The Thing About Knitting Is Its Much Harder To Fear The Existential Futility Of All Your Actions While

The thing about knitting is it’s much harder to fear the existential futility of all your actions while you’re doing it.

Like ok, sure, sometimes it’s hard to believe you’ve made any positive impact on the world. But it’s pretty easy to believe you’ve made a sock. Look at it. There it is. Put it on, now your foot’s warm.

Checkmate, nihilism.

Ha! I genuinely had no idea what this critter was when I was drawing, but it suddenly dawned on me when I browsing other people's art afterwards.

Also, as with so many things, Blame Ovid....

Bestiaryposting Results: Wimchlat

Very similar art this week, which kind of can't be helped because the entry does specifically say that it looks like a wolf with spots. There's some range here, though.

If you're not sure what this is about, you can find an explanation and previous posts here: https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

The entry artists are working from this week can be found here:

And if you want to participate in the next round, here's that entry:

...huh. I didn't realize which one was up next until I went looking for the link just now. That'll be an interesting artistic experience, I'm sure.

(Pursuant to some previous speculation on the "-bael" morpheme in the Dikebael and Dirubael, now I'm wondering if the "-at" morpheme in our randomly-generated words might have something to do with bodily waste.)

Anyway, this week's art is below the cut:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) notes that their version ended up quite fluffy, which I have also noted and enjoyed. For some additional detail, which includes some interesting animal facts, click on the linked post.

@doodlebethel (link to post here) is joining us for the first time, and has drawn an excellent not-quite-a-wolf. I feel the depiction of it aggressively guarding that sparkly sand is very well-executed.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has made the decision that the urine in question solidifies into a jewel basically immediately, which I think raises a lot of interesting questions (complimentary). Also, thank you for providing alt text.

@citrvsdrake (link to post here) observes that the creature hiding its urine sounds like cat behavior, so they leaned a little harder towards the leopard side than the wolf one. I think it came out well; an animal that is both relatively wolf-shaped and clearly feline has an interesting look to it.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) decided to base theirs on the maned wolf, which I think came out really well in this art style. I also like the decision to make the spots look like eyes -- together with the color scheme and the long limbs, it really has a fascinating (and slightly sinister?) effect. I kind of love this design, really. I want to know more about this creature. (Also, thank you for including alt text.)

@wendievergreen (link to post here) also decided to mix it up a bit animal-wise, and also landed on the maned wolf as an interesting non-wolf wolf option. It's also got ocelot features rather than leopard. I just really like the vibes here -- something about this art style is very charming to me. I'm not an art critic, so I can't elaborate on that. I would recommend clicking on the linked post, which has more information and also some tags I find quite funny.

On to the Aberdeen Bestiary!

... or not, actually. This is one of the folios missing from that manuscript, so the text actually came from Bodley MS 764, and we'll be taking the illustration from the Ashmole Bestiary.

That illustration doesn't help a whole lot, though it does also lean more feline, so we can get something there -- but I saw a number of comments saying that people had recognized it in the process of drawing, so it's probably no surprise that this is the lynx.

No, I don't know why people thought its urine turned into gemstones. Ask Pliny the Elder. (The supposed gemstone in question is called ligurius, by the way.)

I also don't know why the lynx in the Ashmole illustration appears to be having a staring contest with a ram... hold on, let me see something...

... okay, bestiary.ca doesn't have anything that explains that. It might just be an artistic decision. Things I did learn from bestiary.ca just now, though:

Ovid (yes, that Ovid) specified that the lynx's urine solidifies on contact with air, which means that those interesting questions (mostly along the lines of what is in that stuff) raised by CheapSweets's drawing are definitely still on the table.

Thomas of Cantimpre also says that the lynx has the hilarious combination of comic-book-style x-ray vision and a total inability to remember anything it's not currently looking at. So it can see through walls but just immediately forgets what it saw. I love that.

The Beneficent Gerzlaem

My response to this week’s BestiaryPosting challenge from @maniculum

Pencil sketch, then lines in Pentel brush pen. Bit of a tricky one, I had no idea how I was going to approach this until I sat down with it. A little bit of influence from Tove Jannson; there were definitely some parts of this I struggled with, and I think I'm learning some of the limits of the brush pen, but there are also parts of this I'm really pleased with :)

Reasoning below the cut…

"There are said to be three kinds. Of these, the ones which are short in stature, with curly hair, are peaceable; the tall ones, with straight hair, are fierce. Their brow and tail show their mettle; their courage is in their breast, their resolution in their head. They fear the rumbling sound of wheels, but are even more frightened by fire. The Gerzlaem takes pride in the strength of its nature; it does not know how to join in the ferocity of other kinds of wild beasts, but like a king disdains the company of large numbers."

