C.O.W. #243. Ecological Staple - VOTING!

[Si_Swe]

Round 243: Voting!

Topic: Ecological Staple

Deadline for voting: Jan. 19

Requirements this week (Read BEFORE voting!):

- The creature must function as a support for its ecosystem in some way (home creation, food etc.)

- The creature should be physically inept in terms of locomotion or sensory perception

- The creature should have no means with which to defend itself

[Panshi]

Artist: Panshi

Concept: Reina Roja
The 'Red Queen' is a giant dragonfly from the indomitable Selva, who copulates in the first stage of her life, then hunts frantically to satiate her growing hunger as eggs develop inside her womb. Eventually the womb gets so big that she can't move anymore and slowly starves to death. When the eggs are about to hatch, the womb releases a nauseating smell, attracting scavengers into eating the womb around the eggs, until the latter can hatch and the larvae flee from the feast. As it decays, the womb partly melts into a nurturing and luminescent fluid that fertilizes the soil and heals beasts, and that forest shamen harvest and use as miracle medecine.

[Rob Powell]

Artist: Rob Powell

Concept: Boorish Cow

At first glance the Boorish Cow may seem like a lethargic, slow, dim-witted, oversized creature with no awareness of it's current location, when in actual fact; it is. It was as if they were born to be preyed upon. All sorts of predatory beasts will gorge themselves on these slow and stupid animals. Thus reducing their numbers drastically increasing the local plant-life which these cows feed on. Of course once the numbers of the prey decrease the predators will move on to other territories to find other prey items, allowing the Boorish Cow to once again repopulate, until the next round of predators will arrive, creating a constant cycle.

[Eclectix]

Artist: Eclectix

Concept: Jellyback


The jellyback is a tall creature which feeds on the high fruits of certain trees. Once the creature reaches maturity it produces egg cysts within the large sac on its back. These eggs are very small, hard, and numerous. The timing of this is correlated with symbiotic flying creatures' breeding patterns. Once the flying creatures begin their courtship, the jellybacks begin a transformation. Toxins usually stored in their sacs become neutralized; in the process the sacs turn a bright red color as the creatures' limbs stiffen. The jellybacks die in this process, retaining a rigid standing position, and using the red color of the jellybacks' sacs as a signal that it is time, the symbiotic flying creatures tear into the sacs and feast on the mass stored therein. These nutrient-rich tissues and fluids give the flying creatures the energy they need to produce their young. The jellyback's egg cysts are also consumed incidentally, but are not harmed by the flying creatures' digestive processes; in fact the process is essential to allow them to hatch. The egg cysts are later deposited by the flying creatures as they excrete them far and wide. The cysts then hatch and, using the nutrients from the flying creatures' droppings, begin the first stage in their life cycle. The dead jellybacks' bodies can remain fixed in a standing position for years, providing structures for the flying creatures to build safe nests high above the plains. Rising up through the fog in the distance, the fossilized remains of complex mega-structures formed over millions of years by long extinct burrowing tube worms have been exposed by geological processes to form dramatic arches looming over the plains.

For a much higher resolution image visit:http://eclectixx.deviantart.com/art/Jellyback-278691895

[Erzebeth]

Artist: Erzebeth

Concept: Hairy Frog
The hairy dragon borns under trees in the beginning of spring. Right after its birth it will climb and find a nice spot on the top of the tree to never move again. It take the nutriment's trees with a system of veins developped on a hole it made on the tree and feed from flies. It stocks nutriments on his "pockets" (sorry for the word) and when the winter is hard and the spring still not there. It will die and the poch-ket full of transformed nutriments will break and melt in the ground. It will help the grass and plants to grown under the tree. The herbivores wich are starving from the lack of food will find the spots of grass under the trees and thanks to the Hairy Dragon, survive till spring. The rest of it will feed carnivores.

The Hairy Dragon lay an egg every 2 days. The eggs will fall under the trees and wait for spring to hatch out. The Hairy Dragon even if they are many is not nocive for trees.

[Reddcarp]

This sub terrestrial insect is vital to the ecosystem that never sees the light of day. Reaching up to 1,200 lbs., this creature feeds mostly on iridescent fungi that grow beneath the surface, giving its large body luminous qualities. Analagmites are asexual creatures, but that does not mean that they never mate--on the rare occasion that two should meet, they would exchange sperm cells in order to fertilize their reproductive organs, and continue a healthy flow in the gene pool. After fertilization, these creatures continue about their way, leaving behind a series of eggs in their path as they continue to feast on fungi. Sub terrestrial scavengers and predators feast on the eggs and young offspring of these insects, while some more intelligent species have been known to cultivate them along with fungi as a permanent food source.

[Si_Swe]

Poll is up! No cuts this week.

Voted for Panshi. Excellent execution and a goof take on the topic. Honorable mention to Rob, design-wise.

[Hyunjae]

[*B]Artist: [*COLOR=White] Jae1234 [/COLOR]
Concept: [*COLOR=White] OasisTurtle [/COLOR]
[/B]Provides water for the thirsty beings in the deserts for nothing in return. Ironically, over the years creatures realizing the importance of Oasis Turtle began to defend them from less-grateful creatures. Due to this, these self-less providers began to thrive in the deserts


darn...just missed it! Maybe next time..

[Rob Powell]

Wow, I don't feel to confident in even getting close this round especially since I'm sandwiched in between two awesome entries!

Voted for Eclectix, because the design was more creative, plus a wonderful history in the illustration with the arches in the background, plus the anatomy sheet was a great way to showcase the design more effectively! As for improvements, I would've liked to see the arches a bit more intertwined and twisted to reinforce the idea of them being ancient burrows, and I would've liked to get a closer look at those flying symbiotes.

Panshi: Easy second placer, your just rocking all of the weeklies mate! Awesome work! I liked how your illustration gives us a bit of a story behind it as well, you were just edged by Eclectix because his design was a bit more creative, but that's not saying yours wasn't! Keep on rocking, mate!

Erzebeth: Very cool design. There is quite a few issues with your forms and textures here, both the tree and the creature look fairly flat and the contrast between the creatures body and the tree needs to be pushed a bit. Another you could've done to show the roundness of the tree is by having the creature appear to wrap around it better, because it appears to be clinging to a flat surface instead of a round tree.

Reddcarp: Awesome silhouettes in the wips thread. Your rendering is better than before, but still needs to be pushed a bit. A lot of the darker areas on the creature appear quite flat so they don't create the right forms on the creature. Also the super dark background doesn't help any either.

Jae1234: Neat idea, at first I thought the creature was some sort of flower, but on closer inspection I notice the turtle like head. There are a few issues with the shading and lighting, but the forms on the opened carapace are nicely rendered.