Talons Dipped In Ink

I’m not dead! Been reconsidering what kind of story I wanted to tell and how I want avians and humans to interact, so I decided to make a flightless avian. I drew inspiration from macaws, kakapo, ostriches, Indian runner ducks, and the Pokémon Latias for the long neck and ear tufts. Still need to do some work on the arm feather shapes and figure out clothing and coloration. I’m tentatively calling them Striders.

They’re semi-arboreal, living in mangrove-like forests interspersed along the floodplain. Their long legs are ideal for wading through water and reaching across branches and aerial roots, while their zygodactyl feet are useful for perching and gripping bark.

Striders eat a diet of nuts, fruits and grains and maintain arboreal gardens of fruit-bearing epiphytes. They also cultivate lily-like aquatic tubers.

Arbormancy is used to construct nest hollows, bridges and other infrastructure from live trees, in addition to speeding up their growth. Some nomadic Striders make a living traveling to human settlements, using arbormancy and other botanical magics to benefit their crops- for a fee.

My “taur” birdfolk may still be part of this story, or they might not- I’ll have to consider what makes sense as I build plot and characters. I’m excited to flesh out Striders’ culture and characteristics!

Hiiii look at my funny bird people 🥺

Wishbone (he/him)

Wild Republic Bearded Vulture Cuddlekins i got secondhand on Vinted!

I was so excited to find him after a long time searching that i bought two, one to display and one to cuddle!

Responses on my post about this are all over the map, but it looks like most people who create art do so just out of a need to create art, even though they find the actual steps and process to be totally unfun or even annoying to do.

It appeared from notes to be a bit rarer that people draw or write out of loving the work process itself. Lets find out!

Shouldn't have put the new year in the middle of winter cause then everyone expects you to get your shit together in january. Of all times

"What's your new years resolution" Survive. Ask me again when I'm not vitamin d deficient

Värmland, Sweden (December 22, 2023).

by petr.kosykh

I love when you post a species on inat and seconds later someone called "salamandergirl" "solidagoman" or "troutlilly_identifier" swoops in to ID it. Like yeah, you know what youre about. I trust your ID of my Bombus bimaculatus, "bombusboy200"

Paweł Ossoliński Fotografia

I LOVE MUSIC!!!!!!! RAHHHHHH!!!!!

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK, photo by Winona Jade

"This is the sound of the end

I wanna feel love again"

- Bad Omens, "Reprise (The Sound of the End)"