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SparkleNinja — Sewercrawler - species concept
Published: 2011-02-27 05:06:06 +0000 UTC; Views: 661; Favourites: 33; Downloads: 0
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To keep things interesting while I finish that next spotlighter sheet, have some old arts!Though this is actually pretty old (2009!) I still like it a lot, and have always wanted to upload it- I think it's still some of the better anatomy I've ever drawn, too, which is why I don't mind posting it now. (Sorry the scan is kind of darker/messy though; for some reason I used REALLY light pencil lead back then, so it doesn't pick up well otherwise!)
This issss what's commonly referred to as a Greater Sewercrawler, which is actually a species I've had around for several years at this point but have never posted. (The first doodles of them date back to 2006, but for some reason I've never actually... colored and finished a picture of one, which is why they never showed up here. XD) They're semi-aquatic beasties, and while sewers are by no means their natural habitat ('sewercrawler' isn't really even their scientific name, just a nickname that stuck in the common vernacular) they have been known to occasionally find their way into the waterways of some of the larger cities; it isn't common by any means, but it does happen.
Central is one of these cities, and there's one lurking around in the underground waterways there that's more than happy to make a meal of any unsuspecting beasties (or persons!) that happen to wander by, though I doubt most people realize it's there. Jawz and Kaerith had a run in with it once when they were traipsing about Central's storm drainage system, so that particular crawler now sports a lovely set of clawmarks across the muzzle from where Kaerith learned it a lesson. 8D I've affectionately nicknamed that one CVOSC (an acronym, and I will doodle something for anyone who can figure out what it stands for because I like making people guess, kekeke~)
......Iiiiiii am actually really fond of these guys, even though I've never posted them before! I'd like to do a proper species ref sometime, so I'll stop rambling infomeats now so I can save some for later. 8I
Sewercrawler species belong to Whitney Grant,
Please don't copy, alter or redistribute!
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Comments: 18
Oooh. Interesting critter.
Uh oh, I see an acronym. Cue the deluge of possible nonsensical interpretations:
Chocolate Vittles On Snack Cakes
Constant Velocity, Otherwise Shuttle Crashes
Cello Violin Oboe Snare Cymbal
Can't Violate Others, Says Clergy
Castration Victim Ordained Starship Captain
Cat Vaporizes Otter, Saves City
Customers Vehemently Order Sandwiches, Chips
Cartwheeling Violently Over South Carolina
Christmas Visitor Orgies Spread Cheer
Cooking Veal? Order Strawberry Cider!
And now, a serious guess:
Central's Very Old Sewer Crawler. (Or "Vicious"?)
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Oh dear lord, I have been laughing so incredibly hard at all your acronyms; I know this is a bit of a late response, but I'll have you know those really made my day! XDDDDD 'Cat Vaporizes Otter, Saves City' is absolutely the best meaning of CVOSC. ;D
That being said though, ooohhh, you're very close! (in fact, you are just one word off! but it's not the 'V' one) You even got the possessive-form-of-Central part of it right, too. 8D
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Glad you liked those! I had a lot of fun coming up with all those! (I usually do !)
Hmm... Does the O stand for "Own" or "Ornery"?
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Oh my, those are quite amusing also! XDDD I am impressed by your abilities to acronym good sir; does it take very long for you to come up with all these, or do they come to you naturally?
Also, ding ding ding! 8D Central's Very Own Sewer Crawler is the correct answer. You should send me a note with what you'd like me to doodle for you!
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I usually spend one to three hours on that kind of post. That's probably much, much longer than I should spend but it's just so much fun to exercise my vocabulary in such a silly way!
Oh man, I'm so sorry it's taking me so long to respond to stuff. Despite constant distractions by life and by shiny things, I have been putting considerable thought into trying to think up potential ideas awesome enough for your skills. I think I've finally got some good ones, though... They'll just take a while to refine and type up. Poke me if you don't get a note from me within the next day or two.
