My first 3d sculpts. These guys were pretty fun to do, they're by no means finished yet but i thought Id post them anyway. Ill be sure to post the finals later. The dinos shown here are Tenontosaurus (top) a North american Hadrosaur from the mid Cretaceous, and Sinotyrannus (bottom) a close relative of Tyrannosaurus also from the Cretaceous. 
The Frilo's ancestors were fast moving predatory sea dwellers using its eight paddle like limbs and harpoon like mouthparts to pursue and pierce fast moving prey.
Far removed from its predatory ancestors, the frilo is a herbivorous grazer that has adapted to life on land. The limbs it once used to swim have shortened becoming stubby legs however it still retains a set of flippers that aid it in cases where it must swim. The piercing mouth of its ancestors has evolved into an extendable tube that it uses to feed from the plantlike creatures that can be found in the shallows of atolls the Frilo calls home.
The “flowers” it feeds on are in fact not plants at all but animals spending their larval stage in the ocean. When they reach maturity the larvae bury themselves in the sandy beaches of the planets many atolls and continue to grow into adulthood. Living within the arms of these creatures are photosynthetic single celled organisms that provide it with nourishment. However because they cannot move on land they have become dependant on the Frilo for reproduction. The cone structures located between the arms of the creature secrete a sugary substance that then pools at its base. When the Frilo extends its mouth to feed it frequently brushes against the walls of the cone where the reproductive cells of the creature are held. By feeding from various cones the Frilo aids in the reproductive cycle of these animals thus creating the basis for the ecosystem present on the atolls.
Artwork © Raul Ramos All Rights Reserved
These are a few preliminary explorations for a water based monster. I still have a bunch more of these to do but I figured I'd share what I have so far.
These are a few pages from my sketchbook that show the evolution of a new creature design I've been working on.
This was a creature concept for a design challenge on CG Hub. Participants were supposed to pick a Greek mythological creature and update it in some new way. The creature I chose is called a stymphalian bird. These birds belonged to Aries, had beaks made of bronze and metallic razor sharp feathers that they could launch at victims. I chose to stay away from the metallic aspect of the birds and tried to design them as if they could have potentially existed at one point in history. I thought, what if the ancient Greeks were actually running into some type of monstrous bird and simply exaggerated their description in order to communicate the fear they felt when they saw it. Using this idea as a base I set about creating my birds. I decided that they would be a type of terror bird, a group of large, predatory flightless birds that lived during the Cenozoic era. The stymphalian birds are scavengers standing nearly 12 feet tall. They have large hard beaks capable of crushing bone and razor sharp tallons on their feet as well as their wings which still closely resemble the arms of their raptor ancestors. They would have often been seen feeding on the bodies of fallen warriors after a battle thus becoming associated with Aries the god of war. 
