# Anthropomorphic squid. A question of feasibility.



## Antonia (Oct 12, 2011)

More of a question of feasibility than anything else. I am _obsessed _with cephalopods, and my original idea for a fursona was a Humboldt Squid. The problem is that a squid looks nothing like a person. The anatomy, the design, and everything that screams "squid" are difficult to give human attributes to, and vice versa. 

I did find some examples when scouring the internet, though both are on completely opposite planes, while I'm looking for something in between.

On the one hand is a highly stylized squid-like head on some sort of human body. Something like this.






On the other hand, there's also kenomimi [sp?] who can have squid-like attributes to a human, but don't have the instant recognition of "Ohhh, that character is definitely a squid" like the example above does. Here's what I'm talking about.





The second character is easier for drawing expression onto, but just doesn't resemble a squid enough. The first resembles a squid, but what would the body look like? A human body? A clump of tentacles? 
I would appreciate any sort of input or ideas, thank you.


----------



## Lunar (Oct 12, 2011)

I've seen enough hentai...

But seriously.  Very unique idea.  I think I like the first example better, though, because the second one looks like it could be taken wayyyyyy out of proportion.  But that's just me.


----------



## dinosaurdammit (Oct 12, 2011)

Id go with the first one cause that is dapper as fuck


----------



## DarrylWolf (Oct 12, 2011)

There is such a thing as an anthropomoprhic squid. It goes by the name of Cthulhu


----------



## Kit H. Ruppell (Oct 12, 2011)

DarrylWolf said:


> There is such a thing as an anthropomoprhic squid. It goes by the name of Cthulhu


And don't forget the entire Quarren species. And Squidward!


----------



## Antonia (Oct 12, 2011)

How about something similar to a Mindflayer?


----------



## Ad Hoc (Oct 12, 2011)

I think the "squid for a head" thing is best route to go. Alternatively you could do something like Ursula from the Little Mermaid, but that would result in some pretty significant mobility issues. An octopus can navigate pretty well on land, but I don't think squid can. 

You could also make the fingers/toes tentacle-like, but that might look goofy in practice. Might be worth experimenting with. 

Character ought to be a calligrapher.  Never short on ink.


----------



## Antonia (Oct 12, 2011)

Ooh, your post gave me an idea, Ad Hoc!

Ever heard of Laughing Octopus from Metal Gear Solid 4? She's uses tentacles for mobility by just moving them along the floor despite having legs.





There's so many possibilities, but my mind was drawing a total blank. I'm going to start doodling ideas, I'll ask for opinions on them later!


----------



## thewall (Oct 12, 2011)

how about cthulu?

There is also an anthropomorphic squid in Freefall called sam, but you don't see his tentacles very often because he always wears an exoskeleton suit.


----------



## Antonia (Oct 12, 2011)

I'm not making Cthulu because I personally dislike H.P. Lovecraft, but its design is worth learning from at least.


----------



## QuickSticks45 (Oct 12, 2011)

What about a Doctor Octopus variation? Instead of metal arms there would be real. Just a thought.


----------



## Antonia (Oct 12, 2011)

Well yeah, she's going to be organic, I just don't know how the body design will play out yet. I tried doodling some ideas, but got frustrated.


----------



## LizardKing (Oct 12, 2011)

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn


Something like the first picture would be pretty badass.


----------



## Tiger In A Tie (Oct 12, 2011)

Well, Squidward is an anthro squid (very cartoony, but still). Turn tentacles into makeshift legs, have tentacle arms, and a face kind like Davy Jones from POTC2/3?

I know of a picture that can explain what I just said a little better, but it was in a how-to draw book and I'm unable to find the pic on Google. I'll keep looking and post if I can find it.


----------



## Schwimmwagen (Oct 12, 2011)

As for what you said about expression being easier for the Kenomeimeimimi/whatever-style character, the first one could have e.g. eyebrows and a lot of attention given to the eyes to create good expressions. The face tentacles could also be used well - if they look as if they're dancing about freely, you have a happy expression. If they're hanging low, he's sad, if they're stiff and hanging high, he's shocked, etc.

In fact, my own character in my drawings doesn't even have a mouth, and I rely completely on his eyes, stance, and eyebrows, and when I look at my doodles on paper, it seems to work. I always like to give him some blank, oddly happy yet somehow depressing expression, though. Maybe that's because I always do it in monochromatic colours, but I dunno.


----------



## Antonia (Oct 12, 2011)

Alright, I went ahead and made some concept art. Not taking into account my terrible MSpaint, what do you guys think?
Basically:
-Squid head on slightly human body
-two "legs" that are tentacles
-a tentacle tail
-Can change colors (I have three other concepts for colors, just for different moods. This is angry.)





y/n?


----------



## Attaman (Oct 12, 2011)

Most Squids look to be done in one of two ways, at least as far as I've seen:

1) Illithid. Human with Squidy Head. Sometimes the skin is the same color as the head, or their hands / feet have suckers, but only concrete trait is squid head everything-else body. 