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*wants one* XD I'd love to see a full ref sheet for this species!
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Can I say, this creature's underbite is a really cool feature? I love the (spines? flaps of skin? some kind of gill frill?) dorsal feature as well, it really helps add an emphasis on the aquatic nature of the sewercrawler. I noticed that there's not much webbing on the feet, though the tail looks like it could be a rudder of some sort- do these guys do any of their living in the water, or is it just a hunting ground? Or do they swim using the force of their tail/bodies like sea snakes and the limbs are just ways of walking around on land/hunting? SO MANY QUESTIONS, I'M SORRY, THEY'RE SO INTERESTING.
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Oh man, thanks Jess! 8DD *always excited to hear from you!* And yes, I'm not quite sure what the proper terminology for those things would be either (fleshy little tendril bits?), but I'm glad that whatever they are helps add to the overall feel. <33 That is also a good observation! They're definitely capable of moving around both in water and on land, and I've always had the idea of them sort of tucking their legs in a bit when they swim- so while they can do some paddling/steering with those feet, they're probably doing most of the work with their body, and using the tail as a rudder like you said. o33o (And in shallower waters, they might even just rest their feet on the bottom/frolic around like that, so long as they aren't in any particular hurry.) They're primarily ambush predators as well, hiding in the water and then lunging out to grab at things that venture too close- so I think they do less speed-swimming while hunting (preferring to go more for stealth/sneaking up) and just rely on that final burst of speed to nab dinner. PLEASE, NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR ASKING QUESTIONS I love getting them! 8D It gives me a reason to figure out how to explain things, or to ponder things I hadn't previously thought of!
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This thing is awesome Whitney. 8D Man lookit that badass face. It's like I WILL EAT YOU. And it probably will, too. D:
Even though it's gaining on two years old, I agree that the anatomy looks really good here. It really shows off all the cool things about your style (Like the shoulders, oh, your awesome shoulders,) and also everything just looks generally anatomically correct, especially considering it is...a four-eyed, six-legged creature and still looks plausibly like it could be real.
Also. Dude. That mouth. DAT MOUTH. It's so cool. I love creatures with crazy, stretchy-membrane mouths. And then it's crazy lower jaw. It reminds me of an angler fish, somehow! Definitely awesome. :D
As for the acronym...because I must guess because the thought of a sketch from you is making my mouth water. xDD First thing that popped into my head was... Central Version Of SewerCrawler? Dx There aren't many "v" words that would fit in there to me, so this is the first thing that popped into my head. So that is what I'll go with for now! And if I'm lucky, I got it right.
Awesome art though, Whitney. You really should post more! I love seeing your art~
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Ahhhh, thank you for this awesome comment Scout! ;33; I'm very happy to hear you think these guys are awesome; and yes, they probably would be quite happy to eat you- I wouldn't recommend wandering underground waterways where one might be present alone. 8'D (At least wandering in groups sometimes seems to deter them!)
I'm very glad to hear the anatomy still looks plausible, too- adding 'extra' limbs to things is fun, but it's tricky figuring out how to place them in a way that doesn't just look tacked on. (I'm also a huge nerd and have been trying to figure out vague evolutionary lines/ancestors for some of the species in my world, and have decided that instead of one common four-legged vertebrate ancestor [like we have here] that just grew extra legs at some point, there must be two completely separate evolutionary lines that led to the regular four-footed guys and the six-limbed ones, respectively. *NERD RAMBLE* 
Also, thanks! 8D I have way too much fun drawing the mouths on these guys, there's definitely something fun about lots of teeth and stretchy membranes- actually, I think those holes in the side serve more than to just look cool; I'm pretty sure they act as a drain route for excess water when these guys bite into something (them being semiaquatic) so they aren't just swallowing bucketfuls of the stuff. XD I'd never thought of the angler fish connection before, but now that you mention it I can see the resemblance- it must be that crazy toothy underbite!
