cheapsweets

CheapSweets

Ominous Mayhem Sad Boi - Spotify, 2022

1128 posts

Holy Shit There Are So Many Birds

Holy shit there are so many birds

More Posts from Cheapsweets

cheapsweets

1 year ago

Honestly, as much as I enjoy joking about bestiary authors and birds, I've been having a blast, and I feel like my bird anatomy is really improving. Also (as several of the other artists have shown) there's nothing stopping us from taking the descriptions less literally (like the whole scorpions that look like anything but arachnids, or even whales as fish). I also appreciate the number of cute chicks these prompts have encouraged us to draw!

I definitely had not guessed the true identity of this critter (I'd briefly pondered about an osprey, before dismissing the idea), but reading the descrption back it makes perfect sense; keen eyesight, catching fish on the wing, regal (dare I say, imperious) counternance... I'm less convinced about the less bold babies being adopted by coots, but it sounds very cute :D

As ever, these are all incredible! Thanks again for the challenge, and I hope you're feeling better soon @maniculum!

As an aside, the whole 'Birds Are Jerks' thing is a meme about enemy birds in video games having unpredictable movement/attack patterns...

Bestiaryposting Results: Raggfong

This week's beast was the Raggfong, much to the dismay of everyone who is sick of birds. Again, sorry, there are a bunch... and the random distribution put a clump of them in December/January, so it's going to get worse before it gets better. If it helps, imagine it's some kind of ritual to empower the birds currently eating the Gävle goat. Or maybe a "Twelve Days of Christmas" sort of thing -- we've already had the partridge.

Also again please forgive me if I fail to string sentences together properly -- still sick. Covid, actually, turns out. The brain fog is difficult; almost forgot I was supposed to do this today.

Anyway, here is the link to the entry that our artists are working from:

maniculum.tumblr.com

Bestiaryposting -- Raggfong

As a reminder, all previous entries in this series can be found at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting . The Raggfong is so called

(Why did I redact the Greek and Latin names for the coot? I'm not making any effort to hide its identity... baffling choice on the part of Past Me.)

And if you have no idea what this is about, you should take a look at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting for an explanation and previous entries.

As usual, art will appear in roughly chronological order under the cut.

A digital drawing of three birds. In the top left, a bird with white feathers and a colorful beak is shown airborne, staring into the sun, a single tear coming from its eye. In the bottom right, two birds with dark feathers face each other. One appears to be a juvenile version of the flying bird, looking up with a tear in its eye. The other seems to be a coot, and is posed as if comforting the juvenile.

@elodieunderglass (link to post here) responded days before anyone else with this image, which successfully conveys a lot of emotion in my opinion. Those are some very communicative facial expressions on the birds. I particularly like the coot, and how it's positioned to shield the chick from the sun. The real gem here, however, is the text of the post linked above, which I would describe as a prose poem about the bird depicted. I'm genuinely a bit blown away by it -- go click the link and read it for yourself.

A line drawing of a slender bird with a long, feathery tail and three feathers on its head like a crest, against a rainbow background. It poses dramatically, with wings upraised, the sun framed behind its head.

@embervoices (link to post here) has got some kind of effect going on here that I don't know enough about art to describe, but I like the way it looks. Her post mentions the phoenix connection, which I think comes through pretty clearly in the design and pose. The linked post explains some design decisions, including which real-world birds were the inspiration for this one.

A gray seabird rests on top of some foliage, gazing towards the sun. The background of the piece is constructed from concentric circles to emphasize the sun's importance.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) helpfully specifies that this Raggfong is resting on a bed of sea kale. The design of this bird is very good, I think, conveying a certain gravity one does not always associate with seabirds. I also like the effect created by the background; it kind of looks like it's the cover for something, you know? The linked post explains the various birds from which the artist borrowed features and why, and also discusses the evocative nature of the entry this is based on -- I'm glad people are enjoying that aspect.

An image primarily in greens and a kind of "swampy" color palette, with an elaborate decorative border. It depicts a frog-like creature gliding through the air on large webbed feet. In the background is an aquatic scene, showing a pike-like fish sticking its head above water.

@rautavaara (link to post here) has made the executive decision that this bird is actually a frog, and the drawing is frankly too pretty for me to have any kind of problem with that. Look at that border. And the wonderful color palette. Also there's a flying frog, which is very cool.

A pen and ink drawing of a flying waterbird, flying upwards and facing the viewer. It has a long neck and a small crest on its head that resembles a crown, and a medium length, fanned tail. It has clearly defined feathers on its wings and breast, and is holding a small, fluffy chick with a pointed beak in each of its claws. The chick in the right claw is staring intently at something, while the chick in the left claw has turned its face away.
Below the bird are some abstract waves; beneath these to the left is a stylised fish that looks worriedly up towards the bird. On the waves to the right is a coot (medium sized waterbird with a pointed beak and a large bald patch on its head), swimming to the right of the picture. It is followed by three small chicks (bald, with scraggly fluff), as well as one larger chick, with smoother feathers, a long neck and pointed beak, that looks like the two chicks the larger bird above is holding.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) notes an emerging theme in these entries that birds (except coots) are jerks. I honestly can't remember how consistent that theme is across all the birds... I know there are some the author likes, but there are also definitely going to be additional Birds That Are Jerks in future. I like the crown-like crest on the Raggfong, and I'm impressed by the dedication involved in doing all those little body feathers with a fountain pen. Also, if you look closely, you'll see that one of those chicks the adult Raggfong is carrying has been shown staring off in the same direction as its parent, while the other has its head turned and its eyes closed, meaning we can expect it to join the coots off to the right... and there's already a young Raggfong there, too. The linked post contains a detailed explanation of design decisions, which you should go check out. (Also, thanks again for providing alt text.)

