SHARKWEEK: Velvet Belly

Shark Week continues on. Today, say hello to the Velvet Belly Latern Shark. Again, this is for ~lexuswolf's Shark Week Sketch Jam, which means stop requesting sharks I do next please and thank you.

While looking for refs, I first saw this and thought "aw, cute li'l guys, aren't they?" I then later stumbled upon THIS and was like "JESUS CHRIST, HOW HORRIFYING". I decided to go for a creepy angle, which is funny because these things are totally harmless and hardly longer than a foot. Not sure how well I did with this one but... enjoy?

The Velvet Belly is a type of deep sea dogfish and, like other lantern sharks, is bio-luminescent. It has light-emitting photophores that form a species-specific pattern over its flanks and abdomen that are thought to function in counter-illumination, which camouflages the shark against predators.

Go to DISCOVERY.COM/SAVETHESHARKS for more facts and information about sharks.

---
Drawn with Paint Tool SAI
Textures & editing done in CS4