C.O.W. #202. The Mating Ritual - Voting!

[Si_Swe]

ROUND #202 VOTING

Topic: The Mating Ritual

Single Vote (<20 entries)...

Deadline for the voting: Wednesday Feb. 23rd, 2011

Remember to show some love, thank the people who's entries you liked but couldn't vote for. Also if you've got the time, add some crits.

[emerging]

Artist: emerging

Concept: Tail Crotcher
The Tail Crotcher is a perfect example of a perfect relationship! When the little Crotchers hatch, the males are missing their digestive systems and therefore, have to find a female as fast as possible bite into her back and release special enzymes that will slowly fuse the two creatures together.

The male gets all the needed nutrients and disposes of wastes through female. His head, hump and special censors on the side of his back used to have a full day and night awareness don't compare to how important his tail is.

The Tail Crotcher's male part's tail has a penis-like projection at the tip which has two purposes. One is a daily scouting for insects that get attracted to its faint glow. When the mating season starts the penis structure starts glowing more due to a serge of male hormones. The female then becomes no more than the insect too being attracted to the warm glow. If the glow is too weak the female will not offer her vagina located at the frontal part of her head. But that's okay because the male Crotcher will have another go at it 6-7 months later when another mating season starts. And he better have his hormones up and running!

[Si_Swe]

Artist: Si_Swe

Concept: Organ-backed Pondloks


[To be read in the voice of David Attenborough]:
It's mating season in wetlands of Bumeria. Animals gather round the ponds and bear witness to one of the most unique mating rituals... in the world. Loud sounds echo across the ponds of the Bumerian landscape, as these creatures court one another. The Organ-backed Pondlok... The males will sit on a lily pad, using their organ like flatulating tubes to create music... Females will skitter across the surface of the water like hovercrafts seeking the male with loudest, most melodic and (of course) most pungent song... once they have located the desired male, they will approach the male and begin to play the same song in unison. If the song lasts for more than a minure, this means it is time to mate. The male and female dive underwater where the male shoots his spore-like sperm toward the female's cloaca. The female then nurses the eggs in an underwater nest, until it is time to hatch... The male, tired from expelling most of it's gas from the mating process, dies a short while later.
[/David Attenborough voice]

[GoldenSerpent]

Artist: GoldenSerpent

Concept: Sinuous-nosed Rat

The sinuous-nosed rat gets its name from the shape of the males' preposterously long nostrils. Males remain brightly colored all year round thanks to their noxious saliva which they meticulously coat their fur with. Male rats use their nostrils in both threat displays against predators and during courtship. During the mating season males and female engage in a comical courtship dance. When a male and female meet the male rat will begin waving his nostrils rhythmically across the forest floor while making soft tooting noises. The female will then leap into the fray, dancing around the male's nostrils. If the male is impressed with the female's dancing and the female is impressed with the male's nasal movements they will mate. After mating the male will take the time to clean the female's fur saturating it with his poisonous saliva before he leaves her. The female is not effected by the toxins and has a little extra security against predators after most likely calling attention to herself during such a conspicuous mating ritual.

1170795

[jsn]

Artist: jsn

Concept: The Pygmy Grass Hog
The Pygmy Grass Hog endures a difficult and strange ritual to find the right mate. The male, nicknamed "the artist", paints the female while she sleeps, then as she wakes, the male starts dancing around and drawing "signs of love" into the sand. After the male has observed the love in her eyes, he throws leaves over her and squirts his well saved up saliva straight into her freaking eye.

[retter]

Artist: Retter

Concept: The Stugrii

The female Stugrii has six eyes which may seem abnormal but not when you consider that the way she decides if her male counter-part is worthy of mating is with a staring contest. Male Stugrii will spend up to a week holding their gaze at the female for the right to mate with her.

(Thank you Si_Swe!!!)

[Si_Swe]

Retter if you post your image in the finals thread now, I will add it to the poll.

[retter]

I vote for GoldenSerpent - cool concept, I love the colours and the feeling of movement in the scene. Nice work.

[Si_Swe]

Since there are so few entries, I'll do my crits now:

emerging - Really fantastic work, with an original design and concept, and stellar rendering. The weak points, for me, are the tail's lack of texture and the fact that it's difficult to see where the mouth of the creature is. The frontal vagina seems like, perspectivally, it should be located a few millimeters to the right of where it is now, but it's a super minor complaint (obviously). Literally the only reason that I did not vote for it is that I felt GoldenSerpent's entry was more faithful to the brief.

