For this assignment we were to use our imagination and prior knowledge as our only source to create a creature to understand the role of early artists and illustrators as important interpreter/creators of visual culture, including scientific and anthropological fact. We were to chose a text option and recreate the created based on the description. I chose Creature #2 to recreate. As I was drawing the creature I began to put my prior knowledge from Marine science together and thought it had to be either a sea slug, or Spanish dancer.
Creature description below:
Creature #2—text dated 1839.
This [type of creature] is about five inches long; and is of a dirty yellowish color, veined with purple. At the anterior extremity, it has two pairs of feelers; the upper ones of which resemble in shape the ears of a quadruped. On each side of the lower surface, or foot, there is a broad membrane, which appears sometimes to act as a ventilator, in causing a current of water to flow over the dorsal branchiae. It feeds on delicate seaweeds, which grow among the stones in muddy and shallow water; and I found in its stomach several small pebbles, as in the gizzards of birds. This (creature), when disturbed, emits a very fine purplish-red fluid, which stains the water for the space of a foot around. Besides this means of defense, an acrid secretion, which is spread over its body, causes a sharp, stinging sensation, similar to that produced by the (creature name).
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