About a week into the ongoing Atlantis Challenge by @knuppitalism-with-ue and these are my current entries. I want to challenge myself this time by going with different mediums of art for the individual entries as well.
Unsurprisingly, my favourite entry concerns the two species of crocodilians I submitted, both with their own inspiration. Obviously the cookoo caiman is inspired by cookoo birds, but theres also elements of chinese alligators (for being "chatty") and dwarf caimans (for wandering around). The whole "chirping to get the attention of larger species" is partially inspired by an annectode of researchers handling the juvenile of a smaller species (iirc a New Guinea, tho I might be wrong) only to be charged by a large adult saltie. The Loggerhead takes its design from extinct species like Kinyang and Baru, making my gator from phase 2 more robust. The flaring tail osteoderms are an exaggerated version of something I've seen in a particular Orinoco croc. Both were drawn traditionally with pencil and colored digitally.
The Zeus quail is mostly for fun. Again based on an entry from last phase (the Olympian quail) I went all out with the Zeus comparisson because idk, felt like it would be interesting. The anatomy is based on large, robust birds like grouse. Obviously I used watercolors in the execution.
And then there's the Garden Howler, an ape like plesiadapiform with a face only a mother could love. Hell even as the creator I think they are ugly as sin, but thats the point. Fully digital is not something I do a lot, but again, experimenting. Inspiration comes from both the Greek Sirens (the bird like ones) sitting in rocky areas and singing (like howlers monkeys or gibbons in this case). There's obviously elements of proboscis monkeys and a touch of mermaid hints with their habit of diving into water if available.