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FelisGlacialis — Siderian tutorial
Published: 2012-03-29 22:11:05 +0000 UTC; Views: 26319; Favourites: 615; Downloads: 231
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Description
How to draw my fantasy feline species - the siderian- correctly...Based on the many mistakes I have seen in fan works and mistakes I did myself....It is also useful to draw typical cats and to learn the difference with dogs.This was a good exercise for me and I hope it will improve a lot of fanworks too.
You're allowed to draw your own siderian character, but please ALWAYS refer to me (my DA) and show me the result (I'm curious!!
) feel free to submit your fan work in the group Siderians are as tall as a horse (although weigh less). They look roughly like a hybrid between a tiger and Oriental cat (extreme type Siamese), with some influences of the Eurasian lynx, like the big paws.
With this video you get a good feeling about the siderian appearance www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&fea… (but keep in mind that Oriental cats have more gracile legs than cheeds).
Individual siderians vary largely in the % of tige, Oriental cat lynx represented in their anatomy, but all siderians have:
- the overall body shape, powerful frontlegs, large shoulderblades and narrow hind-legs and butt of a tiger.
- the head of either an Oriental cat, tiger or something in between (although the eyes are smaller than in cats and the head has more the pantherine 'heaviness'.
- the headlenght - shoulderheight - bodylenght proportions (but this approx. the same in Oriental cats as well) and huge paws of a Eurasian lynx (some have a slightly longer body or slightly shorter legs).
Some examples of siderians with various influences of the three felids:
*Tiger-biased
*Oriental cat-biased:
*Lynx-biased:
Siderian species and art by me!! Please don't copy and/or use it without my permission!
...srry for the typos...
Related content
Comments: 163
Yeah indeed - the difference with even a slender sight-hound is that the muscles are well developed and concentrated on the trunk which gives them a very muscular and 'shaped body' while the legs are slender so that movements are light and energy efficient. Rather the opposite of large felids where muscles and weight is focussed on the distal ends of the limbs and the body is narrow with flat muscles - not efficient for running at all...So my big cheederian Stian will be quickly exhausted but very fast in quick, powerful ambushes (in which he uses his heavy paws).
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"Neck fur misses.
Not sexy!" awesome x'D
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haha yeah indeed - some people forget it and its one of the most important aspects for mate-choice in cheederians!
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I think some people who still had problems do now better understand what they should pay attention for - very nice idea to show the most important parts and mistakes (people already made?).
You could possibly add why they look this way. So people get an aide-memoire - for example:
small jaw: brain size, less bite force
legs - thinner muscles/narrower/square: providing sure footing + minimizing noise and visible tracks(??) (only supposing)
big paws: falling from high places without getting hurt
Oh, and my favourite part is: "tail looks sticked in the ass" |D
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Thanks!! Haha lol yes I had to write that...because it bothers me if people draw cheeds with a dog-butt while I sometimes see dogs with tails like if it's sticked in their ass...I find it pretty ugly 
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Hey if you could help me and critique this it would be very helpful... I am pretty sure I would say "go easy on me" but.. I really don't want you to, analyze every bit of this pic and tear it down to the bone, it is just the lineart of her ref but I want it to be amazing o-o
[link]
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Oh gosh that's a lot to remember... O.O
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Lol - well only if you wanna draw a cheederian you can check all the points with the help of this tutorial
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yah i could probably print it to help me thanks
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haha yeah good one! hmm maybe I should do as well - good idea XD
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This is going to help me a ton
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Good!!! I'm curious if you once draw a cheed too 8D
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I'll draw it as an adult once i get more confidence i'll may draw a cub Stian
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I'm really curious! I'm working on a kind of Stian-study at the moment, since people draw him most often it might be helpful to have sketches and detailed drawings of him with descriptions like I did in the tutorial 
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I wanna see i wanna see!!! That's gonna help me a lot, with specific hints and stuff i surely dont know or i dont notice XD
I wanna see your novel already!!! ashdgajhvfavda!!!!
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Maybe Eastern! mwhahaaha REIGN OF CHEEDERIANS ftw
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I can't wait! >w< OH YES!!!
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Oh wow thank you!
