Bugs - Blog Posts

in honor of TF2's sweet sixteen and repostober, one Pyro from just about six months ago 👍

@friendlyengie since i heavily referenced off your pyro here! Hope you don't mind me tagging you, your stuff is cool and I'm a big fan of your femfortress designs especially :]

male mantises are such bimbos I saw this guy miss a bee, then very confidently take a bite of the goldenrod buds he caught instead

Finally got around to finishing this houugh... it was a lot of work but I really like the end result!! Naturally, I'll try my best to list some of the thoughts I have in mind for these guys below. Long post ahead!

These lizards are intended to be ALMOST fully arthropod-like but due to my lack of understanding of bug anatomy and creative liberties, they are in that gray spec bio area so don't take any inconsistencies too seriously (or rather, fuck logic, and accept them how I describe them regardless)

Inspirations: - my lesser detailed lizard design - my friend's slugcats - wasps for the head contours, various insects for the exoskeleton guidelines, caterpillars, various stylistic slugcats across the #rainworld tag - the burning need for something more detailed and cool in my drawing vocabulary

The actual meat of the post; extra facts: - Lizards are related to slugcats (in my au, if you wanna call it that?) or at least the very early version of them. This idea is borrowed from this post and in my au, lizards evolve a similar tail to a slugcat's to aid in propelling themselves through tight spaces, acting as a 5th limb. - Similar to my old vulture post, lizards share a similar lifecycle. The majority of the larval stage is spent underground and in tight spots, far from their main predator. Lizard larva will undergo pupation similar to how beetles do, leaving behind broken cavities in pipes where carnivorous plants favor to take root. Additionally to the vulture's terrible parental drive, they often mistake their own larva for lizard hatchlings. - A lizard's skin is leathery and retains moisture for quite a while. Some lizards have a thicker layered mantle than others, allowing them to take punctures to the abdomen and still recover. - Not pictured, but will be described, are a few outliers to the standard lizard body plan. Caramels have muscular hind legs akin to a grasshopper but this means their legs cannot slot together and thus they have a wider leg splay than other species. Eels and salamanders are not lizards but lizard mimics. Yellow lizards' antennae attach to a hump on the snout rather than the rear of the head as seen here. Cyan lizards' mantles are more square shaped due to their leap drums on either side of their bodies and have a 3rd mantle that runs the length of their tail and caps the tailtip. - Cyan lizard's organs are called leap drums and act similarly to our lungs. They are a ring of muscle which contracts and acts as a spring loaded mechanism to propel the creature via combustion through a mysterious chemical process. Because the color of debris left behind during a leap share the same color as the lizard, perhaps they are discarded scales, formerly in place to protect the cavities housing the explosion. - They have similar organs to vertebrates within their abdomen, probably surrounded by cartilage. (not that important, I haven't thought that much about this) - (More may be added later as I remember)

some more dragonfly V1

mildly, just ever so slightly, belated art fight attacks of the season!! feat. @skyistheground @smangethe @hrokkall @onlineviolence aaand @sophisticated-apple :]

did you know that dragonflies have a 95% kill rate? you gotta be really lucky to survive an encounter with one... in the insect world of course:]

bugified gabe joins the party

inspired by @peridots-pixiwolf beetle gabe cuz that idea couldnt leave my head since then

[Start ID. A digital drawing of Gabriel and V1 from Ultrakill in super-saturated, pixellated colors. It seemingly takes place during phase two of his second fight, judging by Gabe's bright yellow-cyan wings and the consequent blush shining through his helmet. Gabriel is pictured on the left, facing the left side of the screen with his head turned to V1, preparing to strike them with the bloodied spear in his right hand. Small but frequent splatters of blood dot his armor and outstretched wings, fabrics torn through in places. V1 is on the right, aiming its piercer revolver at his face. Their arms are stacked in pairs on either side, idle Feedbacker and Knuckleblaster on the left and Whiplash tucked atop their default arm on the right. Both parties are stylized to resemble insects, Gabe with beetle wings and a halo in the shape of antennae, and V1 with the four wings, four arms, short antennae and bristles expected of a dragonfly. End ID]

woah.... happy 1 year anniversary to gay people

also a couple alts (background removed, just gabe, and just v1, respectively) in hopes it'll be a little easier to understand what's going on and all!

