Christopher Stoll

Self-taught artist • Biologist • Author • Anatomy lover • Creature-creator
He/Him 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸

[Christopher Stoll @TopherStoll]

Supplies are limited, praise is not

https://t.co/safigopJWK

[Electric Blue @stormfall10]

Every artist should have a discord full of insane biologists, I bring them eldritch creature designs and they’re spec evo’ing that bastard so fast. It’s got a life cycle now, we’ve worked out its optimal environment. This is enrichment for us

[geo @shadoweave1]

I hate to inform you that the "practice your instrument for 15 minutes a day" crowd are right about everything

[🌖ʀᴇᴠᴇɴᴀɴᴛ⚡🦃 @revenant_MMXX]

This phenomenon has become a problem in every creative medium to such a degree that there should really be a name for it.

[Abigail Falanga @AbigailFalanga]

I've thought long and hard about why this is, and still don't have a fully satisfying answer. Read older fantasy, and a sense of wonder pervades every page. But then newer books are filled with adventure and characters working great magic--but it feels bland and empty. Why??

[Christopher Stoll @TopherStoll]

Let’s break down dragon flight anatomy 🐉🩻🦇
Designing a realistic body was particularly challenging because they are vertebrates with both forelimbs and functional wings, sounds simple enough in fantasy but the anatomy exists nowhere in the natural world! 
At first, it's difficult to imagine a realistic set of biomechanics for this design, a way to prevent a flap of the wing from pulverizing the ribcage with each flap or interfering with the motions of the forelimbs. So, we turn to nature for inspiration!
Here's an early sketch, and what I eventually went with for the structure.

Instead of inventing new anatomical structures we can combine existing ones! Evolution has done the difficult work for us. Here you can see color coded examples of each region of the chest's skeletal anatomy.

Both modern birds and therapod dinosaurs have a similar shaped breastbone (huh, I wonder if there's a reason for that 🧐) and that's the perfect point of contact between the two anatomies. 

The elongated structure coming off of the t-rex's breastbone is actually the scapula! 

As for the modern bird inspiration, the thick bone vertically emerging from the keel is called the corracoid, and gives us some nice distance from the ribs and keel (breastbone) for the wings to function. 
Finally the wing itself is classic dragon, which is to say BAT!! Its elongated fingerbones connected with a membrane of skin may seem fantastical, but it's just one more amazing piece of real biology!

[Christopher Stoll @TopherStoll]

@MasterXYZK

[Christopher Stoll @TopherStoll]

Murk Siren - Pseudonatator mendax: The silhouette is just familiar enough to make you stop. Just close enough to make you lean in.
The water is dark, and a voice is calling through the murk. A song? A cry? Is someone there?
Once a would-be rescuer is within reach, the clever siren drags them below the thermocline, and devours their human prey.
Ambush predator. Patient. Deadly. One of many oceanic creatures adapted to devour humans.

[Christopher Stoll @TopherStoll]

A cruel creature’s thesis 🖌️

[James Talarico @jamestalarico]

Texas forever.

[Christopher Stoll @TopherStoll]

Felt the Halloween spirit move through me 🎃

[cee 🩵🐶 @cslivr]

i think this is bc we often shorten the dilemma, theres a second half of it where the actual dilemma starts

instead of pulling a lever to change the tracks, the second part has you push an overweight person (im serious) in front of the train to stop it, and save the 4 other ppl+

[Yorgos Cotronis 🇬🇷 🇸🇪 🇫🇮 @ravenkult]

The main way to figure out if something is AI isn't looking for mistakes, which every artist does, but how long the artist has been around, what WIPs they have posted, streams, timelapses, past clients, etc. Stop doing these sloppy "investigations" and harassing legit artists.

[Devin @DevinElleKurtz]

I did not and would never consent to this administration running my fanart through AI and posting it. Can’t even believe I’m saying these words.

[Cody Johnston @drmistercody]

This is also why millennials love the LOTR trilogy. The irony-soaked characters and lack of earnestness.

[Michael @TheMG3D]

Generative AI has done so much damage to everything

[Christopher Stoll @TopherStoll]

@ggggzoe Oh my goodness

[TELESCOPTERYX 🧬 (comms open!) @telescopteryx]

People keep trying to make sarcopterygian hexapods work even though it wouldn't ever happen

here's a better and way more underrated idea, just do stingrays

[Christopher Stoll @TopherStoll]

this has been talked about extensively you're just 21

[AnimationFan 3000 @Benjami36935807]

Everyone complaining that Alice looks like Billie’s sister and not her mom. Meanwhile Anna and Elsa’s Mom:

[Failed Vessel 🍉 Comms Open @FailedVessel67]

They used to KILL you for tracing anything and now AI has made it ok because "at least I'm not tracing AI" which is... Interesting.

[Christopher Stoll @TopherStoll]

War begins. Smallpox still exists in 1939s Europe. Immediate time-displaced plague with 30%+ lethality besets Africa. No other factor gets a chance to become relevant.

[Kittycel @Kittycel66]

Are we deadass