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hehe I hope this tutorial helps a lot
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I love you for this. Despite my studying your works of the Cheeds I still knew something about my sketch was incorrect (mainly the head shape and lips as well as the legs and paws.) I had always hope you'd make a tutorial like this and you delivered. Thanks, this will help me a LOT.
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Thanks! Oh did you made a sketch? Have I seen that already? Srry my brain sometimes correlateds highly with the brain of a goldfish >>
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Oh yeah I have it sitting on my computer right now. I haven't uploaded it yet but I will shortly. Feel free to give some critique on it because I get the feeling her hind quarters are a tad off.
[link]
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*goes to yer drawing
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These drawings are amazing!
Made me wanna try it!
I hope I can make them right!
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Thanks!. Feel free to try!! 8D 8D
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Im sorry if i made my drawing incorrectly... 
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Yesh a bit - mainly indeed much to wolf-like. But hehe it doesnt mattet that much-I like fanart! But now you have some more useful tips XD
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VERY AWESOME!!! I'll try this some time! thanks very much for the tutorial!
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hehe no problem! I hope it's helpful - also to draw cats in general I think
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Hmmm..I maybe wrong but it doesn't seems that they would have a big bite power with such head. Another question is if they need a big bite power at all.
By the way, what do they eat?
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Nope indeed - for a large felid they have not very strong jaws (a trade-off for brainsize), which they more or less compensate with their enormous paws. They mainly prey on moose, ox or an even taller horse-deer like hybrid. They are strictly carnivorous like all felids. I'm still thinking about the hunting style since this varies among wild cats - I think the hunting technique of the Eurasian lynx fits best because then a strong bite-power is not strictly needed. Which means they jump on the back of the prey and bring a well directed bite with the canines in the throat - to squeeze/destroy essential nerves near the throat and bring the prey in shock (that is at least the current hypothesis about how the lynx hunts). Mysterious and yet un-understood hunting style which I can use for my cheederians who have not a very strong bite power (with the skull of a Siamese they lack the large crests of muscle attachment).
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For preying on something that big and with that strong skin they will have to work in groups if they don't have strong jaws. Several to hold prey and several to bite/help in some other way.
Generally cats hunt in several ways - chase prey down, take it down and then asphyxiate it or jump on it from an ambush so that prey will get an additional injuries from falling because of such "surprise" or, in much rarer occasions, crush their skull base after jumping on it from the ambush.
Kinda when they jump on the back of their prey are more likely to use the last method i've mentioned. Because skull base is a vulnerable place in the construction of the skull. What comes about nerve...Mmm...I'm not sure if animals have it too but probably under essential nerves was meant vagus nerve (pneumogastric nerve)? But cat will injure them anyway when it will asphyxiate it's prey (at least from my knowledge of anatomy).
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One -more or less unrealistic- thing is that the cheederian has a shoulderheight of approx. 1,80 m. Not normal for cats -but here comes the fantasy element- but there is another selection pressure going on him my world, driven by a metaphysical source of energy. I still have to work oud how being larger is advantagous but surely the metafelis genus in felidae became at leat twice as large as the panthera genus. With this large size the predator-prey proportion is approximately the same as for the Eurasian lynx. Maybe for ox they need to work in pairs (usually male and female or a family group).
Well, since humans are mammals and anatomically -except for the normal variation among species in proportion- not different than other animals, so I guess they have that nerve. Hmm I don't have much veterinary knowledge, but maybe it's that one! I will seek it out because I got interested in it. But the point with the lynx is that researchers find snowtracks of the lynx following a roe deer or reindeer, the lynx tracks disapear and several meters (up to 80) they find a dead deer, with only two marks of the canines in the throat and no further damage. This is the only information we now have about the Eursian lynx hunting style.
I have dived into the hypothesis about the hunting techniques of sabertoothed cats, which can also be useful for cheederians since they also mainly rely on the large paws.
Anyway you also know much about anatomy and behaviour, are you biologist too? At least I am
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Sorry to invade this conversation, it is really interesting!
Maybe you can make the tall size a form of runaway selection - a coevolution between prey and predator? Or sexual selection, that makes birds of paradise and such extravagant, so why not such a selection on mammals?
Besides that, a combination of driving factors is more likely to gain effect than just one reason to become bigger.