Ooooh, you're very close on the acronym~~ ;D VERY CLOSE INDEED. (three out of five!) *hopes you'll keep guessing, because she'd love to sketch you something!*
Thank you again for the awesome comment, it always makes me happy to hear from you! And that you like seeing mah arts in general. <33 I'm definitely going to try posting more, even if it's just sketches and concepts like this- I like trying to post totally finished pieces, but most of what I draw doesn't quite reach that point. XD
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I will be sure to keep my distance from the sewers, then. Or, if I absolutely MUST explore the underground, I'll take a band of friends. Thank you for that tip. :I
I agree that extra limbs are really hard to figure out, but you definitely handled them well here. And DUDE THAT IS SERIOUSLY SO COOL about how they evolved. 8D I'm a total nerd for evolution lines (birds are dinosaurs darnit!) but I've never had the patience to work out my own evolution lines for any of my fictional species. (Though it would be interesting to figure out how essential shapeshifters, like Mimi, evolved into their present-day form. Like, I wonder if it started as a single family with abnormalities in their bloodline that slowly expanded and branched off until there was a medium-sized population of them hanging around, or if they just sort of evolved alongside humans and are sort of a completely different species with roughly the same genetic properties? //random ramble)
Lots of teeth and stretchy membranes = totally beast, man. (No pun intended trololol.) And the holes in the mouth acting as a drainage mechanism makes so much sense. Like gills on a fish, kind of! At least, I'm pretty sure gills also act as a drainage when they swallow food. //when did I even learn that I have a terrible memory for things like this.)
Oooof I can't believe I got that close on the first try! Now I'm going to have to guess as to WHICH three out of the five I got right. Ummm...UMMMMM...man what is wrong with my mind I am completely stumped here. Dx Maybe I'll come up with something between replies. xD
I am so glad my comment was enjoyable~ I'm honestly gonna try and comment on things more often, your stuff especially, now that you're posting more! (Some of them will probably be shorter, though. Like you said in your journal, everything in moderation. :>)
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This is a very good plan. 8| Don't go getting eated, now!
Also, thank you! ;3; Hahah man, I've actually learned a LOT about evolution and evolutionary lines throughout the course of my major (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology will do that to you!) so I guess it was just a matter of time for me to start fiddling with that in my own stuff? I don't have specifics hammered out by any means, but I do like to try and figure out where things fit! (And ooh, it would be very interesting to see where your shifters/Mimi fit into a phylogeny! 8D Because both of those are totally feasible options, be it a family mutation that did well/spread into a whole population or convergent evolution. o3o [Also because... when there's a similar environment/niche that species are occupying, they can wind up looking very similar despite not being related at all; that's why you can find some marsupials that look very, very similar to placental mammals (a totally different 'branch') because they had the same environmental pressures on them. So if you're thinking two totally separate species, that could explain the similarity in overall form! *EXTRA NERDY RAMBLE*]
I think you might be right, in terms of fish gills = drainage? I should know this, I've been taking enough biology classes. 8|; But yes, I'm glad that same sort of thing makes sense with these guys!
YOU ARE SO CLOOOOSEEEE~ ...I will give you a hint. 'Central' and 'Sewer' 'Crawler' are right (though it's technically 'Central's'). Does this help any? ;D
<33333 (and also, no worries! shorter comments are totally awriiight with me; I am honestly elated for any 8D plus, then it doesn't take me a million years to reply, too! XDD) ((I'm sorry this one took so long! ;33;))
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OH, OH WAIT, I THINK I'VE GOT IT.
"Central's Very Own SewerCrawler"?
When you added the 's to the end of Central everything made so much senseee.
