These are some of the earliest cryptid sketches I have for CryptidCam, back when I was first toying around with the idea of making a game by myself. I was a college student studying game development at the time, so I'd made a lot of games as group projects for class, but group projects require a lot of compromise and back and forth. I was starting to think things like "if I made a game by myself, I could make it whatever I want, and fill it with only the things I like". CryptidCam is a pretty self indulgent project in that way.
I've always been fond of "weird" creatures, so cryptids were a common motif for me. I drew Mothman, Bigfoot, and Jackalopes all the time, but this was the first doodle where I started to hammer out some designs with the intent of making a cast of characters I could put in a game. I even toyed with the idea of making Nessie some kind of large mollusk. Also Sailor Moon is there.
The Loveland Frogman and the Fresno Nightcrawlers ended up getting added to the cast a little bit later. Here they are in the margins of my notes from Japanese class.