(Above are just suggestions)
About the lynx hunting style: is it possible that the teeth also hit the airways or veins? The neck is really vulnerable, anything you hit just below the skull base seems essential to me (with my restricted knowledge of anatomy). And as we've seen with the horses study, HNP also affects gait so muscle injury applied by the cat may damage their ability to run???
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Yo - yeah runaway selection can be a rather good option. Let's think about that in combination with the metaphysical flows! 8D
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Being larger is advantage in a cold climate since bigger body give out warmth slower than smaller one so if they live in place with climate similar to Russian North or Siberia or Norway or Finland or Northern Canada then it will be only logical.
Hmm...Since Russia is a motherland of elephants mammoths and similar megafauna then if ancestors of cheererians moved northwards in search of better hunting grounds or simply followed their prey which with time grew bigger, they also became bigger to be able to hunt it. I think here working in family groups/pairs will look fine given their size and size of their prey.
I think hunting technique of sabertoothed is what you need since they didn't have big bite power but had big paws with big claws.
Ahaha, no, biology is only my hobby.
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I don't dare to assume that large size is always correlated to cold climate actually. See dinosaurs. But mainly a large body is better in cold climate - agreed, especially in mammals. But cheederians don't hunt in groups larger than 2 or maybe 3. But I think seeing the size of a moose, compared to a cheederian they should be able to take them down alone. Since they have at least a little sagital crest on the skull the muscles are not extremely weak, but yes relatevily weaker than a lion or tiger's. And seeing how a cheetah suffocates its prey with small canines and a rather weak jaw it sould be possible for cheederians (who have the skull comparable with small cats). But muscle attachment surface on the skull and bitepower are indeed not lineairy, meaning that the larger the animal, the attachment surface becomes proportionally bigger. But if the lynx hunting style is not sufficientn for prey larger than moose, cheederians need to shift to saber-tooth style. However, it is thought that homotherium and smilodon would have hunted in prides, which will be not the case for most cheederians I'm afraid.
Anyway interesting to think about critically
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Well, it depends on many things as far as i know.
Never heard that smilodons hunted in groups. But i guess i could miss something due to writing a diploma.
Ahaha, they exist and that's the main point probably.
PS
Do they use their paws to hold/craft things?
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Haha yes, sociality is something very complex and there are still many hypothesis about how it could have evolved. It took several courses to learn all the different ideas about this. But about sabre-toothed cats, I have read a lot about their anatomy and behavioural reconstructiosn in this book [link] , maybe you like it too? It's scientific and yet beautifully illustrated! Really worth to read
And yes cheeds do use their paws to use and manipulate objects. I have seen my cats being very handy with their paws, but I'm still unsure if cheederians can use their paws as advanced as primates use their hands. Probably not, but maybe cheederians find another way to have an advanced form of tool-use, in combination with metaphysics. Still need to think about it so ideas are also welcome
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Hnnng! Looks like awesome.
It depends if you want them to primary hunt with these paws or to make stuff.
*WolfPearl has a very interesting thing about that. Sorry, can't find it right now. But she has a deviation that explains that sentient creatures don't need very long fingers actually to make stuff. I suggest to check her gallery in general - she has an awesome comics.
Well, if -as far as i get- you want them to do both, then make them to be able to hold/grab middle-sized and big things and when it comes about small things and working with such they can use metaflow. This seems to be logical. I guess they will have to learn how to use it like human babies learn how to do stuff with their hands. Even if they are born with knowledge how to use it, it's still useless without practice.
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I love this ^^
All these drawings and 'sketches' of anatomy etc. would be an awesome--not crude, not rough but...real? I don't know how to say it, but just a really true way so others can really understand if they were to be put into a small ref.book
I know you must have rules and guidelines somewhere, but I'll ask here anyway
?? Is it alright if I make my own, but don't connect it to your storyline? Basicly will be used for short, funny/sad/simple story practice, or doodles ^^
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Thanks!! About using my work and ideas. Maybe I wrote something on the group page...Well, any fanfiction is welcome as long as it is not for commercial use and as long as you clearly refer to me. So Ithink with doodles and short stories...go ahead XD Let me know the result and feel free to submit it to the group. Only one thing I wanna point out is that it needs to be correct according to the species and world desctiptions so far (I need to review them once again...I discovered some incorrect things) and of course according to the characters' personalities.
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lol a whole converastion under this deviation 
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Yes, there is. No problem.
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do you watch Mystic?
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