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) has employed her usual medieval stylization to depict a Raggfong inspired by an albatross (on the grounds that they are a seabird with "judgy" eyes... you know, I can see it). I am absolutely delighted by the scrungliness of the chick being shown here, which does indeed have the "muppet made from dryer lint" quality of a real albatross chick. They have also included a series of pictures that show the whole life cycle, which I've decided (after substantial back-and-forth) to not copy over here as there's a certain color-of-the-sky quality there, but which I strongly encourage you to click on the link and look at for yourself. I particularly like that the coot in the "life cycle" picture appears to have a couple Ilyechams in her flock in addition to the new Raggfong.

A seabird soaring through a sunny sky. Its feathers are mostly white, but its wingtips and a "mask" around its eyes are black, as are its feet. It is holding a chick in each claw.

@moustawott (link to post here) describes their Raggfong as a gannet mixed with an eagle, and it looks pretty majestic, honestly. The background really enhances that effect, and I think it makes a much more entertaining contrast with the two little chicks being carried below. There's a certain severity to the design that I think is fitting.

A drawing of three birds with colorfully-patterned blue feathers. The one on the left has a red crest and red-tipped wings, and stands straight. The one on the right lacks these features, and is bending down to interact with the third, a smaller juvenile.

@pomrania (link to post here) has ditched the whole "coot" thing for a more direct interpretation of the Raggfong's "common counterpart", which they deem the "Ritchfong". I kind of like the idea of two related species of bird that the human observer has interpreted to have class divisions. The crest on the Raggfong is also a very appropriate touch, I think. The linked post contains additional detail on design decisions, and links to some process images, so go check that out.

a simple pencil drawing of an insect in flight, with the underside visible to the viewer. the head resembles that of a housefly, with two large faceted eyes and several smaller ones, including a hexagonal one in the center of the head. the large eyes have small lines emanating from them to indicate a glow. the head also has a pair of short antennae and several small sets of mandibles.
the thorax is short, and all six legs are folded up close to it, though the pair closest to the abdomen is longer and they dangle slightly.
the abdomen is long and divided into segments, with a large pincer at the end.
there are two sets of wings, the elytra and the hindwings. the elytra are open and raised up, and have a slight glow similar to the eyes. the hindwings are roughly horizontal, and are haphazardly drawn without much detail, so as to look like they're constantly moving.

@treesurface (link to post here) has decided that the Raggfong should actually be a sort of insect that people mistake for a bird, which I think is quite clever. They explain their reasoning for that a bit more in the linked post, along with some other notes on design and execution that I think are worth reading. I really like the concept that the "unmoving wings" are elytra, and the kind of glittering quality that they suggest here. (I also appreciate that they provide their own alt text.)

A series of drawings of a blue bird with decorative tailfeathers and a feathery crest. It is shown gliding over the water, flying very close to a stylized sun with little flames on its feathers, emerging from the water, hunched over with gray feathers, and standing with two chicks. In the bottom right, a coot with its chicks can be seen welcoming a timid-looking Raggfong chick.

@karthara (link to post here) has drawn a Raggfong in several scenarios to express the behavior described in the entry. I really like the overall design here, with the feathery tufts on its head. Also charming is that one flying up near the sun -- it looks so happy to be on fire. The linked post explains the design decisions and the real-world birds from which karthara has taken inspiration. They also mention they included the coot chicks after looking them up and seeing how colorful they are, so I did a quick google and found this great headline:

A screenshot of a Google result that shows a coot chick, which has a red head and orange feathers around its upper body, and a headline from the Atlantic that reads, "Why Are These Baby Birds So Fancy?"

(Tl:dr coot parents show preference for more colorful chicks, so the later the chick hatches, the more colorful it is, allowing it to compete with its larger, older siblings for food and attention.)

And finally, the Aberdeen Bestiary depiction:

A two-paneled image from a medieval manuscript, with a decorative border and a gold-foil background. The top panel shows two brown-feathered birds of prey over the ocean, one of which has caught a fish. The bottom panel shows a bird of the same species diving into a basin of water.

The one diving into the basin just looks so goofy to me, sorry. Anyway, as I'm sure everyone has guessed, this is the eagle.

Yeah. I know. The whole "fiery rebirth" thing sounds like it should be the phoenix, but this bestiary has an entry for "Phoenix" and it's not this one.

Regular listeners to the Maniculum Podcast may recall this particular eagle behavior coming up before, in the quiz-show episode we did for the second part of "Sidrak & Bokkus". I still don't really know where this idea comes from, but there you go. Eagles.

I feel like there's some kind of comment that could be made over the lack of compassion shown by the medieval eagle here and, you know...