UPDATE!! He Has An Official Name Now!!! :D

UPDATE!! He has an official name now!!! :D

I was looking at the wikipedia page for the Goliath stick insect for inspiration, and I scrolled down to the many different scientific names it's been given by different people throughout the years. One word that popped up in three of the names was "Acheron", which is the name of a river in classical mythology. The word itself means both -death- and -hell-

I wasn't completely sold on this word as his name for that reason, since the meanings don't exactly suit his character, but I wanted to include it somehow to tie his name to the actual insect!

So, I decided to combine the word 'Acheron' with my own name, 'Robynn', which gave me 'Acherynn' ^-^

I think this name has a much softer feeling to it, which suits him much better! And as a bonus, it's really easy for me to remember since it was easy to come up with :]

He no longer has to go by strictly 'bug boy' bahahahaha

Alright, that's my rant over lmao

Stickbug (and Acherynn!!) out 🪲

He's finished!

Or well, his base concept bahahaha

And as promised, I'm also including his colour palette! The shadow colours aren't set in stone of course, that 100% depends on the style and lighting one chooses to use - should they want to doodle my bug boy -, but I wanted to include them because - why not? -

Nothing is set in stone tbh, if you wanna up the saturation, darken/lighten some colours, change a hue or two to make him fit your style a little better, you're more than welcome to do so ^-^

I haven't worked out a name for him just yet, but I tend to call him "Stick", "Bug", or "Bug boy", so I guess those are his nicknames so far! ^-^

And just to be clear, there are no set pronouns for this buggy dude! I tend to use he/him because it comes naturally to me, but this character is in fact genderfluid, with a majority of the time spent more on either the agender or masculine side of the spectrum

He basically shares my gender identity (and my eye colour, a fun little detail), which makes sense since he is my persona after all bahahaha

His height, which I now realise I should have included in one of the pictures :'], is 7'8". Yes, this is very tall. Yes, he is based on an absolutely massive insect lmao

Clothes are honestly up to whoever is doodling him, I drew him without them here since I wanted to clearly display his build (and he technically doesn't need to wear any clothes unless he's cold, since there isn't really anything to cover up lmao)

All of that said, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day! 🧡

Yours truly, Stickbug 🪲

(and Stickbug's bug boy)

He's finished!

Or well, his base concept bahahaha

And as promised, I'm also including his colour palette! The shadow colours aren't set in stone of course, that 100% depends on the style and lighting one chooses to use - should they want to doodle my bug boy -, but I wanted to include them because - why not? -

Nothing is set in stone tbh, if you wanna up the saturation, darken/lighten some colours, change a hue or two to make him fit your style a little better, you're more than welcome to do so ^-^

I haven't worked out a name for him just yet, but I tend to call him "Stick", "Bug", or "Bug boy", so I guess those are his nicknames so far! ^-^

And just to be clear, there are no set pronouns for this buggy dude! I tend to use he/him because it comes naturally to me, but this character is in fact genderfluid, with a majority of the time spent more on either the agender or masculine side of the spectrum

He basically shares my gender identity (and my eye colour, a fun little detail), which makes sense since he is my persona after all bahahaha

His height, which I now realise I should have included in one of the pictures :'], is 7'8". Yes, this is very tall. Yes, he is based on an absolutely massive insect lmao

Clothes are honestly up to whoever is doodling him, I drew him without them here since I wanted to clearly display his build (and he technically doesn't need to wear any clothes unless he's cold, since there isn't really anything to cover up lmao)

All of that said, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day! 🧡

Yours truly, Stickbug 🪲

(and Stickbug's bug boy)

Hello friends! ^-^

I just made an etsy!! I only have one listing up as of now, but I'm still really excited about it bahahaha

I tried my best to make it affordable without losing too much quality, so the main listing is 25USD, while there's another version with slightly better paper for 35USD, and a framed version of the first one for 75USD :]

(that last one feels a little unnecessary, but I figured that not everyone wants to go buy a separate frame for their prints, so why not? Lmao)

Here is the link to my first listing! There is no pressure whatsoever to buy of course, but I would appreciate a share if it isn't too much trouble ^-^

The printing service I'm using is Gelato, which is connected to my Etsy shop where the products will be displayed and avaliable for purchase!

