Massive Gondolend concept sketch dump
Hey look, it's my only artistic output that ever gets more than one or two notes: drawings of dinosaurs (and other animals)!
The whale-sized filter-feeding pliosaur Pelagititan melvillei (labeled here Aquatitan because I changed the name after I drew this), and the orca-sized mosasaur Zallingeria orak. These were drawn way back in 2002, before we had a better idea of what their tails were supposed to look like.
An updated orak that I started in 2016 and never got very far with because I hated it.
Yurgovuchia doellingi, which made an appearance in my short stories "The Hunter" and "The Prey."
Assultornis pteronyx, also known as the drop bird. This is a fictional dromaeosaurine found throughout the Democratic Republic of Samaraland that hunts by dropping down onto prey from above and then dragging its kill up into a tree to avoid getting it stolen by something bigger and meaner. One of these guys appears in my novella The Beasts of Kulig County, which barring any fuckups on my part I should start serializing online again in...November.
The wooly rinic, Cryonyx borealis, a fictional species of baryonychine originally native to Gondolend's frigid northern polar region, but which I have since retconned to be a southern polar animal instead. (I'll have to change that species name if I ever decide to do anything more with Gondolend beyond my current revisions.) While this drawing is relatively recent this is the first fake dinosaur I ever came up with for this project, and as you can see I went full Rule of Cool with the teeth. Which then led to...
...The horrormouth, Cryonyx phoboris. It took me years to actually draw this guy in the flesh; for the longest time it only existed as skull and skeletal reconstructions, which someone eventually tried to pass off as real on some random dinosaur battle forum.
The elma'cho, Elmachosuchus gayi. This was a land-croc that I made as a reference to a gloriously stupid website that a friend of mine made and which is now gone.
I forget the scientific name for this guy, but it's commonly known as a crested dragon. It's a meter-long drepanosaur found in the Cassowary Valley, and makes an appearance in my novella Eleven Days in the Valley, which I'll be serializing on my website starting in September.
Domnosuchus, a giant land-croc native to the island of Yulan. This was the largest known species of land-croc, but it was quickly driven into extinction once humans settled the island.
A giant water bug the size of your hand. The Isani consider them a delicacy.
The gartum, a softball-sized dung beetle that cleans up sauropod shits on the Samara. Yes, its name is a reference to the garthim from The Dark Crystal.
The giant hopper, Macropodotherium. This highly derived and infamously belligerent species of hypsilophodont is native to the island of Vona, but a feral population has become established in the Democratic Republic of Samaraland. These also show up in The Beasts of Kulig County. I also hate how this picture turned out and I can't fathom how I thought eschewing outlines was a good idea.
Two pterosaurs that appear in The Beasts of Kulig County, the tai (Istiodactylus) and the turu (Dsungaripterus). The tai is a full-time scavenger and generally non-aggressive, while the turu is a part-time scavenger and doesn't give a single fuck.
Giraffatitan, known in Samaraland as the twiga. One of these also appears in The Beasts of Kulig County.
Isisaurus, which in ancient times was used by the armies of Garacania as mobile battle platforms with archers (and, later, musketeers and then riflemen) on top.
Zuniceratops, known in Garacania as the gergedat, was a popular cavalry mount. Famously, the legendary Garacani princess Denika Agares I led a gergedat cavalry into battle on many campaigns. (She also appears riding one in my short story "The Messenger.")
Nigersaurus was used as a beast of burden throughout Garacania (and presumably other neighboring areas), and domesticated specimens often had their tails docked at a young age to avoid them getting in the way and whapping people in crowded urban environments. The first two concepts in the second picture were serious, and the others...progressively less so.
A very quick and dirty sketch of a scene in the Garacani territory of Ulaan Bok, showing several local Hahn Gar (an ethnic group inspired mainly by the Hmong) passing by as a Rubeosaurus grazes in the foreground.
An Isani boat, as seen in Eleven Days in the Valley.
I forget what I called this guy; it's a giant relative of the alligator snapping turtle native to the Cassowary Valley, where it spends most of its time on the riverbed waiting for prey to swim into its mouth. You can't see it here, but it has a very long neck.
A rough concept for a condor-sized alpine scansoriopterygid that never really went anywhere before I put my Gondolend project on indefinite hiatus.
...And that's it for now. Yeah, there's more. See you in part two, dickheads!