additionally once again: special thanks to @magnumopos and @muzzleroars , neither of which I have actually spoken to in my life but both of which are credited with partially inspiring this! (dedicated section under the readmore due to the fact I do not generally tag people at all ever and wasn't sure if I should, but thought it was worth mentioning!) The former for giving me the wonderful idea of dragonfly V1, the latter for drawing V1 like a strange little creature + for the feedbacker plate, I enjoy both your works :]

(retroactively, on march 27th of 2024, assigning them a full bingo with credit to deep-space-lines. ehehehehe)

sketches from @mipexch 's whiteboard a couple days ago!!

also feat. a very small reference to @onlineviolence :]

Sibling asked me to fill a page with ultk characters three days ago and I think I had. A very normal amount of fun doing that.

aka "just for the record—I LOVE SWORDSMACHINE!!" *crowd cheering*

[Start ID. Two side-by-side drawings in the same palette. The left image shows Drya sitting with her legs bent in front of her, facing to the left and seemingly on a flat surface, one hand at her spear and the other on the floor. She's smiling and looking back at Tel. The right image depicts Tel, cross-legged on the floor and facing right, holding a whetstone and shard. Her face is partially obscured, but she looks back at Drya. Her bag and a spare metal shard lay behind her. Both images share a pink tone, and matching background in the colors of the lesbian flag. End ID.]

@enbeemerang TEAM DRYA PROPAGANDA!!

Bug Fables OC Tournament Round 2

Drya (she/her) and Tel (she/they) (or Team Drya) from @enbeemerang

Drya is a (very lovable) dumb rosy maple moth, who came from far outside of Bugaria. Right now, she resides outside of Defiant Root with her girlfriend, Tel! Drya's very outspoken, and is ready to defend her friends with whatever it takes. She's canonically trans, and a lesbian! She very much enjoys going to Crisbee's for a snack, and doing jobs with her girlfriend. Drya uses a spear (a toothpick with a shard of metal tied onto it) as her weapon, and won't stand down. Drya is always down to make a friend, and with her outspoken nature, knows many bugs across Bugaria. She's also a bit of a herbo.

Tel is a much more rational sap beetle. Due to her quietness and more closed off personality, she may come off as cold and not friendly to new bugs she meets. But, she holds lots of care for those she holds close like her friends and loved ones. Growing up in Defiant Root, she loves the research side of exploring, knowing that Drya has her back. Tel is also trans, and a lesbian. Tel's weapon of choice are metal shards. She carries up to 5 whenever she goes out exploring, which she throws at her enemies. She enjoys documentation, and frequents the Ant Kingdom Library whenever she can. Having grown up in Bugaria, she knows practically everybody in Defiant Root, and others across the Ant Kingdom.

Tel and Drya met about two years pre canon in the game. Drya left her home to find somewhere more accepting, and after losing her sibling in the journey, found herself in the Lost Sands. Dehydrated and lost, she couldn't continue. That night, Tel found her, and helped her regain her strength. The year on, Drya had stayed in Defiant Root with Tel, where the two grew closer, until they began dating. After Drya had learned of the explorer's guild, she was eager to be able to continue exploring and going on journeys, with a land that accepted her.

Tel and Drya are an inseparable duo. When they explore, Drya takes up the front, ready to defend her girlfriend at any given moment. Tel goes slower, stopping to document things, or to take samples and place them in the little pouch she carries. They love each other very much! They fight as a single unit, and are best friends.

They also both wear Favorite One medals, as they are each others favorites :)

Argentum (he/him) from @alagadda

Argentum is a beautiful silver wasp (Priochilus gloriosum) and a mercenary, assassin, and bounty hunter. He appeals to those who would seek his illicit services because he does his job without asking questions. He's very impersonal during work but much more open and emotional in everyday life. He's a real prick, honestly.

He takes the mandibles off his victims as proof of a job well done, but he often makes necklaces out of them and keeps them as trophies because there's something deeply wrong with him. He also loots all his victims corpses so his husband can sell off their belongings.

He's in a surprisingly healthy and loving marriage with Aurum, a golden reined digger wasp (Sphex habenus) ex-explorer, who became disillusioned with life after almost dying in search of the Everlasting Sapling. They both reside in Defiant Root where Aurum runs a shop to sell off the aforementioned looted goods, but he wants both of them to eventually move to the Golden Settlement. Aurum loves his husband deeply even if he's completely out of his mind and thinks wearing body parts as trophies is cool. He wants Argentum to do literally anything else as a job, but still loves and supports him.

