#dinopunk

The Samara is a vast network of fern prairie, grassland, and savanna that makes up much of the Democratic Republic of Samaraland. When I began writing the first Gondolend story that would go through entirely more rewrites and permutations than necessary and eventually become The Beasts of Kulig County it was mostly based on the flat open prairie of northeastern South Dakota, where I grew up.

But as time went on, and I fleshed out the area and its culture more, it became more inspired by parts of sub-Saharan Africa like Botswana and the Masai Mara.

There's still a bit of South Dakota there in how a lot of the local economy is based around ranching and agriculture, but now it has a much more African vibe.

The indigenous peoples who call the Samara home are also largely inspired by various sub-Saharan cultures.

Since I think body art is cool, a lot of Samara tribes practice various forms of traditional tattooing, scarification, and body painting, which combined with their often elaborate and colorful styles of clothing makes a visit to Samaraland a very visually interesting experience. Sort of like Wakanda from the MCU, but with more of a mid-to-late '90s technological level.

In terms of wildlife, a lot of the Samara's native fauna is based on the Jurassic Morrison and Tendaguru formations, with some Cretaceous animals thrown in as well.

(Art by John Conway.)

(Art by Greg Paul.)

(Art by Emiliano Troco.)

Of course, centuries of human habitation have taken their toll on the Samara's native wildlife, with many species being seriously threatened; in particular the kifokubwa, Torvosaurus, is almost extinct within Samaraland, though OutBarrier populations are, as far as anyone knows, doing just fine. In many parts of the Samara large theropod populations have been so severely depleted that the ratanga, a species of landcroc growing up to seven meters in length, has begun to occupy the niche of top predator.

I tried to escape the clutches of Brutalism. I really did. But somehow I’ve created a highly textured poster that looks like it could survive a nuclear blast and still judge you from the wall.

The ankylosaurus didn’t ask to be brought into this chaos yet here we are!

Anyway, he’s my favourite dinosaur and I wanted everyone to know that!

til a new game just came out about dinosaur people in an 80s-esque cyberpunk city where everything is cyan and magenta and the background music is eternal synthwave. Dinopunk. Seems to be a puzzle game about repairing electronics amid capitalism making dinos throw broken stuff to buy new stuff.

I'm obsessed with old sci-fi movies with reptile humanoids, at least with their "potential". Like the infamous Theodore Rex and the live action Super Mario Bros movie. There is something about cyberpunk starring "outcasts" and reptiles often receiving the short end of the stick in media. Also between being a dinosaur and feeling disconected from modern times. Wonder if this game will give me what I'm craving.

I told myself I was fucking done with cyan and magenta retro 80s-esque aesthetic stuff because it's fucking everywhere... yet here I am. At least it does fit this game's intention instead of using it by default.

Meet Lisa, and her beloved.....dog?? Archie.

Some tumblr paleoart has made me fall in love with Andrewsarchus and inspired me to make this little piece. It was fun trying to imagine what Andrewsarchus looked like, but I’ll admit I didn’t do it all on my own, using this as reference, and getting most of my inspo (I glanced over quite a bit of drawings of this creature to get a general consensus of what ppl think it looked like) from this, this, and this. I also tried to keep in mind that this thing is related to hippos when drawing this dude. The most non-hippo inspired part of this design (aside from the mane) is the coloration, which is inspired by wild boar piglets. One last thing I wanna say about this drawing before I wrap up this post is that this drawing is the proudest I’ve ever been with my lineart. I feel that I’ve finally achieved decent line variation.