Moths in a human suit (they/them)

Also I'm cackling gleefully to myself at being able restock so many paints, and add that new PR259 ultramarine red.

Which it seems makes me sound shifty AF.

Restocking my shop today, & I've had to move my recently acquired liquorice to another room while I'm admin-ing...

I can't be trusted when I'm not doing painty stuff or drawing. 😬

Apparently a lot of you need to hear this, but bugs aren't jerks, they're not evil, they're not vindictive, mean or anything else. They're simply bugs, trying to live and will defend their nests and lives when necessary. They don't give enough shit about you to be a jerk to you in particular.

Me: yelling 'look, over there!' as I push about 400 pencils, several boxes of pigments, & an undisclosed number of paint tins under the sofa...

No worries mate, & TY!

My drawing specs were only on my friggin head for FFS.

I just had to swap the walking-around specs on my face for the good ones on my bonce, why am I like this aaaaarg??

(This is the entire bastardtittyfucking point of having both pairs of specs on me. Gah.)

*That last one as read out by screenreader. By eyeballs, there's one after the bit about images.

As an artist, that last one... Oof. Pretty shitty to hear, NGL.

cover for Issue 55 of Uncanny Magazine, November/December 2023, The Lotus Flower Gift by Paul Lewin featuring a Black femme-presenting person silhouetted on the right facing left wearing a fur-lined headpiece with feathers and beads dangling with all manner of colors: deep reds, warm oranges, and cool turquoise. She has orange lines and dots drawn on her face. Her hand, palm-up, hold two very small individuals, one another Black femme wearing a head wrap and clothes in muted oranges, reds, and browns. Her clothes also have white lacy trimmings, and she holds a deep red, pink, and brown umbrella over her head. Next to her, a bald Black child in a deep green mask holes a pink lotus flower floating in a clear orb. Butterflies and birds fly around them.

Paul Lewin

The next stretch goal in the Uncanny Magazine Year 12: Fly Forever, Space Unicorns! Kickstarter is an ORIGINAL COVER by Paul Lewin! Paul has done some phenomenal covers for Uncanny in the past, and we can't wait to see what he can do in Year 12! www.kickstarter.com/projects/unc...

Cartoon image in my head: 2 flies wearing little top-hats and monocles, reviewing wet watercolour paint as if it's posh wine.

For anyone wanting to attempt getting bugs to join in with their artwork this way; this ochre will be in my shop later in the week, heheh!

(No bug attendance guaranteed, mind you... I imagine YMMV based on the size and predilections of your local bug population!)

Clearwell brown ochre; beautiful granulation, also attracts bugs. 😂

Noticed summat wrong with 1 of my Clearwell ochre swatches when I came back from lunch…

Put my good specs back on…

It was a friggin fly mud-puddling on my swatch!

Not sure drinking paint is a good idea for bugs, but I guess it was after either sugar from the binder, or salts from the pigment?

Mate, it's appreciated!

Ok you always write delightful alt, but the pauses in the last pic somehow got read out in a perfect way. Extremely excited sounding spood.

Side view of a small green leaf-shaped Hemipteran on a twig, thick grabby clawed 1st leg pair, and tiny stubby antennae

Top view of the creature; body is leaf-like, with the head and "neck" like the stem

Just a little leaf (with grabby hands) 💚

jagged ambush bug nymph

Pretty much any word beginning with Q makes autocorrect switch to French dictionary, which is also fun for quinacridone pigments.

*Almagre, not anlagte... Apparently that name makes my phone switch dictionary to Norwegian. 🙃🤷

Dagger brush lines are so satisfying to make! These are in Terra Ercolana, Anlagte, and Clearwell caves red ochre pigments.

A tiny, beige and brown, wedge-shaped micromoth perched on the edge of my moth trap looking absolutely furious. I know, it's just the way it's dark wirey antennas sit above its round blue eyes that make them look like angry eyebrows. I just can't help anthropomorphising them, they seem so adorably livid.

A close up on the face of the tiny furious grass veneer moth from the previous image. It really does look tetchy, trust me on that.

Also it's still furious grass veneer season, and this ferocious beast dropped by.

(It's an absolutely livid barred grass veneer.)

I love all these little guys, & it's good to see different species of tiny tetchy veneers show up at different times.

This is what happens when you put a load of cranks in charge of your regulatory bodies. The Office for Students, and by extension the Labour government, supports the elimination of protections for all minoritised groups in Higher Education (and very obviously in the case of government beyond).

Thanks so much!

Again I bring to you the most magnificent piece of twig. No, wait! It's a pale prominent moth again, my bad. Humour me though, because it's the best lil moth pal. Plus it's an easy mistake to make, and I will continue to make that joke, because this long, thin, irregularly shaped moth looks exactly like a broken bit of dried plant stem or twig. In both colour and shape I can imagine it fooling many an eagle eyed bird, lizard, or other predator. Or a human out looking for moths because I had to go get my good specs to fully appreciate it's magical-ness. Truly an utterfuckingly splendid disguise.

The same twig mimicking moth, sitting on a grey cardboard egg tray from my moth trap. The point here is that you don't have to go very far away for it to just look completely like a twig. Majestic camouflage, truly.

A top down view of the same twig mimicking moth. It seems somehow even more twiggy from this angle, so long and thin, with a mottled colour scheme that looks just like a bit of dried stem. Just amazing.

Got another visit from the amazing twig-moth that is the pale prominent! 😁

Ahh thanks mate! 💖

Do I know any furry folks in the UK on here? Or maybe UK cosplayers?

Need a recommendation for a maker who could do a custom pair of tabby cat ears as a gift for someone. Need to be in or ship to UK.

Any help appreciated! 🙏

Thanks, I'll check them out! 😁

Thanks! 💖

Do I know any furry folks in the UK on here? Or maybe UK cosplayers?

Need a recommendation for a maker who could do a custom pair of tabby cat ears as a gift for someone. Need to be in or ship to UK.

Any help appreciated! 🙏

Just discovered the salty liquorice mix I got includes big, pudgy, chocolate-filled super-salty liquorice things.

OMFGs this is the best.

A delightfully fluffy moth with it's wings folded, sitting on a grey cardboard egg tray from my moth trap. It is longer than it is wide, with a brown and grey wing pattern that seems very like a warm fuzzy knitted jumper. It has a lighter tuft of punk-ish hair above its face. A+ moth friend.

Side view of the same warm and fuzzy moth, showing that the tufts of hair above its face do indeed stock upwards in a very punk way.

Front view of the same fuzzy moth pal, showing that there is a pair of dark circular markings on the fluff above its face that could, if you squint, resemble spectacles.

85. Spectacle.

So called because of the two round markings in the floof above its face. But it has a pretty impressive coiffure all round, I reckon. A+ fuzzy punk moth pal.