He attacks with his prized blade, poisoned with his own venom and made by Aurum from the mandible of his first victim.

[Start ID. Four drawings of Hollow Knight ocs, in a dull green tone on a small canvas. Taking up the right half is a render of Caramel, a bee wielding a mantis claw across her shoulder and donning a cape in the colors of the aromantic flag. On the left are three colored sketches: the first at the top shows Caramel with her trio of friends, green-mantled bug Hawksbeard talking with her and gray millipede Molini curled around them both. The caption to the right says "Friends who love her" in all caps. In the center-left is a drawing of a tan and brown slugcat with a vulture mask on her face and a spear on her back, captioned "caramel slugcat, what will she do". Last is a sketch of Caramel and the bee nosk Pollux, who's dressed in an asexual flag of their own, and who has taken Caramel's mask to hold it up to its face. Caramel looks at her cheerfully, arm around her back. End ID.]

[Start ID. A rough drawing of Caramel and Hawksbeard in Rain World. They're now a tan slugcat and green scavenger, respectively, seeming less familiar with each other in the image than they are in canon. Caramel now has two spears on her back, holding another spear in one hand and a pearl in the other. Hawksbeard wears a sash of pearls, and offers a lantern to Caramel, the only thing lighting up the drawing in the dim Shaded Citadel. End ID.]

[Start ID. Another drawing of Caramel and Hawksbeard together, sitting down on a blank, dull green background. A cropped tweet by Caramel's head reads "Why are girls allowed to say girlfriend to refer to a platonic friend, but I can't say 'this is my boytoy twink malewife Hawksbeard'", with a spur indicating she's saying it, and the Hawksbeard part being a write-over. Caramel gestures with one hand in a sort of wave and has her other arm around her friend, while Hawksbeard looks at her in slight concern, simply stating "what". End ID.]

Small doodles of Caramel to commemorate the first-ever aromantic visibility day :]

[Start ID. A picture of a small plastic bag containing hundreds of tiny yellow mantises hatching from an ootheca. End ID.]

BABY MANTIS INCIDENT!!!!!! WHAT DO I DO

[Start ID. A digital drawing of the Artificer from Rain World. They're in midair, black smoke curling around them after two explosive leaps, tossing a spear at one of the two Scavengers on the faraway ground and readying a grenade with their other hand. She's snarling with her mouth wide open, exhaling short puffs of smoke, its throat glows. Scars litter its body, shrapnel and burns and nicks from spears, hands darkened from throwing bombs. The background is solid-color, dull red, but there's a ladder and scattered spears and rubbish in the distance The drawing is completely taken up by a first-level karma symbol, which casts a bright, gold light upon the parts of the image it overlays. End ID.]

started Arti's campaign on April 25 and was immediately enamored > ended Arti's campaign on May 5 and decided to finish this up about it

woe! first art post since a month ago be upon ye! take my gay bugs

[Start ID of the first image. A digital drawing of the five bugs forming Team Taranoake, drawn without anthropomorphized biology, short clips of text describing each one's name, pronouns, species, and size. The background is a solid-color pale orange, with the rest of the drawing being similarly flat-colored and golden-toned. The first shows Kritto, an azure damselfly, who stands on two legs with short stilts to counter the length of xer abdomen. She's light teal with black stripes, holding a brown scroll in one claw, the other pair of arms tucked between her two backpacks behind xer. Next is Lidii, a worker of the ant species Myrmecocystus mexicanus, yellow and orange. She's rambling about something excitedly, just barely propping up the thick wooden weapon beside her. Third is Rantan, an ox beetle, brown with yellow fur. He subjects himself to whatever Lidii's talking about, sitting with all six limbs on the ground and a mildly tired expression, resting their head on one claw. Gorge, a light purple coquina clam, is settled beneath two of Rantan's legs, his shell decorated with small notes and scribbles from work as an archivist. Last is the sea slug Ceras, a single-stalk aeolis, pink with bright stripes of yellow and white along their cerata. She's drawn further away from the rest, his head turned back towards the other four bugs. Like Kritto, they're marked as an honorary member of the team, lacking the seaglass bracelets shared by the three close-knit bugs from the center of the drawing. End ID.]

