SynapsidGirl
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synapsidgirl.bsky.social
SynapsidGirl
@synapsidgirl.bsky.social
4K followers 560 following 430 posts
Paleoartist focusing on synapsids, including mammals. I make both 2D and 3D art.
Sometimes sweary, always actively hostile towards plagiarism algorithms.
She/her

https://cara.app/synapsidgirl
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synapsidgirl.bsky.social
I've decided to make a series of paintings of conservation success stories, starting with this here żubr/ wisent/ European bison.
They were almost driven to extinction in the early XX century, and the current population is descended from about 17 animals, thanks to the efforts of prof. Jan Sztolcman
Digital painting of a wisent (European bison) in profile view, facing left. The background is a textured gradient from dark blue on the borders of the piece to a lighter blue in the center, with some splotches of orange and light beige, especially around the animal. Only the front half of the animal is shown, with the rest of it out of the frame. #paleoart 🐡
December 7, 2025 at 5:03 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
The world sucks, so here's a colour study of an elusive water potato I did on Monday, for your viewing pleasure
Proportions are a bit wonky, but it's been a long while since I was grinning this much while painting something
#Sciart
Digital painting of a baby pygmy hippo standing in a pool I water with an out of focus rock face in the background. The hippo is facing the viewer. It is Very squishy looking, because it's a baby pygmy hippo and they're squishy, wet potatoes with legs.
October 15, 2025 at 12:10 AM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
The moon is very round tonight.
And also weirdly yellow, especially when it was rising.

I guess it can go into #sciart
A photograph of a full moon. That's it.
August 8, 2025 at 10:18 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
Do I have unfinished wips waiting to get done? Do I have a bunch of ideas that so far didn't progress past very rough doodles? Yes and yes. So naturally I got struck by a sudden urge to paint Luna and got it done in an unheard of, for me, time.

#weimaraner #animalart #krita #dog #petportrait #art
Digital painting of a weimaraner (a gray, short-haired pointer dog with floppy ears, yellow eyes, and a rather shiny coat). The dog is shown in the front view, looking up at the viewer. The head and neck are the most detailed with the rest of the body sort of melting into the background. The background is mostly light orangey colour, with distinct brush marks of lighter cream mixed in, as well as several shades of grey added around the dog.
August 1, 2025 at 12:12 AM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
Boy do I love to live in Normal Country (TM)
Send a photo of your face and/or id to every site you're using to "protect the children!!!!!!11111!!!!!!"
Screenshot showing a message reading " the laws in your location require you to verify you're an adult before accessing certain features of bluesky like adult content AND DIRECT MESSAGING " with a blue button reading verify now below it. Something something will no one please think of the children something...
July 27, 2025 at 10:47 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
I'm physically incapable of posting at normal hours, and here's an Inostrancevia doodle for you.
I couldn't be bothered with paws, because hands/feet can be the bane of your existence even if you don't typically draw humans.
#sciart #sketch #paleoart
Digital sketch of the late Permian mammal relative Inostrancevia, shown from the side, mid-stride, facing left. The background is light off-white, and the animal is drawn in blue. It's a quadruped, with a long head and a muscular neck, and a somewhat low slung body. The limbs sort of end at the ankle and wrist joints, because I couldn't be bothered to draw the paws. Which, I think, almost makes the legs look longer than they actually are. The tail is somewhat short, ending at about the level of the knee. It has its mouth slightly open, showing the long upper canine teeth similar to those of the sabertooth cats. The animal is hairless, with a rough bumpy skin on the top of the head and neck. There are three scars crossing the snout below the nostril.
July 24, 2025 at 2:40 AM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
True to form, here I am, posting a #wip past 2 AM.
I'm finally happy with the direction this is going, though there's still a few tweaks I need to do.
But at least it no longer looks like a muppet.
