while everyone recovers. Or encodes the notes they were taking during the story. Whichever.

Hexalina Snaug: this sort of thing happens to minions. Resigned. That really could have been more traumatizing though. Would they like suggestions?

Otilia: puts the Machine and Gil in time-out. [Zoing is innocent, obviously.]

Tinka, Moxana, Orotine, and possibly Prende: all mysteriously missing from the subject pool, and nobody knows where Tarvek went either.

Lilith Clay: tolerates this with dignity, but only because it's Agatha doing it.

Maxinia Clay: the Machine is NOT ALLOWED to pick up the baby unless the baby SPECIFICALLY wants to be picked up. [The baby absolutely wants to be picked up. It is very gentle with her. She is less gentle with it. Experiment paused for repairs and Spontaneous Improvements.]

Zulenna: NO.

Jenka: we forgot to warn Füst. Repairs.

Lumi von Mekkhan: says "Wheeeeeee!" a lot. Spontaneous Improvements.

Captain Oana Grosu: is definitely going to tell some pirates she knows about this. Are there spares of this machine by the way.

Captain Jeanne the Europan of Piratical Descent: has SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Pix: can you do that again but on cue this time.

Zantabraxus: NO. [but would like to see the Fastball Special again]

STOP IT’S BEEN MONTHS. MONTHS!