Cowen ( A cow chicken thing? )

Well this creature is a mix of a cow and a chicken i drew in class.They mainly look like cows, with back legs and head of a chicken. Males have horns and females have an ''udder''? (I'm not sure what it's called in english, but its the thing on a cow's belly, where milk comes from.). They give live birth, like cows, but feed both on grain and grass. ( Although im not sure how, with a beak. ) Or maybe they lay eggs like the platypus.

Possible descriptions?
This calf has the head and back legs of a chicken.

I hope it's alright..because it's not technically 'fantasy' but a mix of two terrestrial creatures..

This concept needs more explanation to make it sound...correct.

I thought maybe a few farmers with twisted minds asked scientists to cross a cow with a chicken, in hope they would give milk and eggs
unfortunately, it didn't work, and the result was a cow with features of a chicken.

Yay you suggested it
I am so ready to help for this. May I shade when the time comes? Pwease? :B

Miggeh wrote:Yay you suggested it
I am so ready to help for this. May I shade when the time comes? Pwease? :B

Yes you may. No time today to scan sketches, sadly, but i should have plenty of time tomorrow (Since it'll be friday). Then we can work on it together :3?

Sure C:
Just like old times, eh? LOL.

->
^^Female WIP by Me. Still have to fix a few things like the tail. and back legs.


^^Male WIP, still needs fix for tail tip, legs length and back paws.

If they didn't go through live birth, what would be the point of an udder?
The entire concept just seems like a strange hybrid that has no practical reasons for existing.

That'S true..hmm..maybe they could go through live birth, then?

But wait. What about the platypus, then? <<<<---- They lay eggs and are mammals. They don't really feed their milk the same way, though.

Help on this would be appreciated.

Now that I have that out of the way - I mean, who can resist a Chik-fil-A reference - I think that a few gender misconceptions for Cowens, along with other options for their bases need to be cleared up.

First off, if these are genetic experiments gone wrong released into the wild, both the female and male species would have horns; female and male cows both are born with horns, but they are removed at very young ages as buds due to safety concerns. If these are released into the wild, they would probably have both genders growing the horns as it would be in the cow's genetic makeup for this to happen.

Secondly, you're basing your cow portion off on a Holstein Cow, which - while it is a dairy cow - is not the only option out there. Since roosters generally have a brown feather color up around the neck, I'd suggest changing to any of these dairy cattle which have a brown coloring:
Jersey Cow | Ayrshire Cow | Brown Swiss Cow | Guernsey Cow

That said, the best egg-laying breed of hen to fit a brown cow's coloring would be a brown Leghorn. This breed of chicken also produces white hens, but you'll want to focus on the brown ones since the roosters mostly have brown neck-ruffs. (There are white roosters and hens, if you want to stick with the holstein cows, the neck feathers should be changed to white, though.)

I can't sprite myself, but I think a few changes to your design (mainly for the female at the moment) have a few fixes they'll need:
- Cows' backs are flat, sometimes angling downwards, you have some strange lumps going on there that aren't really needed, try flattening it up a bit?
- The udder should be placed back farther. They're located right between the hind legs, and yours is found more towards the front of the legs. example
- The tail ought to be resting down. A cow's tail doesn't generally stay up for that long, and they tend to keep it lying flat between their hind legs (unless swatting flies with it or they're going to the restroom.)

This is coming sincerely from a western Pennsylvanian who knows far more about cows than she'd like to. I really would like to see this species finalized. <3

On a final side note that I forgot to mention earlier:
I'd go with live births. If these guys laid eggs, this wouldn't make it a "failed experiment" as they laid eggs and produced milk as was initially wanted.

Thank you very much : ). I don't know much about cows, and the only person i know who does went on vacation~. Thought it wasn't based off a Holstein cow(Not sure which breed it was, but im almost more than sure it wasn't based on it, except for a few details). I don't like the current sprite either; there was a few errors from my first sketches.

I'll do a new sketch, and maybe a few variations? (alts?) for both genders. Will add horns to female too.