#sciart #blender #paleoart
3d portrait of the Permian mammal relative Inostrancevia. It's shown in three quarter view, though mostly from the front, facing the camera and looking at the viewer. The background is black, and the animal emerges from the darkness, with the top of the head receiving the most light, and the neck quite a bit darker, and getting progressively more visible closer to the head. The bottom jaw and the underside of the neck are covered by a pretty dark shadow, with the light coming from the top and the front. The animal is brown, with light cream bottom jaw and the underside of the neck, and the top of the head and the eye area is a darker brown than the rest of the body. The left eye is almost completely obscured by shadows, the right one is somewhat well lit. The eye is warm yellow colour. There are numerous small scars scattered on the snout, as well as three larger, deeper gashes on the right side, starting at the bottom of the upper lip, coming towards, but not reaching the right nostril. The animal doesn't have any hair, just thick, leathery skin, that's bumpier on the top of the head and neck.
July 20, 2025 at 1:43 AM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
The world is a terrible place, but here's a #wip of Inostrancevia bust looking like she just said a terrible joke and is waiting for a reaction

#Sciart #blender
Screenshot of a 3d sculpt of a bust of Inostrancevia, a late Permian mammal relative, facing left. The sculp is shown in a red material, on a mid-grey background. The head is longer than it's deep, with the snout taking up a little bit over half the total length, the neck is muscular. It has its mouth open, but no teeth for now, and combined with reptile-like soft tissues around the mouth area, it just gives it this goofy, gummy expression.
July 12, 2025 at 12:08 AM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
I had an idea for a Homotherium portrait. Not sure how successful it was, I still have a tendency to overwork stuff.
But here it is anyway, I had to stop working on this thing at some point.

#SciArt #paleoart #art #animalart
Digital portrait of the sabertooth cat Homotherium, in shades of brown. It's shown in three quarter view, facing towards the left side of the picture. It's mid-brown in colour, with light cream muzzle, cheeks, inside of the ears, throat, and the chest. Its eyes are yellow. The background is a similar colour to the cat, and the animal sort of merges with it on the sides, where it's covered in shadow. An eye spot is barely visible on the back of the right ear. Homotherium had shorter canines than the more famous Smilodon, so they're not visible while the mouth is closed.
June 1, 2025 at 2:56 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
Here's a celebratory Inostrancevia doing a sploot and playing with a stick, because why not.
Now, is this likely?
The sploot? Why not.
The playing with the stick? Eeehhh... Probably not very, but I liked the idea, so here it is.
#sciart #paleoart #art
Monochromatic drawing of the gorgonopsid (protomammal) Inostrancevia laying on the ground, and holding a stick in its mouth. Its head is long, with the snout taking up more than half the length of the entire skull, and the open mouth shows a long canine tooth, reminiscent of the teeth of sabertooth cats. The neck is muscular, and the body somewhat long and slender. It has its head and neck lifted off the ground, supported by outstretched front legs (sort of like the sphinx yoga pose, if that makes sense), and the back legs are spread to the sides and back. It's shown from the side, facing left. The background is light grey. She looks pretty happy with herself, and who wouldn't be, if they had such a nice stick.
May 17, 2025 at 10:17 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
So apparently today was the endangered species day? So here's a colour study of a European hamster. Those guys are very cute, and critically endangered, and I've never seen one in person, sadly.
#sciart #animalart #art
Brushy digital painting of a reddish brown hamster with a white snout, white stripes on its cheeks, white tufts below the ears, white patches on its shoulders, and dark brown chest and front legs. It's shown in the front view looking directly at the viewer. The background is shades of green with some brown spots mixed in
May 17, 2025 at 12:12 AM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
Yes, yes, I know. Photo of a screen, cringe.
But still
*insert Dr Frankenstein's crazed yelling*
I still need to tweak stuff bc it seems a little laggy sometimes, but it's working, it doesn't fight with my old GPU, and I no longer have an oversized brick on my desk.
Photo of a computer monitor with a pop up saying Welcome to zorin os. The wallpaper is either a sunrise or a sunset and a snowy mountainside.
May 15, 2025 at 12:09 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
Here's a fox doodle inspired by the fox encounter earlier this week. Too contrasty, because I only realised I had night light enabled the whole time.
Also, blending colours on a tiny screen is a new kind of hell I just unlocked for myself.