2) Sort-of Human upper half, with the lower half a giant mass of tentacles. Bonus points for the creator if they actually have the proper amount of legs, and it isn't just a mass of who-knows-how-many. One example in common media is the Dreugh (sp?) from the _Elder Scrolls_ series.

That's the main two ways they're drawn, and each of which has some obvious problems. The latter is more of a tauric critter than a straight-up anthropomorphic one, as obviously most hominids do not have such a number of limbs: Land-based critters like that are even crazier. But the Illithid-style is pretty much a squid put on a human's neck. It's not like someone being all human but with a cat head, it's more like someone being all human but with a full cat where their head should be.

If you want something in between, well... Hm, if going for accuracy, I'd say their lower half is a giant fin on an ovoid body. Their arms point 'upward', and are basically extra long tentacles. Neck is very short (if there at all), eyes sort-of on the side, tentacles for "hair" and a mouth along the top of the head. Pretty much stuck as an aquatic anthropomorphic critter, but different from the two norms.


----------



## Antonia (Oct 12, 2011)

Thanks very much for the input, but i'm having a hard time visualizing the description offered in the last paragraph. Do you have any visuals to help me out? I'm tired so I'm having a hard time grasping the concepts. 

Also, I agree with the point about Illithid style anthros. It just doesn't feel right to have a whole animal as a head. Everything feels so wrong


----------



## Wobblegong (Oct 12, 2011)

I am biased in favor of the Squidward suggestion (as much as I want nothing to do with Spongebob) just because it strikes a balance between "a squid fused to the rest of a human body" and "weirdly deformed squid." Something more like:






Probably less FAAABULOUS and MSPaint-y, though. Still a bit deformed (in no small part due to my laziness) but it's ballparking a human figure a little better without being an illithid.

Really interesting problem, makes me wish I knew more about real squid anatomy. Never considered how poorly an aquatic invertebrate would translate for anthropomorphization purposes. Well... SOME aquatic invertebrates. (Now I want an anthro nudibranch. YES.)


----------



## Antonia (Oct 12, 2011)

I like to call this "a post in which I suddenly remember squids have beaks and the uncanny valley meets MSpaint".






There's another idea. Something like this, perhaps. With tentacle hair replaced by a "smooth" head and maybe two tentacles along with the beak, then the Squidward-like body.


----------



## General-jwj (Oct 13, 2011)

Why are you trying to summon the great satan into this thread ? D:

I like the last one better, though his face looks like it'd belong to a parrot or bird rather than to a squid ...


----------



## Antonia (Oct 13, 2011)

Yeah, squid beaks are incredibly bird-like, it's weird. I was going to add face-tentacles and remove the "hair" to make it look better.


----------



## Neuron (Oct 17, 2011)

Ever seen those weird realistic furry Orangina ads?






That's a good place to start. I personally think you should go with a slightly squid shaped head with tentacles on the head and with make shift tentacle arms and legs like on this picture.

Also I have never seen a sexy octopus or squid for that matter.

I also drew you some conception art since you seemed undecided on whether to do a humanish body or a mish mash of tentacles. I tried to combine a little of all the ideas suggested in here. This is like a quick 5 minute little dealie but hopefully it helps?


----------



## Antonia (Oct 17, 2011)

That's an awesome concept, Lacus! May I use it as a base for my character's design? Just working from that base is what I mean.

Thank you everyone for your input. I apologize for neglecting this thread.


----------



## General-jwj (Oct 17, 2011)

I fully support Lacus' input. As an impartial judge of the happenings in this thread I declare her post and design suggestions to be of the utmost quality.


----------



## Neuron (Oct 17, 2011)

Antonia said:


> That's an awesome concept, Lacus! May I use it as a base for my character's design? Just working from that base is what I mean.
> 
> Thank you everyone for your input. I apologize for neglecting this thread.


I can actually ink it and work with you on coloring it. I could even produce a finished product if you give me some time. I think people would love to draw her if they just had one ref of it. But yeah at the very least I will ink it up today so you can play with the colors if you want. 

quick question, do you like the two different tentacles on the face or the hips? Either way I personally think they need to look longer and thinner based on what I know about squids.

I wanted to do this because I'm freaking obsessed with marine biology and I am disappointed that the furry fandom has no interest. They just like DOLPHINS because COCKS.


----------



## Antonia (Oct 17, 2011)

I like the tentacles on the face, personally, to answer your question. And since she can shift colors from white to dark red, any of those colors or any color in between (pink, reddish white, plain red) is fine as well. I've seen Humboldt squid with blue stripes (hence the ones I included in my doodles) but that is apparently uncommon.

And ugh, I know...there's so many amazing animals in the sea, but even when literally confronted with an ocean of possibilities, furries still pick mammals. Or sharks, because they look cool.


----------



## Wobblegong (Oct 17, 2011)

Antonia said:


> And ugh, I know...there's so many amazing animals in the sea, but even when literally confronted with an ocean of possibilities, furries still pick mammals. Or sharks, because they look cool.


