The Variety of fi sh
In tandem with the introduction post, i wanted to show some development art of the lil shrimps!
When i first established how the world works (there will be a post on that too) i was most interested in how an ecosystem and a community would live on the sandflats of the planet and makenuse of the sky ocean. Another priority was to make said people look like they're one thing at a glance, but something else when one looks deeper.
So the Skyfisher were going to be a mix of many different animals that are 1. fully aquatic and/or amphibious and 2. Animals and people that subsist off the ocean almost exclusively like waterbirds and aquatic mammals.
The first big inspiration were mudskippers and anglerfish-esque animals that use their fins to walk on the oceans surface.
The first mockup for a distant ancestors was supposed to look like this and come from the ocean:
Aside from that extremely similar form being somewhat unlikely for a distant ancestor, i had scrapped that the guys came from the ocean, and their ancestor rightnow should have more squid features.
Aside from those eels and frogs have been used as well, though the most striking features like their long scales and frills are taken from puffins, boobies and penguins.
This aquatic appearence should help ground them into their lifestyle in the water.