#sciart #animalart #art
Digital painting of a red fox looking back over its shoulder, looking left and down. Only the head and shoulders are shown. The fox sort of melts into the background that's a mess of brush strokes in shades of mostly orangey brown.
May 15, 2025 at 12:02 AM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
I was working on something Homotherium related before my pc decided it wanted to show me a magic trick and transformed into a brick, so here are two versions of a Homotherium doodle, as I continue to figure out how to paint something presentable on my phone.
#SciArt #paleoart #animalart
Monochromatic portrait of the sabertooth cat Homotherium in a side profile, in shades of brown. Its mouth is partially open, showing the long canine teeth and lower incisors, much larger than in living big cats. It looks kind of like a maneless lion with a longer snout. This genus had relatively shorter canines than the more famous Smilodon, and they'd most likely be invisible and completely covered when the mouth was closed. The background is a beigey gray. Same as the previous picture, just in black and white. Same background.
May 10, 2025 at 8:43 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
Anyway here's a Luna doodle I did while trying to figure out if I can use my phone for anything more than just quick colour studies of random household objects.
Kind of promising, but also, my eyeballs hate me.
#petportrait #weimaraner #animalart #dog
Black and white portrait of a Weimaraner dog in side view, on a slightly beige-y grey background. The dog looks like a typical pointer, with a long snout and floppy ears. It looks like it was looking at something out of the frame attentively (which she was, my mother was holding a treat while I was taking the reference photo, lol)
May 9, 2025 at 11:17 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
So, since I've reached 3k followers, here's the #artshare I promised.
Share your art in the replies, and I'll repost through the day/ as long as it keeps going.
✨ No a/i slop
✨ Keep it sfw
✨ Interact with (comment & repost) other's posts
Digital portrait of the late Permian girgonopsis inostrancevia alexandri, shown in profile, facing left. It's brown in colour with a cream lower jaw and the underside of the neck, and the one visible eye is yellow. Only the head and neck are visible. It's hairless, with naked skin, somewhat bumpy and rough on the top of the head and neck, and on the cheek area. It has a vertical scar on its snout. The head is about twice as long as it's deep. The front of the snout is the deepest point of the head that then narrows, and then deepens again at the back of the head, where the cheek muscles attach. The neck is thick and muscular. It's pointing its head up, with a tiny little insect perching on the tip of its nose. There are some blurry branches in the background and the sky is pink and yellow. 🐡
February 21, 2025 at 3:34 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
And here's the last painting I did for the "thanks for getting me to 3k" thing, @tinytuatara.bsky.social 's blue tongue skink.
I feel like this one can also go in the #Sciart feed
A digital painting of a blue tongue skink. It's facing to the right, kind of curled, so his tail and pelvis are facing the viewer. It has a black body with light cream stripes, and the front legs, underbelly and the head are also light in colour. The top of the head is darker, but nowhere near as dark as the body. The background is a messy beige, consisting of several different intermixed shades, and the distinction between the lizard's body and the background isn't always clear, with the background colour sometimes overlapping on top of the animal, and the colours of the lizard sometimes spilling out onto the background.
February 16, 2025 at 4:18 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
I did a "thanks for getting me to almost 3k" thing a while back, where I asked if anyone would like to have their pet painted, and here's one of them, for @convictclaude.bsky.social
A digital portrait painting of a brown, Staffordshire terrier-looking dog. The dog is facing to the right, and the whole thing is rather painterly, with the dog merging with, and emerging from the background. The right side of the background is light, creamy beige, and the left side is a darker brown. The dog is looking in the direction of the viewer.
December 29, 2024 at 1:11 AM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
This little guy is ready, I'm going to DM you the full res, non glazed version in a sec.
Digital portrait of a black and white border collie puppy, facing the viewer. Only the head and neck are shown, the background is split with very light, almost white, beigy grey in the top half, and very dark, almost black grey in the bottom half, with white paint splashes around the puppy on the dark part of the background, and black spatter on the light part.
December 20, 2024 at 5:14 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
I'm feeling like crap today, so the only thing I managed to get done is this mushroom.
