Hraetnug - Tumblr Posts

cheapsweets
5 months ago

The Xerocolous Hraetnug

A brush pen sketch of a small dragon, with a pointed face, two long pointed ears, small wings and two legs that end in flat two-toed feet like a camel. It has a heart-shaped tip to its tail. It stands on a fairly featureless plain with dunes in the distance, and in the sky are a cluster of seven stars which corresponde to the Pleiades constellation.
A brush pen sketch of a mound of sand that small creatures are tring to pull their way out of. On the left of the mound, a neck with pointed head (and back-turned pointed ears) emerges. On the right, another neck and pointed head with alert pointed ears, the tops of two wings barely visible, and a two-toed foot peeking over the edge. Below this is another creature, clearly visible with two legs, a pointed head with pointed ears, and a tail with a heart shaped tip. It is lying on its back with wings oustretched on the ground, and its legs in the air.

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

Pencil sketch, then lines in Pentel brush pen. Originally meant to be a single image, but didn't work with the cropping...

Reasoning below the cut…

"It has wings but does not fly, and its feet are like those of the camel. When the time comes for it to lay eggs, it raises its eyes to the sky and looks to see if the star called Vergiliae, the Pleiades, has appeared, for it will not lay its eggs until that star has risen. When the Hraetnug sees the star, around the month of June, it digs in the ground, deposits its eggs in the hole it has made and covers them with sand. When it gets up from the hole, it immediately forgets the eggs and never returns to them. The effect of the calm, mild air seems to be that the sand in the summer heat hatches the eggs, bringing forth the young."

Honestly, it's been a week, so just a quick one this time. I genuinely had no idea what creature this this prompt related to, until last night I was lying in bed trying to sleep, and suddenly it seemed So Obvious… Curious if I've guessed this one right!

I ended up taking this one pretty literally. I was originally planning on drawing some manner of Beast, but the wings AND the egg-laying made me lean away from this. Rather than a bird, I ended up going for a fairly generic dragon (with That Head which keeps on coming up for some reason on the most unlikely creatures); many dragon illustrations don't look like they could fly anyway, so maybe the wings are more for balance (or cooling, perhaps?). The feet are taken pretty much directly from camels (including the pad underneath that is just visible on the raised foot); this along with the sand makes me think this is a desert dwelling creature.

I genuinely can't work out what Vergiliae relates to, but we also have the Pleiades in the sky.

I'm never going to miss the opportunity to draw cute baby animals, so have a trio of baby Hraetnugs clawing their way out of the sand once they have hatched :)

I think it ended up looking a bit like something from the Moomins...

Tags :
hraetnug bestiaryposting maniculum bestiaryposting my art art challenge dragon
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cheapsweets
4 months ago

So, to be a bestiary artist, I must master the art of drawing one bird very well... 🤔

Nice variety of cool (and cute) critters this week. Plus, I managed to guess what it was (after I'd done the drawing, though) - surprisingly not a bad description of the creature, all told!

Bestiaryposting Results: Hraetnug

We've got a good variety of results here, so I'm just going to run through the usual stuff and get to them.

If anyone isn't sure what this "bestiaryposting" thing is about, you can find an explanation and previous entries at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

All of the art below is based on this entry:

maniculum.tumblr.com
Bestiaryposting -- Hraetnug
As a reminder, all previous entries in this series can be found at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting . It has wings but does not

If you want to participate, next week's bestiaryposting will be based on this entry:

maniculum.tumblr.com
Bestiaryposting -- Dirubael
As a reminder, all previous entries in this series can be found at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting . Hm -- this one's nonce-nam

And the art is below the cut:

A drawing of a black-and-white flightless bird, similar to an auk or a penguin. It has conspicuously small, yet feathery, wings, large feet mostly hidden by its torso, and a large yellow beak with a red spot on the bottom. It is standing and looking up at a starry sky.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) decided something with wings that doesn't fly might well be a flightless bird, and has drawn a very good penguin/auk/thing. I really like how it's posed against the starry sky; it's evocative. For additional details, check the linked post.

A digital drawing of a large tortoise-like animal. Its body is a muted green, with a long neck and four bulky legs. The animal's shell resembles the armor of a nodosaur. Some of the scutes making up the shell are slightly raised and paler than the area surrounding them. Four of the scutes are elongated, and vaguely resemble outstretched wings.

