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When you've spent a whole year as a bratty larva, pupate, and then realize, "My effing MOUTH doesn't work anymore?!" and your digestive tract has been replaced by useless, airfilled vestigial ducts, I figure you've got plenty of excuse to don the black and vinyl, dark blue eyeliner and mope about, goth and/or emo.
Either that or go out with a "bang", as most Mayflies do.
The whole 'adult Mayflies live for a day, breed, lay eggs and die" is true to a point. SOME species only get 30 MINUTES to get laid then do some layin' before smoking one last cigarette and shuffling off this mortal coil.
Stuff I didn't know before working on teh piccie.
- Adult Mayflies are called 'Spinners'.
- Those that have mated and died midair are called 'Spent' (stands to reason).
- Their annual hatches/nuptial flights are a major part of the foodweb. Especially freshwater fishies eating the Spent.
- Certain folks in New Guinea and Africa have annual munchin' parties, feasting on mayflies when they hatch all out at once.
- Caddis Flies, different order, have strikingly similar life-cycles, though they get to live a bit longer on average as adults (1 to 4 weeks usually).
I kinda like the concept of sexy Mayflies as a symbol of mortality.
Either that or go out with a "bang", as most Mayflies do.
The whole 'adult Mayflies live for a day, breed, lay eggs and die" is true to a point. SOME species only get 30 MINUTES to get laid then do some layin' before smoking one last cigarette and shuffling off this mortal coil.
Stuff I didn't know before working on teh piccie.
- Adult Mayflies are called 'Spinners'.
- Those that have mated and died midair are called 'Spent' (stands to reason).
- Their annual hatches/nuptial flights are a major part of the foodweb. Especially freshwater fishies eating the Spent.
- Certain folks in New Guinea and Africa have annual munchin' parties, feasting on mayflies when they hatch all out at once.
- Caddis Flies, different order, have strikingly similar life-cycles, though they get to live a bit longer on average as adults (1 to 4 weeks usually).
I kinda like the concept of sexy Mayflies as a symbol of mortality.
Category All / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 622 x 800px
File Size 145.1 kB
I love that you study insects before you draw them; that's one of my major gripes about other artists who draw insects (or very weird cartoony caricatures thereof). I too have drawn a mayfly, a lanky, ethereal female one leading a little string of woodland creatures off on some pied piper path. It seems you and I have the same taste insect-wise! This is wonderfully done, the chitin on the abdomen looks almost like African tribal design, and you did wonders with the color contrasts!
*smiles* Thankies. Funny thing, the african tail patterning's pretty close to the original animal - I just popped it a little more. Just wish I was a little better at the whole 'pinup' aspect of character design/drawing - still aways to go before I can get what I see in my head down onto the paper.
*grins* A fairy mayfly! *missed it if it was in your gallery* Definitely wanna see!
Oh, and most of my reference piccies for this and the damsel fly pic I'll post a little later, came from, of all things, a trout fishing site. http://www.troutnut.com/specimen/472.
They have some nice galleries :>
*grins* A fairy mayfly! *missed it if it was in your gallery* Definitely wanna see!
Oh, and most of my reference piccies for this and the damsel fly pic I'll post a little later, came from, of all things, a trout fishing site. http://www.troutnut.com/specimen/472.
They have some nice galleries :>
Its mostly all my years of game-mastering/storytelling tabletop roleplaying games seeping through. I can't draw a characters easily without trying to place them in context - story, personality, what have you.
Plus with a lotta the insects, the actual animal behavior is so strange and wonderful sometimes, I like to try to -translate- the behavior along with the body, when I convert them into morphic form.
A lotta folks still do that to varying degrees with their characters - squirrelmorphs make nut jokes and live in treehouses, there's the whole predator-prey lovemaking joke - we all love clever juxtaposition. With insects, the language of cliche' isn't as strongly ingrained, except with a very few species. Flies get poop jokes, butterflies are typically depicted as female and fairylike and vain, ants and bees are busy workers, etc., but there's a vast, untapped resource of insect species that would make much more interesting (or at least new and refreshing) characters to play with, and in FA's case, look at. :>
Plus with a lotta the insects, the actual animal behavior is so strange and wonderful sometimes, I like to try to -translate- the behavior along with the body, when I convert them into morphic form.
A lotta folks still do that to varying degrees with their characters - squirrelmorphs make nut jokes and live in treehouses, there's the whole predator-prey lovemaking joke - we all love clever juxtaposition. With insects, the language of cliche' isn't as strongly ingrained, except with a very few species. Flies get poop jokes, butterflies are typically depicted as female and fairylike and vain, ants and bees are busy workers, etc., but there's a vast, untapped resource of insect species that would make much more interesting (or at least new and refreshing) characters to play with, and in FA's case, look at. :>
I quite agree with you. As a nature lover, and curious about all that, I've seen and read about insect societies things most people would think totally unbelievable. And there are SO MANY species, so many individuals, in so many different environments...
Triple furrah for your work ^^
Triple furrah for your work ^^
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