1. There seems to be a correlation between how intimate a species/animal/etc is with humanity and its popularity as a fursona, thus the animals huge numbers of people don't even know _exist_ let alone interact with are going to be less common.
2. The rule of charismatic megafauna is always in effect. ALWAYS.
3. I think this thread proves how insanely creative a person has to be to translate something that can't even exist in the same habitat as us into a human-y anthro. Especially if you're trying to enforce anything resembling the laws of physics and nature. Even translating a common aquatic vertebrate into an anthro is a pain in the butt-- just look at most sharks and fish.

And then cephalopods are pretty much a sack of organs with a snarl of tentacles at one end. _Hagh._


""Sexy" octopus" is interesting, good compromise between "clearly an octopus" and "clearly meant to evoke something human enough". (Trying to sexify an animal prone to dying after it reproduces makes my head hurt though.) Now that I've been thinking about it for 5 seconds, is the Conehead-caliber oversized noggin really critical? It adds an extra layer of "this is a cephalopod" but it feels a little awkward to me, since that "extra" hunk of head is where the animal would normally be storing internal organs and such-- something otherwise accomplished by having a torso. It might be possible to play around with a face design that keeps the distinctive eye shape/style to evoke the squid-ness, and maybe keep something of a pointy head shape, without having the redundancy of an oversized skull. Maybe.

Ok fine I gave up and sketched something. Approximately in the direction of a humboldt squid, not that it mattered much/anyone would be able to tell.







That was unreasonably fun to do.

ANYWAYS, I phoned it in on most of this and just shamelessly used Lacus' awesome ideas, but I wanted to fiddle with head and maybe tweak some of the body. Was aiming for something with more of a jaw, however poorly that succeeded. Hiding the beak under a mass of face tentacles seemed to me like the way to keep it squidy, ie "so does this thing even have a mou-- OH GOD!"

So that's my less faaaabulous/cartoony thoughts. Whatever you end up doing, thank you for making this thread if only because this has to be one of the most interesting anthr'izing challenges I'm ever going to see.


----------



## Unsilenced (Oct 17, 2011)

What the fuck is this thread even about? :v


----------



## General-jwj (Oct 17, 2011)

I wwas wwonderin how long it would take for Squidward to inevitably pop up. :V


----------



## Neuron (Oct 17, 2011)

Wobblegong said:


> 1. There seems to be a correlation between how intimate a species/animal/etc is with humanity and its popularity as a fursona, thus the animals huge numbers of people don't even know _exist_ let alone interact with are going to be less common.
> 2. The rule of charismatic megafauna is always in effect. ALWAYS.
> 3. I think this thread proves how insanely creative a person has to be to translate something that can't even exist in the same habitat as us into a human-y anthro. Especially if you're trying to enforce anything resembling the laws of physics and nature. Even translating a common aquatic vertebrate into an anthro is a pain in the butt-- just look at most sharks and fish.
> 
> ...


I like the downsized head better, whenever I make a finished piece for Antaria I think I'm going to downsize the head and make it rounder and cuter like you did here. I'm also going to wait to hear whether she wants the tentacles in front covering the beak or in back flowing like hair.


----------



## Wobblegong (Oct 17, 2011)

General-jwj said:


> I wwas wwonderin how long it would take for Squidward to inevitably pop up. :V





Tiger In A Tie said:


> Well, Squidward is an anthro squid (very cartoony, but still).


Post #14! Gosh, keep up. :V



Lacus said:


> I like the downsized head better, whenever I make a finished piece for Antaria I think I'm going to downsize the head and make it rounder and cuter like you did here. I'm also going to wait to hear whether she wants the tentacles in front covering the beak or in back flowing like hair.


Awesome, glad to hear you liked the alternate head shape. I hope you keep posting whatever squidsona arts you come up with as I find all of this horribly intriguing.


----------



## Antonia (Oct 17, 2011)

So many amazing ideas. I do like the more "streamlined" look of Wobblegong's anthro squid head, and I also like the more feet-like tentacles of Lacus' sketch (easier mobility on land, one would assume), but gosh now that I'm looking at these ideas rather than what I originally planned, it feels like the character is doing a complete 180 in my head. And I'm okay with that.

On another note, that tiny beak on the character is absolutely adorable.


----------



## ryanleblanc (Oct 17, 2011)

Hmm, anthropomorphic squid, feasible? What do you think Squidward?






/thread


----------



## Antonia (Oct 17, 2011)

It's been said about 6 times now. You're very, very late.


----------



## ryanleblanc (Oct 17, 2011)

Antonia said:


> It's been said about 6 times now. You're very, very late.



My bad, I failed to find a picture of him in this thread, so i figured I'd add one for good measure.


----------



## Alkatraz (Oct 17, 2011)

What about draenei from world of warcraft? goat from the waist down, and squid from there up. And also the squid guy from the second Pirates of the Caribbean.


----------



## DingosHalberd (Oct 18, 2011)

Draw a drell using a hanar as a hat..? *Might* work.


----------

