Ydrus - Tumblr Posts

cheapsweets
11 months ago

That bestiary illustration is as metal as it is inaccurate to the description (I'll assume the illustrator was just having fun with it!)

I really like the variety of interpretations we've got this time round; insects, crustacean/xiphosurans, snakes, different fishies... love all of these! This was one of my favourites to draw too :)

Bestiaryposting Results: Nirmosho

Today's is interesting in that it's notably vague about what kind of creature this is, other than "lives in the river" and "smaller than a crocodile". (Convenient that the crocodile was so recent, now that I think of it.)

It should also be noted that this is our very last entry on an individual animal -- as we're winding down, our final half-dozen Bestiaryposts are going to be collections of multiple entries, mostly ones that I felt were too short or too obvious to give their own post. Artists should feel free to pick & choose which to draw, or do a group shot, or however they like.

If you don't know what this is about, you can learn at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

To see the entry the art is based on this week, click this link:

maniculum.tumblr.com
Bestiaryposting -- Nirmosho
As a reminder, all previous entries in this series can be found at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting . A creature lives in the Ri

To see the entry for next week and potentially participate, click this one:

maniculum.tumblr.com
Bestiaryposting -- Miscellaneous Birds
As a reminder, all previous entries in this series can be found at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting . Another reminder: as menti

Now, let's see what people came up with.

A drawing of a creature strongly reminiscent of a horseshoe crab, but more... jagged. It stands further off the ground than a horseshoe crab, with thicker legs, and also has a sharp fin-like structure along its back.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has drawn this very charming little beastie that is not unlike a horseshoe crab, just less flat. I really like this overall, but I'd like to highlight the tiny little eyes, the detail on the mouthparts, and the nifty fin-thing on its back.

A blue frame surrounding a digital drawing in the style of a medieval bestiary, showing two blue mudskippers jumping towards each other, splashing around in muddy water. Their mouths are wide open to indicate a fight and they are covered in muddy specks.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) correctly observes that she's already drawn this one -- this is indeed the "certain kind of fish" mentioned in the Dolthruk entry, which she included in that illustration. However, in light of addition details, they have revised their design to create a fish that's capable of being mobile on land, basing it heavily on the mudskipper. Here we see an excellent image of two having a dispute in muddy water -- I particularly love the rendering of the fins and think the background works well here. (Also thank you for providing alt text.)

Pen and ink drawing, in the style of a technical or anatomical drawing, of a fishlike creature in profile, facing to the left. It is made up of clean lines with dotted shading. The creature has a large head comprising about a quarter of its entire length , with a slightly agape mouth revealing a fang in the top jaw. It has a small eye near the top of its head. Its forelimbs are fleshy with quite reduced fins. It hind limbs are even more reduced, and its dorsal and adipose fins on the top of its body are both positioned far back on the body near to the tail. The tail itself is a quarter of its entire length, the caudal fin roughly symetrical above and below the body; it does not have a traditional forked or lunate tail fin. Its body covered in rounded scales which give a slightly diamond pattern as they overlap.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has drawn this really nice fish inspired by various prehistoric species -- to me, it genuinely looks like this drawing would fit right into a series of illustrations in a paleontological text. To me, it's giving coelacanth, but that may be mostly because that's the only lobe-finned fish I recognize. I also like the little fang at the front. (And thank you for including alt text.)

A drawing of a brown snake, coiled into a spiral.

@strixcattus (link to post here) has drawn this rather polite-looking snake, noting that the description provided lines up quite well with it being some sort of snake. As usual, the gold is in the naturalist-style description they've provided in the linked post -- in this case, I think it fits right in with any given article about unusual animal life cycles & behaviors. Weird, but not implausibly weird.

A picture of a drawing on a sketchpad. In the center is a blue rectangle with a yellow circle on each side. Around the whole thing is a border that is shaped like four overlapping circles. Within the blue rectangle is a stylized, simplified crocodile. At the top of the drawing is a picture of an egg within a ball of mud. At the right is a picture of a long, pink grub. At the bottom is a brown-and-orange chrysalis. At the left is a brown beetle with orange-and-purple elytra and a long, sharp red proboscis.

@wendievergreen (link to post here) is depicting, in their usual aesthetically pleasing stylized form, an insect life cycle. I like the idea of it being an insect, which does fit the description, I like the thought put into this crocodile-centric life cycle, and again I really like the vibe of the artwork here. See the linked post for more detail on the life cycle being depicted, and close-ups of the individual details of this drawing.

Now to see what the Aberdeen Bestiary has to say:

A medieval manuscript illustration with a decorative red border and a gold-foil background. It shows a reddish, mammalian-looking quadruped with a spiny ridge along its back lying belly-up with its eyes closed. A blue reptilian creature only slightly smaller than it, with two legs, a long tail, and feathery wings, is shown emerging from a hole in its belly. The reptile's tail can be seen traveling back out of the creature, back in via a hole in its neck, and then back out the mouth, indicating the path it has taken.

... yeah, that is neither a crocodile nor a fish.

The beast being killed here looks more like a medieval hyena than anything -- people who have read these posts from the beginning may find that spiny back familiar. And the creature killing it, which this entry is ostensibly describing, is dead-on identical to the standard-issue Medieval Wyvern Thing that you see in a lot of different manuscripts.

Anyway, as I'm certain nobody guessed from that illustration, we're going out with a bang on the world-famous... Ydrus.

If you've never heard of it, you're not alone. It isn't real, and is one of those imaginary beasts that never quite caught on. As far as I know, it pretty much only shows up in bestiaries -- occasionally it gets confused with the Hydra, but I don't think they were originally intended to be the same, similar names aside.

And now you know.

seriously i don't think the illustrator was making a lot of effort to fit the description

Tags :
maniculum bestiaryposting nirmosho bestiary Ydrus Awesome art bestiaryposting
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