^ once again, these guys are from a universe I made with @froggoexists :]

[Start ID of the second image. A colored sketch of two humanized original characters, Ceras, a sea slug from the previous image, and Thorn, a Hollow Knight vessel. They're both drawn from the waist up, facing forward, close enough that Ceras's hand wraps around Thorn's shoulder. Ceras is shown as a young Black person, their cerata incorporated as long locs dyed pink, white and yellow, and piercings stud their ears and tongue. Thorn is paler-skinned, taller and thinner than Ceras, with pointed ears, and white hair styled at the top into two rows of spikes. Ceras is wearing a studded denim vest, thoroughly decorated with eclectic pins and patches, mostly of bands, bugs, games, and simple declarations of hope. Thorn wears instead a black leather jacket, with long studs at the shoulders and smaller ones along the sides and center. One sleeve is torn off, as they don't have a right arm, and the other is cuffed to display the adaptive device making up half their left. Ceras is sticking their tongue out and smiling, one eye shut and the other turned to Thorn, stimming with their free hand. Thorn's looking back at them with a smile.

The background is simple, a pink horizontal wave. There's a bright, pale halo behind Ceras' head, one which resembles a spoked wheel or a sun, seeming to cast light upon the two of them. A line at the bottom of the image reads "part-god mute disabled they/she/he bug punk BESTIES", and at the top of the image there's a small doodle of their original forms sitting together contentedly. End ID]

There seems to be an overlap so I need to ask

Doesn't matter if you have played yourself or just watched someone do it but I gotta know

[Start ID. Two drawings of Hollow Knight OCs in the City of Tears. The first depicts Solper and Caramel, an owlfly and carpenter bee respectively, just before they duel in midair, from a vantage point behind Caramel's shoulder. They're a fair distance from the ground, which is composed of a scattering of large cobblestone islands, partially submerged by a dark sea. They both seem rather enthused, fighting for fun—Caramel has her mantis claw held out to the side and other fist raised, while Solper's sabre is poised beside his head, his other limbs akimbo. The entire drawing and particularly the background are indigo-toned, drenched and shining under perpetual rain.

The second shows Molini, Hawksbeard and Dandy, a millipede, grasshopper and a moth. Molini contentedly sits as the other two use her as a bench, circled around a fire as they've just finished boiling tea, the kettle is propped up on Dandy's nail and settled between two poles taken from Solper and Caramel's battleground. The background is dark enough to appear fully blank, though a handful of lumaflies and the light of a hidden central fire shine upon the three bugs. Hawksbeard is chatting, the others listen, all three holding cups from which pale steam rises in clouds. While the firelight is particularly bright, the tone of the drawing is warm, in both color and feeling. End ID]

March 30 was the first time I'd interacted with @hollypies (feat. their Dandy), and April 5th my earliest memory of @original-character-chaos (feat. his Solper). So I offer a two-weeks-late first-anniversary drawing to my mutuals :]

pov you INFECT hallownest

feeling a bit funky fresh!!!

[Start ID. A drawing of two scavengers from Rain World, one labelled Sanic and the other one Shrek. Sanic's fur is light brown, with darker extremities, a messy row of pale green spines down its back, and bright blue eyes. They sit contentedly, staring at the screen, with a couple grenades by its feet. Shrek has pale fur, a green head, hands, and feet, and brown eyes. It's facing to the right, with their arms splayed out and an explosive spear on their back. Beside each scavenger are a few woefully-compressed screencaps of their in-game appearance. End ID]

An ode to these silly beasts, who accompanied me on my second visits to Industrial and Chimney

[Start ID. A drawing of the Hollow Knight and Ghost, for the game Hollow Knight's sixth anniversary. Hollow passes to Ghost a cupcake decorated by an unlit "6" candle—Hollow's shown from the shoulders up, and Ghost is in full view as they sit on top of their sibling's head. The drawing is almost entirely in shades of cerulean, save for the pink clouds forming part of the background. End ID]

Happy birthday to them :]

i think that tthey should be bestfriends

[Start ID. An extremely sloppy and fast drawing of Hornet from Hollow Knight, with a clown's wig and nose, and the words "SLINK SLOG" beneath her. End ID]

nintendo direct started.

[Start ID. A digital drawing of the Slugcat from Rain World. It sits holding a spear tipped in orange blood, the source of which are the two severed pods and body of an Eggbug that lay scattered around it. A batnip plant grows behind it, though the rest of the background is blank, replaced by a transparent pale halo behind the Slugcat. End ID]

Little guy :]

(No spoilers, please! I'm very early into the game and have been attempting to play it as blind as possible.)

manifesting silksong release date

Mimic!!

How come every time I draw lifeblood butterflies it like. Changes style. What that about