Jen C Mars

Photograph of a medium-sized bee hovering in front of large Corymbia flower, side-view. The bee has a furry yellow and cream thorax and head, black and blue/green banded abdomen, and mottled green eyes. The flowers are bright red/pink with yellow centres. There are main raindrops collected on the flower anthers and a large drip of water is gathering under a bud near the bee.

A native Digger Bee (Zonamegilla sp.) investigates a Corymbia flower during a brief break in the rain.
#insects #bees

EntSoc's Chrysalis Fund gives out grants to K-12 educators for insect-themed projects. Applications due June 1st.

Making Enemies — Spy & Owl A treasury of ideas for inventing all-new abominations for player characters to confront.

Yo-HO! March fo(u)rth! It's #InternationalGMsDay! And what better way to show your GMs your appreciation than another book for their groaning, overburdened shelves?

MAKING ENEMIES is a deep dive into monster creation, a treasury of ideas for inventing all-new abominations for PCs to confront.

a traditional painting of herons in flight among trees, green, pink and white hues

I painted herons in flight. medium: Nicker poster colour on Arches watercolour paper

I try not to romanticize the past, but I think about the kind of crazy stuff my parents never had to worry about raising me that now consumes so much of my brain, this being near the top

Sign for Yamato Transport Company. A large black cat carrying a black kitten by its scruff, in a simplified, geometric style.

My favorite piece of graphic design I saw in Japan—this logo for a delivery service.

Photo of a broken black mug with a cute logo of a cat and kitten outlined in yellow

I used to do business with them and they always had the best swag. I had multiple mugs and this is the last one :-(

Macro photograph of an Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) queen on a garden flower.

A lovely fresh-looking queen Bombus pratorum (Early Bumblebee) in our #Staffs garden this morning. I think that what it is anyway! #bees #SocialBees

Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.

Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.

The sweetest 🥲

A tiny stuffy of Hornet from SilkSong with a Lego guitar sitting by a sad looking house plant. I made this with my kid because it was so impossible to buy actual SilkSong merch when the game first came out. Now there’s a kid made bell beast and a conch bug to go with her.

7 y/o is (still) completely obsessed with SilkSong. It’s 6:30am, “Mom, can we play SilkSong?!”

There are kid-made stuffies, a hand drawn Hunter’s Journal (with vocalizations transcribed) and ballpoint pen tattoos applied daily to both me and kid. Fan art for days. Last year’s Halloween costume

digital painting of a little egret

digital painting of a cormorant

digital painting of a little egret in water

Some guys who belong at the beach but I see either flying past or joining the herring gulls looking for worms in the fields

digital painting of a barn owl

digital painting of a buzzard

digital painting of a kestrel

Last year I decided to put my health first and take an extended break from paid illustration. I found I had an inexplicable compulsion to document all the birds I can see from my house in the most time consuming way possible.

Some predators:

frontal view of a jumping spider with orange spindly legs and ornately patterned abdomen in blue and red. watercolor painting.

night view of a waterside environment with a shiny dark blue beetle in the foregeround, perched on a stem, surrounded by flowers. there's a bright full moon in the sky. traditional media art

shining iridescent beetle in black, green, and purple, pixel art

frontal view of a green caterpillar with four antler-like protrusions coming out of its headshield, surrounded by star-shaped elements and the moon in the dark foreground

Fourth batch #SciArt

Siler semiglaucus jumping spider @jencmars.bsky.social
Altica metallic flea beetle @acidlich.bsky.social
Amarygmus darkling beetle @spiritcrowart.bsky.social
Charaxes caterpillar @mothmonarch.bsky.social

Photo of a genie's palace isometric map illustration in paper with TTRPG dice aside. The palace has immense gardens and defence turrets around its perimeter. It sits atop a storm cloud.

🗺️ Gennie's Palace isometric map for How to Defend Your Lair. Exterior.

#ttrpg #dnd #ttrpgmaps

what if i finished this silly thing

Ethmia monachella Ethmia monachella in February 2026 by Andrew Warren. This is the first time this species has been found in Colorado in 118 years! It is only known fro...

Today's bingo card definitely did not have "rediscover one of North America's rarest moths" on it today, yet here we are, on Feb. 6, in Colorado!

www.inaturalist.org/observations...

gouache painting of a great blue heron with abstract colorful clouds and mountains behind it and abstract water and eelgrass dotted with orange fish eggs all around it

Sunrise Heron -Mountains & Eelgrass
7.75x10" Gouache on watercolor paper

Took a self-indulgent art day yesterday to paint a heron. I recently got picked to be a nest cam monitor for a local great blue heron colony & I wanted to celebrate by painting one :)

Prints up: www.inprnt.com/gallery/skid...

Painting of a bee and a salamander sitting on a log drinking hot beverages in an autumnal setting.

It was always a bit of a tense moment for Jacques, but it just was by far the best hot chocolate you could find.

#gouache

Head detail of an illustration of a wrinkle-faced bat

Head detail - Centurio senex painting #sciart #art #bats

Happy Paczki Day to those who celebrate

Me working on the painjob for a lifesize nile crocodile head sculpture

The completed life size nile crocodile head sculpt

Nile croc head, currently on display at Vancouver aquarium

青い尾

A white trumpeter swan drifts across the glass surface of a pond peppered with lilly pads. Stacks of submerged deadfall lie undisturbed.

Here’s one from a wayzzz back, “Slow Drift,” oil on linen, 30”x24”.

Close up of large-eyed, furry, bearded fly on a thorny twig, against a dark background.

Happy Fly-Day. We made it!

False Bee-Killer fly 🪰
(Promachus bastardii)

on the trails outside the Nature Museum
Chicago, Illinois 7-7-23

>1” (3cm) long predatory fly, scans for prey from perch.

#flyDay #eastCoastKin #nature #diptera #bugsky #macro #photography #macroPhotography #insects #chicago

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!

Painted portrait of a Great Hornbill with a muted green backdrop. A striking yellow and black bird with a large bill and casque. The bill is weathered and textured, and the eyes are a deep red.

Weathered King

Recently finished portrait of a Great Hornbill
9x12" oil painting
#birds #sciart

This is very relatable

Digital artwork of a dragon head caterpillar (Polyura schreiber) with the many dots on its horned head and chubby body rendered to resemble little stars, a few actually being tiny four-pointed stars. Above its head a partially eclipsed moon is framed between its inner horns, and large four-pointed stars rest on the center of its upper head and hang on either side of its head between its outer horns. More stylized rays and stars radiate out into the edges of the image, rich textured gold against a dark blue framing the green bug's body. The caterpillar is outlined in metallic gold and has fairly realistic face details and feet. Art by Moth Monarch.

🌘 "Starchild" 🌟
Commission for @franzanth.bsky.social & at last another of my Golden Orbits.

Criminal negligence!