#birdbugs

A birg kid practices their portraiture in the fleeting winter sunlight

Laying there like a slug will not protect them from the Burial Mound

Coupla nude birg sketches, still working on drawing their anatomy consistently

Some notes: most of the mid-arm rotation ability is in the shoulder, but they might have some extra flexibility of the wrist too. Nowhere near the range of human arms though.

Birgs tend to look a bit walleyed from the front; their evolutionary history as prey animals favors a wider scope of vision. They can look directly forward, but it takes conscious effort.

Revised birdbug skeleton, for anyone interested. The ancestral animal had an exoskeleton, which became heavily reduced in later forms. As a result, many of the muscle attachments are still internal. Birgs and their kin have convergently developed vertebrae to support the neck region, but the abdomen does not require this level of mobility and is instead surrounded by a cage of free floating ribs.

Some sketches of a Twowi pottery workshop. Ceramic is an ancient craft in this region, with folklore positing that the first artisans fired their clay in the firey bowls of volcanoes. Nowadays, they do use kilns, often adorned with a simple effigy of the earth mother, who crafted the first birgs from earth, water, and fire in Twowi myth. This workshop produces mainly everyday bowls and vessels, but a couple of the crafters specialize in producing funeral pots.

Also shown is a transaction between the artisan clan and the merchants that supply them with fine clays and transport their wares to storagehouses for further distribution. Special glass beads minted and distributed by the Head Clan each half-year are exchanged as a sort of receipt.

Beholden Suooſs the Fowelebeest, herdere of Tyke-bearinge Tronkehorsen amydst dystaunt planete Fowelebeestlond…..