Improvement

I felt like posting this, the improvement I've made over the past 2-3 years. Most of these drawings are already posted separately so there's nothing new, but WTH.

I've drawn my whole life, and especially remember starting to draw horses when I was four years old. I practiced drawing mostly just horses (even though I've never been a huge horse-fan, I just enjoy them) up until the age of ~16, when I started drawing more people.
I was never good at drawing dogs when I was younger, and I thought most other animals were very hard. When I was 12-14 however, I drew lots of dragons, dogs, dinosaurs and other creatures.

Now, I don't think anyone is going to want to read all of this, but I want to write it anyway.

Alien Wyvern (mistake in the picture - I made that drawing in 2009, not 2010) - When I first started planning this world (summer of 2009), I had the idea of a "bird culture" of sorts, and was decided that there would be NO DRAGONS. Because dragons are so overused in fantasy/sci-fi. Then eventually I got the idea of maybe using small dragons as messengers, like pigeons.

...then it didn't take more than a month or so, and I had full-sized, rideable (is that a word? ) "dragons", but only tetrapod ones, as I saw no way or reason for them being six-limbed. Back then, I knew little of the wing structure of pterosaurs and bats, and had no idea how to draw them.

Bats do hold their wings kind of like that, but they are tiny creatures that crawl. Such a large, heavy creature couldn't walk like that, then the pterosaur-wings (like the one below) are far better. Other than that, the neck was way too thick, the legs far too large and not connected to the wing membrane, the tail too large, and why the "mandatory" horns?
And of course, pure drawing skills like shading and knowledge in anatomy was lacking.

Tentacled megaherbivore - Something I did do right here, was to make the legs relatively straight - I knew that such a large, heavy creature shouldn't have much angles to their bones and joints, or they would never hold under their own weight. But otherwise, it's mostly drawing skills that are lacking here. But I do remember, that I felt this one was unusually bad for the time I made it. I redrew it again (not seen here), and both times, it became far too slim and leggy. When I made the final one seen here, I took a great look at sauropods and elephants, which have heavy bodies, with the center of gravity very far back (big ass and belly ).

Pseudo-canine - Well the first one is just embarrasing, and I promise, I COULD draw far better than this even back then. This was most likely just a doodle. But anyhow - this is THE most drawn species I have, I think. This is design (design - not drawing) number 1 and 10 you're looking at.
Most species have only been redesigned 1-2 times, if at all. It is a huge challenge to make these look plausible, alien and yet fit the role of "dog/wolf" at the same time.

Apex predator - Unlike the previous drawing, the Pseudo-canine from the same time, I really thought I made a good job with this one. I was quite proud of it, and yet, HELL what a progress I've made over the past three years, when you look at the new one. They aren't the same species redesigned however, but fill the same role, so I compare them anyway.
When I first created this thing, I intended on making it like the large carnivorous theropods - but on four limbs. I thought "If they could run on two legs, they can run on four!"
Well, no... a few months later, I decided it was not possible for such a large creature to more than trot slowly. When they are that big, galloping is out of the question, and trotting/pacing would be much more efficient if it was bipedal, I think. (I can't imagine it to be as fast as a Tyrannosaurus or their relatives.)
The old one is about as agile as a Postochus, meaning, not at all. The new one runs like a canine or feline, and is not nearly as big. (But as big as such a creature could get, and still run nicely, I think.)

Sleek, venomous predator - The first one here, I can say was one of the last creatures I made before watching Avatar (which I did on December the 22nd, and no, I knew *nothing* about it before watching it - except that it involved blue aliens). Like with the last one, I really thought this drawing was good when I made it, and for many months afterwards. Now I'd rather laugh at it.
Again, the new one here is not a redesign of the same species, but the old one was scrapped, and the new one fills the same "niche".

Swamp-herbivore - This is another one that has gone through many changes. First the paddle-tailed thing seen here, then four different "antelope-looks", then back to what is seen here. It's been called Tzincai (after Tsintaosaurus), Watao (before I came up with "Whaiao" for the world), Vicuna (after Vicuña), Aclemi, and Kutirai. No other creature has been renamed like that.
The old one had not only a tail much too huge, its body was also rather "flat" (from the sides) and with prominent shoulder blades, making it a poor fit for a mount. I knew that when I made it, so I thought this thing, with its "wobbly" body and splaying feet, would not be for riding fast on hard ground, and I made the Watao instead. Now I've "merged" the two into the same creature, but mainly staying with the original Tzincai-theme.
The head of the new one was based on rabbits, since most other herbivores (ungulates, hadrosaurs) have long heads, and a head like that is always going to be recognizeable as a horse, which I don't want.

Humanoid - No, I'm NOT putting up a mature content-label on this one, which is kind of contradictory, since the drawing on the right, I uploaded and marked as mature content (because of nudity) just last week. I have no excuse, except that this is such a small part of the whole picture. Anyhow. This doesn't depict the same species either, as the first one is a Tawitea (now called Pseudohomo virgatus as its scientific name), and the other one is a Pseudohomo amethystinus (native name pending). But I have no "fresh" example of a female of the first species, so this will do as a comparison. I've clearly improved when it comes to humanoid anatomy, and managed to make it more alien. Slightly...

Map of Whaiao - I didn't think of making a map until well over a year into my world-building, and when I did, it was this. I've made a total of six maps (I think), and this is the oldest and the youngest. The new one is still outdated, as when I'm rearranging the taxonomic tree (which I've done heavily the last year), I have to rearrange the continents as well. Still, drawing maps is a HUGE load of work, so I'm not super-inspired on updating it right now.

Alien bird - This was the first drawing (but not version!) of the Screvx, and the last, while it's still looking bird-like (too bird-like, I thought when I made them). Now it's been redesigned into the Xenogrypas. I knew when I made the first drawing, that "I can do better than THIS!", but apparently, no. It really was hard to make it look better (and that has happened with other drawings since).

Terrorbird - This is a rather unfair comparison, as again, these are not meant to be the same species. And the old drawing wasn't even the first of its kind. (The first one was a far more Earthly, feathered creature, almost identical to a real Terrorbird.) But, the old one here, has since been redesigned into one of these "bipods", but I have no really fresh drawing of that particular species, so I put the huge one in there instead.

And that's it. Now my hands are cold and hurt from all the writing.