#chasmaporthetes

Chasmaporthetes won my drawing poll yesterday so I gleefully drew them; I love this extinct species of hyena. ❤️ The subspecies C. ossifragus was the only hyena to ever stalk North America; it is thought to have had a niche similar to cheetahs, that of a diurnal coursing hypercarnivore.

Sketch of the Day (May 31st 2016) - some sketches which I did today of Vesuva, a character who could use a few more meals in his stomach. Colour, hopefully, will follow. 

Sketch of the Day (May 30th 2016) - I couldn’t tell what colour baby hyena or aardwolf eyes were, so I gave her the classic baby blues of dogs and cats.

This is probably my first actually proper character sheet in my life, which is kind of sad considering. I’m happy with this though! Go Tya, go!

Sketch(es) of the Day (May 27th 2016) - today was pretty boring, so of course I went on a drawing binge using the hoard of scrap paper which I have been ferreting away in a stash above our computer tower. 

Art comments!

I cannot draw raptor front angles yet, I’m sorry Moki; Your face defeats me.

Bunch of random critters; a fox for my boss inspired by her favourite shirt (which features a suave fox wearing glamorous shades,) a pony/miniature horse equine thing, and a Persian cat with dwarfism (kind of inspired by dear ol’ Grumpy. Just wanted to draw something cute with weird proportions.)

A concept of Tyanar and Moki’s home. There needs to be significantly more crocodiles in this sketch (since right now there is none!) There should probably also be a turtle or two, but at the time of drawing this my buddy was on Pinterest and I didn’t have access to photo reference. There should probably also be more birds. XD

Shakka! (Or Shaka? How the frig am I spelling his name?!) Finally a concept that I like - I think the full body pose is pretty off (although it gets a general idea out) but I love the side profile head shot. Shakka, is, of course, based upon Smilodon fatalis.

Baro! New stab at his design based on recent scientific findings that theropod dinosaurs had lips (which seem stupidly obvious in retrospect.) Baro will look plenty terrifying when he snarls. Also the way the feathers end is based off of some science jargon pointing to some feathered dinosaurs lacking feathers on their legs and tails (I’m guessing for thermal reasons,) buuuut - I don’t like it for Baro (also other artists have done it and it’s pretty prominent in the lovely Saurian especially - by the way, y’all need to check out their Kickstarter this instant!) so I’m going to change him to just having really short feathering (like a short haired cat) on his back end, which will still differentiate him from the other primary theropod in the story. Baro is based off of Tarbosaurus bataar, a t-rex relative which lived in prehistoric Asia, probably alongside Velociraptor.

Sketch of the Day (March 27th 2016) - HAPPY EASTER!! - (AKA chocolate bunny day!) 

Sketch of the Day (March 26th 2016) - moar Tyanar, and finally closer to how I feel she should look like in my head. Sadly that last concept just didn’t work for me. Plus, I found out via good ol’ fashioned research that Chasmaporthetes is actually far closer related to aardwolves than conventional hyenas. In fact, aardwolves are the only extant (living) relative of Chasmaporthetes - bit sad, really. Aardwolves and Chasmaporthetes belong to a group called in layman’s terms ‘dog-like hyenas’ so it’s okay that Tya here looks pretty poochy (aardwolves in fact have pretty pointy muzzles compared to spotted hyenas) because Chasmaporthetes was quite doggish. It was, however, quite a lot faster than your average dog - think cheetah speed. 

Unfortunately, I’ve been having a dickens of a time finding fossil images of Chasmaporthetes, so while I am pleased with what I have here, I’m very much flying off the seat of my pants with how to portray her. Of course, even if we had good fossil evidence of what Chasmaporthetes looked like I’d still be doing that, because the reality is, is that Tyanar is not actually a Chasmaporthetes - she is just based upon that species. With the world set up I have for her story, it’s impractical to think that she (and Moki and all the other fauna) would be exactly the same animal as the ones we know.

But, double problem with the lack of fossil evidence - aardwolves have five toes on their front paws. I haven’t seen a single fossil of a Chasmaporthetes forepaw, so I have no clue whether or not they were the same. Unless I can somehow get in touch with someone who really knows the species who can tell me, I’m probably just going to stick with four, because the fact is, though aardwolves and Chasmaporthetes are relatives, they are still pretty far apart. Also, five toes is a great idea for an animal like the aardwolf which digs at termite mounds, but Chasmaporthetes was a runner. It’s a fact that bears have five toes and are really fast (grizzlies can run as swiftly as a racehorse!) sooo that point might be moot, but still.