@ectocs (link to post here) thought of sea turtles instead -- which I can totally see. I've had the good fortune to witness a few sea turtle hatchings, and the description of the eggs in the sand absolutely tracks. However, there's the issue that the idea of wing-shaped fins is not compatible with "its feet are like those of a camel" -- hence the very cool shell design. I like it; it's quite clever. The linked post contains some additional discussion of the thoughts and inspirations behind this design, go look at it. (Also, thank you for providing alt text.)

A brush pen sketch of a small dragon, with a pointed face, two long pointed ears, small wings and two legs that end in flat two-toed feet like a camel. It has a heart-shaped tip to its tail. It stands on a fairly featureless plain with dunes in the distance, and in the sky are a cluster of seven stars which corresponde to the Pleiades constellation.
A brush pen sketch of a mound of sand that small creatures are tring to pull their way out of. On the left of the mound, a neck with pointed head (and back-turned pointed ears) emerges. On the right, another neck and pointed head with alert pointed ears, the tops of two wings barely visible, and a two-toed foot peeking over the edge. Below this is another creature, clearly visible with two legs, a pointed head with pointed ears, and a tail with a heart shaped tip. It is lying on its back with wings oustretched on the ground, and its legs in the air.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has taught me a new word with this post -- xerocolous. Also, we have a medieval-style dragon here, complete with that ubiquitous wavy-eared head -- it does fully fit the description, too. Always appreciate a little medieval styling; those damned ears made me smile. There's additional explanation in the linked post -- also, thank you for providing alt text.

A line drawing in pencil of a hraetnug. The creature has a snake body with a diamond pattern down its back, large two-toed feet like a camel's,and small feathery wings.

@sweetlyfez (link to post here) has laid out a brief but excellent explanation of their design process. It seems to have gone like this:

"What animals do this with their eggs?" "Snakes do that." "But snakes don't have wings or camel-like feet." "This one does."

Brilliant. Love it. No notes. (Also thank you for providing alt text.)

A digital drawing of a large fluffy bird with a long neck, small wings, a pointed beak, googly eyes, and feet that distinctly resemble those of Sesame Street's "Big Bird". It has grey feathers with streaks of blue and green, and is shown walking away from a buried nest.

@pomrania (link to post here) also went with "flightless bird" and admits the inadvertent resemblance of their design to Big Bird -- it does have a certain Muppet-like quality, I must say. For additional information, please see the linked post. I particularly like the note that giving it a "no thoughts head empty" facial expression was fully intentional.

A red dotted frame surrounds a digital drawing of a hybrid creature standing on sandy, swirly ground. Three eggs lie in the sand, partially visible. The creature has a long neck and turtle-like head. From its blue patterned shell extend six limbs. Two are purple turtle flippers pointed upwards and backwards, the other four are the legs of a camel. Behind it, stars twinkle in a soft purple sky.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) also thought of sea turtles and then questioned how this could be compatible with the camel feet. Their solution, which I think came out extremely well here, was to simply draw a camel/turtle hybrid. I kind of love this design -- and, of course, the stylized art.

A drawing of a flightless bird with long neck, legs, and tail. It is fluffy and has brown feathers speckled with white. A beak and a pair of two-toed feet, all yellow, protrude from its feathers.

@strixcattus (link to post here) has drawn a very charming flightless bird. I really like the sort of shaggy design, which I assume is indicative of kiwi-style feathers. As is normally the case, Strixcattus has also included a modern naturalist-style interpretation of the animal, which I, as usual, recommend reading via the linked post.

To the Aberdeen Bestiary...

A medieval manuscript illustration with a red-and-blue decorative border and a gold-foil background. It shows two birds standing side by side, which look exactly like the generic bird of prey seen in other illustrations with the exception of a pair of camel-like feet. The bird in the fore is bending down to a pile of eggs and appears to be manipulating one with its beak.

Once again, this is basically the same bird we see in a bunch of these, with the exception of its (surprisingly accurate) camel-like feet. However, this is in fact the ostrich. (I have no idea why one of them appears to be eating the eggs.)

I honestly don't have a lot to add here. Bit surprising to see a different set of myths about the ostrich rather than the "head in the sand" thing.

Tags :
maniculum bestiaryposting hraetnug ostrich Awesome art bestiaryposting bestiary
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