Any and all feedback is welcomed with open arms, I'm incredibly new to this so I wouldn't be surprised if I've made a mistake or two bahahaha TTvTT

That being said, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!! 🧡

Yours truly, Stickbug 🪲

Hiya, friends! ^-^

Here's two quick illustrations of our favourite feathered biped landing after a morning glide (with a twist!) :D

Or, well, two versions of the same illustration lmfao, sketched traditionally in graphite and completed digitally on my phone

This is clearly not Eshra's usual colour scheme, but instead inspired by the Palawan peacock-pheasant! (pictured below)

The first version still adheres to Eshra's already existing colour scheme to some extent, while the second one is made completely with the reference material in mind :]

I did take some creative liberty with the purple iridescence under his wings, as that's not something that exists in either Eshra's design or the pheasant. It felt necessary i order to better tie the brown in with the rest of the colour scheme

I had honestly forgotten completely about the existence of this bird until @so-called-yokai (also the creator of this lovely character, go check them out) brought up the idea of giving Eshra a pheasant-themed makeover, which I obviously couldn't resist ^-^

Not-quite-peafowls and feathered bipeds inspired by said not-quite-peafowls aside, I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day! 🧡

Yours truly, Stickbug 🪲

The apprentice: a short story

The apprentice slowly backed away from her work, putting her spatula down and eyeing the sculpture thoughtfully. She had been working on it for weeks on end, almost obsessive in her dedication to form the clay just right, to stay true to her reference material; down to the subtle bend of each little eyelash.

They were delicate enough to snap in half with the most minuscule application of force, and had drawn many curses from her lips during the tedious sculpting process.

She knew very well that she could have used a wire armature to spare herself the trouble, but she was nothing if not stubborn in her approach, and real eyelashes didn't have any armatures.

Shifting her gaze from the delicate things, her eyes settled on the area where the sculpture's nose meets it's mouth, admiring the elegant curve of the cupid's bow which had taken her countless attempts to get just right. Every prior attempt perfectly decent, yet still inferior to the next.

Nodding approvingly, her gaze shifted further yet, settling on the juncture where the sculpture's jaw meets it's neck. It was well executed, - anyone could see that, it was plain as day. It didn't take a master to point it out. -

Except for one thing,

The neck was too short.

The apprentice clenched her fists at the discovery, cursing herself as she reached for her previously abandoned spatula. With a calm, yet almost frenzied look in her eyes, she began to separate the sculpted head from the neck of it's static body, taking diligent care in avoiding any and all unnecessary damage.

She would of course have mended any such damage with the same level of precision that had been applied to every other step in this tedious journey, but it would have been a waste of precious effort to sculpt what had already been sculpted to perfection, so she focused back on the task at hand; to fix the mistake she had already - foolishly - made.

Setting the head down on a small table to her right, she picked up some clay and got to work.

-------------------------------

Once satisfied with her performance, she carefully retrieved the head from her right, scored and coated both it and the top of the neck in slip, and painstakingly joined them together as if they never had been separated in the first place.

Once again, she set her spatula aside and examined her work, her scrutinizing gaze unforgiving of even the tiniest inaccuracy.

Finally content with her handicraft, she breathed an appeased sigh before turning her gaze to her left, where her master sat as model for her ambitious project. It had taken quite a bit of convincing on her part, but she had eventually gotten her way, just like she knew she would.

Smiling at her master, she approached him, a fond look on her face as she spoke, her left hand resting gently on his stoic face:

"You sat so patiently for me, master. I hope I've done you justice."

Her hand reluctantly left his face, it's gaze unmoving from it's spot on the sculpture that depicted it's likeness, as it had been for the last few weeks.

Even in death, his piercing gaze betrayed not even the shallowest of thoughts that hid behind those eyes.

My prompts for this short story were:

Perfect, Separate, Sculpture, and Learn ^-^

Hello friends!

I don't have any art updates to post this time, I just wanted to let you know that you are absolutely wonderful, and that I appreciate every single one of you!! You're amazing, if you're reading this (and if you aren't, let's be real bahahaha), and I hope you're having a wonderful day ^-^ <3

Yours truly, Stickbug 🪲🧡