At first I thought we were missing a description of the third kind, until I realised that it was probable somewhere between the two extremes; so we have three Gerzlaem, the tallest with straight hair, angry brows and an upraised and alert tail, the smallest with a more peacable aspect (and asleep - more notes below) with curly hair, and a medium sized Gerzlaem with wavy hair.

We don't get a great deal of descrption, apart from it must be a beast (paws, hair) and my generic beast-shape is something like a wolf or dog (though I ended up taking more influence in terms of the specific shape of the limbs from big cats.

"Those who study nature say that the Gerzlaem has three main characteristics. The first is that it loves to roam amid mountain peaks. If it happens that the Gerzlaem is pursued by hunters, it picks up their scent and obliterates the traces behind it with its tail. As a result, they cannot track it. The second characteristic of the Gerzlaem is that when it sleeps, it seems to have its eyes open. The third characteristic of the Gerzlaem is that when a female Gerzlaem gives birth to her young, she produces them dead and watches over them for three days, until their father comes on the third day and breathes into their faces and restores them to life."

In the background, some mountain peaks. We have a large, brush-like tail for covering its tracks, and on the smallest, dozing Gerzlaem we can see the markings on its eyelids that resemble an open eye.

"The compassion of Gerzlaems is apparent from endless examples. They spare those whom they have brought down. They allow captives whom they encounter to return home. They vent their rage on men rather than women. They do not kill children except in time of great hunger. Equally, Gerzlaems refrain from overfeeding. First, because they drink and feed on alternate days; and often, if their food remains undigested, they postpone the next feed. Then, because they feel uncomfortable when they have devoured more meat than they should, they insert their paws in their mouth and pull the food out, of their own accord. And when they have to take flight, they do exactly the same thing if they are full. Missing teeth show that a Gerzlaem is old. Gerzlaems mate face to face; and not only Gerzlaems, but lynxes, and camels, and elephants, and rhinoceroses, and tigers. Female Gerzlaems, when they first give birth, bear five young. In the years which follow, they reduce the number by one at a time. Afterwards, when they are down to one child, the fertility of the mother is diminished; they become sterile forever."

Just wondering, what kind of animal takes captives? Also, really nice to know that if it does eat someones child, it must have been really hungry…

We see the middle Gerzlaem retrieving its last meal (I tried to make this a fish, mostly because it was funny and more visual, but the size meant I didn't really have the detail to make this obvious).

"The Gerzlaem disdains to eat the previous day’s meat and turns away from the remains of its own meal. Which beast dares to rouse the Gerzlaem, whose voice, by its nature, inspires such terror, that many living things which could evade its attack by their speed, grow faint at the sound of its roar as if dazed and overcome by force. A sick Gerzlaem seeks out an ape to devour it, in order to be cured. The Gerzlaem fears the cock, especially the white one. [Redacted], it is tormented by the tiny sting of the scorpion and is killed by the venom of the snake."

We also have the largest, fiercest Gerzlaem unleashing a fearsome bark or roar! In the background, also a group of terrifying objects and creatures! A campfire! A cart (fortunately with nothing to pull it)! A rooster! A snake! And some other weird creature…!

"We learn of small beasts called Gerzlaem-killers. When captured, they are burnt; meat contaminated by a sprinkling of their ashes and thrown down at crossroads kills Gerzlaems, even if they eat only a small an amount. For this reason, Gerzlaems pursue Gerzlaem-killers with an instinctive hatred and, when they have the opportunity, they refrain from biting them but kill them by rending them to pieces under their paws."

Now this, I have no idea about, but I'm very curious to know what this might be. I have some (very vague) suspicions about the identity of the Gerzlaem, but even then, this 'Gerzlaem-killer' is baffling me…

Today's random portfolio artwork is a life-size model of a small Arthropleura (40cm long – they grew to 250cm long), which I built for MUSE – the Science Museum of Trento, in 2014.

dear audio diary - yes i am recording this while making unbroken eye contact with utahraptor.  not QUITE sure what’s going on here, audio diary, but i’m gonna chase it