joyfulbounds

[joyfulbounds]

"The marks on your head look like stars in the sky"

Extra doodles below line break ⬇︎

So I've been really fixated on Ecco the dolphin these past couple of day, Ecco everything, every game, every character, I'm even working on a rewrite au that connects all the games together in some way

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Floating through the water, with flowing moss beneath and a majestic waterfall in the background 😌

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ive been feeling really depressed lately, human life is just so complicated and unfulfilling

it feels like every time i make peace with it and convince myself i can be happy it only takes a couple of months, if that, to fall back into monotony

i dont think i will ever be satisfied

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Lettuce thief

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I think it's sad that most people always think of bottlenoses as the "classic dolphin" since its the one that's always used for shows, and always think of dolphins as just straight grey when in reality there's so many varieties with so many different amazing patterns

Look at the common dolphin! They have a gorgeous X pattern and even some dull yellow/gold!!

Hourglass dolphins have gorgeous white streaks

Spinner dolphins have really pretty banding as well, AND they have a really sleek cute silhouette!

The atlantic spotted dolphin!!! Theyre spotted!!!!!!

and the pantropical spotted too!!

Dusky dolphins have a gorgeous airbrush look going on like straight out of a 2000s fantasy illustration

Striped dolphins sure have stripes!! How cool!!

And these I've shown you aren't even all of them at all, there are so many of them:

There's so so so many different types of dolphins people dont know about this isnt even all of them and some are SO gorgeous and underrated because people just dont know they exist so I'm here to fix that

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Me! I don't have a great grasp of my appearance as a blue whale yet, but I finally got inspiration to draw so I wanted to get something down.

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Just a gorilla enjoying the water 🦍

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dolphin curse: any dolphin you look up, mostly bottlenoses will appear

baleen whale curse: any baleen whale you look up, mostly humpbacks will appear

toothed whale curse: any toothed whale you look up, mostly orcas will appear

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ID credit: 634258874 on 小红书

(please like, reblog and give proper credit if you use any of my gifs!)

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Namu’s sketchbook p3

Belugas! Belugas belugas belugas!! This is where we come to the first pages of photo studies, and thus the end (albeit partial) to the general anatomical mayhem that usually dominates my sketches.

So, beluga studies. Coincidentally I also really, really love the narwhal sketch on the third page. That face is just just right. Sometimes that happens by accident and when you’re least expecting it - or even trying - and I think my fellow artists can attest to the annoyance of that phenomenon. Of course these things never happen when it actually matters and you’re working on, say, a high profile commission.

A few of these pages, including the last, were made while I was in Sweden - there comes the first of many moose (mooses? meese???) - the very last bit of 2014. All the Atlantic spotted dolphin studies on the rest of the page were actually preparatory work for my painting ‘Foreign Traditions’! Also, birds. Lots and lots of birds.

See all entries here!

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Just two little sketches from my - then new - sketchbook. Sadly haven’t drawn much in it since! It’s a nice little booklet. They’re three years old by now (oof), but I do quite like the killer whale one. The other one is two Atlantic-spotted dolphins ‘holding pectoral fins’, which is an adorable thing some species sometimes do.

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“Foreign Traditions”

A young Atlantic spotted dolphin appreciates a rather mistletoe-shaped piece of Sargassum seaweed, unaware of its cultural value for us humans near the end of the year.

This was done for a cetacean secret santa over on Deviantart, and I got Shiverdam’s beautiful character Veil to paint. I went all out on details in this piece (which sits at around 6500px wide originally); I’ve added two close-ups at 100% to show them off a little cause they all but disappear in the scaled down version ;w;

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Dolphins: Spy in the Pod

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sonar got bottles cool twistable crayons and pencils...did best to draw self and brother (orpheus) and sonar.

bottles marks are more grey but had no dark grey pencil

even though bottles is adult, bottles love crayons! so much fun!!

- Bottles 🌌

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bottles drew Sonar's cetacean pals, sorry didn't know some names so just wrote down usernames. sorry if not accurate, bottles have limited colors

little gift as thank you for being so kind to us

- bottles 🌌

uhh tagging below cut

@a-minke-whales-tale @orcinusorka @dolphinrostrums @joyfulbounds @frozenscalesnbones

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Leaning Into Fear

It got me thinking about my tendency to lean into fear and deconstruct it-

Which is maybe not the wisest reaction when it comes to an Eldritch entity...

...But it still fits a scavenger.

I am a vulture.

We approach wolves following the kill.

We eat beasts stuck in the tar pit. We stand by the road that kills tons of animals each day.

Victims of poisoning, death by disease, we cannot be picky. No time for fear. Respect, yes, caution, yes, but if we fear death and the unknown then we invite starvation to our home.

It is said that the reactions to fear are Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn. I would like to propose a new one.

Fascinate.

(Featuring @dawning-mars)