The only thing I know about him is that he's a friendly little guy, just don't try to pick him, for he will squeak mightily.
#creature #sketch #krita
A quick digital colour doodle of a mushroom guy. He looks like a boletus mushroom (a large edible mushroom with a brown cap and a thick cream-coloured stalk), just with eyes, nostrils and a row of jagged teeth on the stalk. He's facing the viewer. There two even quicker, smaller doodles above him, showing the mushroom guy from the side, in two different stages of "mouth open as wide as possible"
December 12, 2024 at 2:16 AM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
QRP with your header art.

It's a never finished #wip because the thought of redoing the Stupid Leaf Pile(TM) makes my teeth itch.
I should do it though, it's otherwise one of my favourite things I've ever created.
#sciart #blender #art #3d #paleoart
A render of a 3d scene with three Castorocauda lutrasimilis (a Jurassic close mammal relative) sleeping in a den in a huddle. The animals resemble long snouted otters with beaver like tails, though only one of their tails is visible, and not very well, at that. They're facing the viewer, with two of them laying side by side, and the third one plopped between and on top of the other two. They're covered in short brown fur, with a darker strip running along the back, and a whitish muzzle and eye area. Their feet are webbed. The den floor is covered by leaves, and there are some roots dangling from the ceiling.
November 30, 2024 at 5:02 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
Here's an older Chalicothere illustration from about three years ago. I have absolutely no clue now what species this is supposed to be, but I still like the piece.
#SciArt #krita #art
A digital illustration showing the front half of some Chalicothere (a type of extinct perisdodactyl, sometimes commonly referred to as gorilla horses, because many of them were adapted for knuckle-walking ). The animal is facing left, the background is black, and there's a big golden circle behind and encompassing the animal's head and neck. The animal is mostly brown, with an off-white muzzle, lower jaw, and the cheek, and it has darker horizontal stripes on its forearms. Its head is somewhat horse like, it has a muscular neck, and its torso is sloping towards the hind limbs, even though they're not depicted.
November 29, 2024 at 4:14 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
Mistakes were made, lol
A dark 3d scene with a fern in the foreground in the right hand corner, some stones scattered on the ground, some more ferns and a fallen log in the distance, and... A pair of disembodied floating eyes, together with a set of equally disembodied teeth and claws. That was supposed to be a test render, but the only thing it tested is whether or not I'm capable of remembering what I have enabled for renders. And it clearly failed in this regard, there's supposed to be an entire gorgonopsid there.
November 28, 2024 at 9:58 PM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
Show me a pic on your phone that has your energy, not a selfie.
Black and white quick digital drawing of a fox-like creature, with its back arched, head down, ears back, mouth agape, yelling at the ground. It looks rather distressed. It's facing right. Iirc, I painted that to express how I was feeling at the time, which is: not great. Which, tbh, is my usual state.
November 28, 2024 at 1:36 AM
synapsidgirl.bsky.social
But also, while I'm waiting for textures to bake, if you guys feel like it👇
List of like for answer questions: Newcomers get to know me better 1.why are you on bsky 2.other social media 3.do I continue to post on X 4.what things will you post 5.name 6.birthday 7.nationality 8.gender/pronouns 9. 1 word to describe yourself 10.what I hate most about myself 11.what I love most about myself 12.perfect date 13.hobbies 14.musical instrument 15.random fact I know 16.fave food 17.fave drink 18.fave season 19.fave sport 20.chinese zodiac sign 21.somewhere I want to visit 22.other languages I speak 23.fave song 24.song I'm listening to right now 25.saddest song 26.first video game console 27.fave video game 28.last concert I've been 29.last book I read 30.last movie I've seen 31.cats or dogs 32.day or night 33.lucky number 34.fave quote 35.colour of my toothbrush 36.fave movie 37.coffee or tea 38.best character ever 39.what do you prefer to draw 40.sketch or color 41.do you do fanart 42.traditional/digital 43.weakness on drawing 44.strength on drawings 45.what do you like to draw but never post 46.weirdest drawing you made 47.goals 48.nsfw?
November 26, 2024 at 1:31 AM