GoldenSerpent - I think that this one does the best job of creating a strange and yet believable courtship ritual for animals. I thought the nostrils were a really novel touch, and your rendering method looks as crisp as ever. If I have one complaint it's that I wish the design was pushed a little further from existing rodents. The tails, nostrils and colouration do a lot in the favor of this, but I wish there was just a little bit more distinction. Anyway, I thought it was the best fit for the brief, with excellent execution, so I voted for it in the end, though it was a really close race between you and emerging.

jsn - The ritual you've created here is so delightfully absurd. It defies believability as animals go, passing into the realm of deeper thinking sentient creatures, but has a really charming and silly course of events. Your rendering does need some work, even for a more cartoony approach. There's too much white and it seems like it was used to define forms a bit too much. I think the movement of the saliva and of the leaves could be improved. I guess all I could suggest would be to be more gestural with the leaves, and take a look at splatters and splashes for the saliva.

Retter - Your concept is so quirky and charming, and the expressions of the creatures have an excellent sense of personality. In the actual illustration of the staring contest the forms seem a bit flat, like you've simply skewed the head on shots, which would work if you painted in a little bit more to make us believe the forms, but at the moment makes them look a little like cardboard cut-outs. Glad you managed to get them in on time, though.

[jsn]

Si_Swe, thanks very much!

I voted for Golden Serpent's, very well painted and closest to the topic!
emerging's was well painted, butt, looks more like mating, rather than a ritual.
Retter, Si_Swe, and I, well,....we should continue practising, cos the best of the best was once a beginner, and so on, and so on!

Awesome!
...moving on!

[GoldenSerpent]

It’s disappointing so few entered, I wonder if everyone just got tied up with Valentines Day.

emerging: I like how you took inspiration from anglerfish, the textures and colors are also really nice. I think the only problem with your creature is that despite its glowing tail, which is a cool idea, and well rendered, it doesn’t seem like it has much of a mating ritual at all.

Si_Swe: Reading your description in Attenborough’s voice was pretty amusing. I really like your concept; it’s bizarre, humorous, but also believable. I imagine being near these guys during mating season would probably be a pretty horrendous experience, between the noise and the stench. Your colors are working really nicely in this, although I still think something looks off about the male. I think maybe it’s a perspective problem since he looks more like he’s at a side view while the female isn’t. Regardless you get my vote as I think your creatures are the best representation of the topic.

jsn: I like the level of absurdity you took your creature’s mating ritual to. Try creating highlights with a lighter and more saturated version of the base color you are using instead of white. Also the male’s saliva isn’t looking liquid enough, something like a toned down version of this would probably work well: http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/3338/1228409786v2lmvhn.jpg

Notice the shape of the spray, lots of very small water droplets instead of a few big ones, and there is splatter right near the hose nozzle as apposed to just where it hits the dog.

EDIT: actually not to sure, since I just remembered this little fish,http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01683/archer-fish-2_1683120i.jpg, and its spray actually looks more like yours, I guess maybe something between the two, ah well hope this maybe helped give you some ideas at least.

retter: Nice concept, I like the female’s blank expression and the male looks like he’s desperately trying not to blink. The top picture looks odd mostly because you reused the front facing head, I think it would have been much better if you had redrawn a new head.

[jsn]

GoldenSerpent, thanks very much!
Actually the male's saliva is pretty thick after saving it up for a while, and I didn't use much white at all for highlights or form, the white-ish col is what he painted on her, and practised on himself previously, my highlights were probably too bright anyway!,....I will be using your helpful advice in future, thanks heaps!

[lionking]

Artist: emerging

Concept: Tail Crotcher
The Tail Crotcher is a perfect example of a perfect relationship! When the little Crotchers hatch, the males are missing their digestive systems and therefore, have to find a female as fast as possible bite into her back and release special enzymes that will slowly fuse the two creatures together.

The male gets all the needed nutrients and disposes of wastes through female. His head, hump and special censors on the side of his back used to have a full day and night awareness don't compare to how important his tail is.

The Tail Crotcher's male part's tail has a penis-like projection at the tip which has two purposes. One is a daily scouting for insects that get attracted to its faint glow. When the mating season starts the penis structure starts glowing more due to a serge of male hormones. The female then becomes no more than the insect too being attracted to the warm glow. If the glow is too weak the female will not offer her vagina located at the frontal part of her head. But that's okay because the male Crotcher will have another go at it 6-7 months later when another mating season starts. And he better have his hormones up and running!

This creature is absolutely amazing and unbeatable; perfect unison of artist's talent,creativity and imagination. Bravo!!!!