The White Mantis and the Red Panda

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"Not yet, it is customary to wait until both teacups have been poured." -Nae

Yeah Seven, you uncultured swine. Get with the tea-times. >:V



I'm not alone in my opinion when I say that WhiteMantis is seriously one of the most amazing artists out there. Her work is graphic-novel quality and gives me one of the biggest art crushes ever.
Her fantastic art and adorable character aside, another thing that really pushed me to draw her some fanart was the whole Mantid theme.

This year I actually caught and kept two mantises as pets. Both were male, with the first being a tiny nymph and the second being a fully grown adult. Sadly, the nymph mis-molted during his second molt while we owned him.

I was on my way to Savannah when I found MUTO, the adult mantis. He was soaking wet from the rain and was being chased around a Bojangles parking lot by two doves. So, naturally he came home with me (in a Bojangles large cup, no less). He lost a leg shortly after I caught him, probably from some injury related to the dove-disaster, but that didn't slow him down at all.

It did make him fly in corkscew patterns though, like a total goof.
He passed this last week, and I can only imagine it was his age. But he was a cool dude, and would sit on your shoulder and chill for hours at a time.
And he hit the cricket-jackpot living here, so I think it was a mutually beneficial relationship.


But in addition to drawing Nae, I wanted to draw Seven in a half-mantis inspired form. Complete with mantis-like eyes, antennae, a mantis 'tail' shape (for a female, and her stripes would be set over her segments), segmented lower legs and lower arms, and a shorter, rounder face.

I WISH I had thought of the awesome idea to split a fuzzy species with a mantis- but I gotta give mad props for designing a half-mantis girl for one of her adoptable sales.
And if anyone is curious about seeing this inspiring character, her name is Kahlua and she is owned by (the total sweetheart).


Hopefully it's cool that I doodled this up! ; v ;


Nae ©
Seven, Art ©