It is early and I do not know what else to say on evolutionary lines, except that I think you are like the coolest person to be majoring in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and that you know all these fascinating tidbits. *was addicted to Animal Planet by age 5 and used to spout out hilariously intelligent things about animals before age ten and is basically a nerd for these kinds of things*
Do you ever get really hilarious pop quizzes? (Is that even a term they use anymore? //homeschooled ruffian) Like, just stuff about...I dunno...the differences between the anatomy of a frog leg now vs. the anatomy of a frog leg 1,000,000 years ago? xD
Hopefully that's not a question that insults your major, if it is I'm sorry, I do not mean it that wayyyy. D': I just honestly wonder about some of the things that happen in classrooms.
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Ding ding ding! 8D THAT IS CORRECT. (Actually you and ~StevenRoy both got it right fairly close to eachother, so I'm gonna doodle something for you both!) You should send me a note with who you'd like me to doodle for you! <33
Also aww, thank you very much! XD MY EGO DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO HANDLE THIS. But it makes me happy to see other people get excited about biology-type things too. Fellow animal nerds, go go go! *high five* *oh god, I used to watch Discovery Channel/Animal Planet all the time too, and knew so much about ocean life and snakes and other things it was ridiculous. aw, aww, I think it is very awesome that you were like that too!*
Aww Scout, that's not offensive at all! PLEASE DON'T WORRY. On the flipside I know very little about homeschooling myself, so I've always been curious how that works too! And yes, they do still call them pop quizzes! XDD However, not every professor gives them in college, and it seems to be down to their personal preference- though we still have plenty of regular tests and quizzes to make up for it. (For instance, my writing teacher gave us a pop quiz in the first week of class over a book I hadn't even bought yet, which I thought was pretty lame; none of my science classes this semester have done any pop quizzes, though!) And though my overall major is Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, the classes themselves wind up being kind of specialized, so the topic matter depends? Pretty much all of us have to take things like Ecology, and Evolution, and Genetics, Bio I and II as well as some chemistry/physics/math; but there's also a lot of electives in the major that you get to pick and choose on your own interests, which is pretty cool! (so I've gotten to take things like forensic biology, island biology, wildlife nutrition, and vertebrate diversity as well as a bunch of non-biology related things. XDD ...like acting. AND CREATIVE WRITING.) ...so the pop-quizzes just depend! But as far as evolution-type things go, you might get questions about... what are some of the mechanisms proposed for evolution over the years, what's the difference between homologous and analogous structures in species, etc; usually over the more broad themes, and not so much what is specifically different in a frog now vs when they first came around. XDD (though on the frog-theme, I am in Parasitology class this semester, and we got to see... a frog with 8 legs! which is apparently caused not by a mutation, but a parasite that lodges in the tadpole where the limbs are growing and screws it all up. 8T Totally alive and well though, it was crazy getting to see in person!) THIS IS A MASSIVE RAMBLE I'M SORRY SCOUT please take your time responding! But since you said 'I wonder about', I figured more information was better than less. Feel free to ask any questions you've got, 'cause I know I'd sure like to ask about homeschooling too! XDD
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This is all really fascinating stuff about your college experience! I hope you don't mind if I sort of reply to it generally, there's so much info here I can't figure out how to reply to everything separately without making this a massive post of "oh yes that's really cool!" with nothing else interesting to say on the matter. xDDD But it's awesome that you've got all those fun electives! Creative writing and acting are great electives to have in a science-based major, I bet. Probably a refreshing change from the completely different, if equally as fascinating biology, genetics, etc. 8D
And that totally makes sense about the general way evolution has occurred in different species etc, as opposed to watching the evolution timeline of a single creature. But WHOA, a frog with eight legs! That had to be insane. PARASITES, ALWAYS GETTIN' UP IN EVERYTHING'S BUSINESS.
BUT HEY don't worry about rambling! I find this all really interesting; and it's good info to know, as I've never had a real school experience, so if/when I apply to college, it's all things to consider! AND, feel free to ask about homeschooling! Though my form of schooling isn't all that interesting. Pretty much everything is an elective in my world, trololol.
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