Tuc - Blog Posts
murderfloof rolled a 1 on that check, lol bat's definitely caught red-han-... red-chested? red-faced? red all over, really.
exceptionally creepy. terrifying. (great work!) ... TUC had zero flier antagonists. closest to such could be Ajax, I guess? but, like, that dude got zero characterization other than 'nobody likes him' and being Solovet's bond.
so,, why not have a floof-flier be a malevolent bitch? albeit not to the same scale as the other malevolent bitch that affected damn near everyone in the North American Eastern Seaboard region of the Underland with their machinations, and 'just' limited to those that she might encounter by roaming around.
Hoary bat but underland. Maybe hiding a body beneath her. hoaries sometimes kill and eat smaller bats irl. jus surreptiously extretching her wing to conceal a bloody hand, foot, or limb. expression of who, me?~
dunno name. Who was the Greek bloke with the carnivorous horses? Sisyphus? Typhon? Could be selffulfilling prophecy, girl got a rotten name, shunned for rotten name, succumbed to inner demons or malign thoughts because everybody expected the worst from her so why not?
Possibly unrepentant manipulator. Exploits lack of knowledge or innocent assumptions. Missing people? Oh drat the gnawers got them.
You always ask me to draw such depressing bats 😢
Disturbing image under the cut, you were warned
Krita always de-saturates stuff when I export it (yes I've seen that srgb post going around, no the fix suggested didn't work), so I have to manually re-add the saturation after export. I hope I got the caught in the act feigned innocence expression right. To make the bats as expressive as they are in the books I have to give them binocular vision, larger eyes, and usually brows and eyelashes. It kinda makes them look 30% dog 70% bat. I hope the fur patterns and colors still make the species recognizable.
Ah, nice! Thanks for the art / visual realization of this particular chiroptera!
>"I hope this is close to what you wanted"
It absolutely is! Thanks!
Hiyo! I apologize for any inconvenience/impertinence, but might I request/commission an illustration of a bat?
Underland!Euderma maculatum. Name: Pythia. Not her actual name. Just what she goes by, due to a rumor; some think she is able to hear into the future - or possible futures. Role/task within Regalia: grief counselor for fliers/humans/etc. who have lost their bonds/family members. or family members of their bonds. Or fliers who have been injured to the point of permanent mobility impairment (cannot fly anymore), individuals that might have dubious thoughts regarding their continued biological existence.
refs: https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Euderma_maculatum/ image refs: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=40631
I have three ideas in mind for the illustration I wish to request, but I don't know which of the three to pick. One would be somber, her assisting another... The second would be humorous; possibly depicting Boots and Hazard (or other young-ins) climbing all over the polka-dotted flier, hanging off her ears, etc. Or the third... Pythia's fate. In the hallway leading to Regalia's nursery, with (at least) Dulcet and Cartesian behind her... the Euderma momentarily holding the line, giving what little time before the gnawers overwhelm her position.
I don't know which one to choose. So, leaving that up to you.
I am so sorry it took so long to get finished. I was so excited by someone asking me to draw their OC that I wanted to do more than just a quick sketch and really put my full effort into it. So here's Pythia giving some comfort to a grieving Regalian.
I tried my best to keep her faithful to the bat reference, but a certain degree of creative liberties had to be taken to make her clearly emote. The very iconic spots are only really visible on the back so I had to cheat a little bit around the sides. I hope this is close to what you wanted :')
And FWI yes, the text says "Bat or Owl" that does include Underland OCs... hopefully I won't take three months to get it done next time 😅
Bonuses after the cut:
Alternate color versions that I was iterating. Just getting the right background figured out took so much time and fiddling and I'm still not sure I got it quite right
And here's just a PNG of the characters if you want to put them in a better fitting background
I’ve always in wondered what it must look like when the fliers try to traverse areas that they can’t fly in, like the tunnels in the Dead Land or the halls of the palace, and. Um.
I hope it looks like this.
yoooooooo, that face. Think maybe that fruit they imbibed in was a bit too fermented?
Maximized Goober
the diggers will remember this
OK SO I WAS WALKING DOWN THE STREET IN THE RAIN AT 2AM AND I SAW AN ANIMAL RUNNING DOWN THE ROAD AND SO I GRABBED IT AND
IT WAS THIS
aaaaaah I love this concept, just... everything about this. Especially since big'ol'bat'bro ought to have had even just *one* night topside.
On the other wing, however, the process of even getting Ares to the Overland... it's complicated. More so than with most canonically-known fliers, given Ares' above-average size. Ares even outright states he won't fit up the staircase leading to the concealed stone (and even if he could, getting a giant bat up all those stairs... well, it's doable, but there's gonna be a lot of cursin' involved), and if he can't fit there, then the laundry grate is similarly an unlikely surface access point. And that's without factoring in the possibility of others intending to use the laundry room during this process... and then the duo would have to scramble back down lest they're still in the building when Animal Control inevitably arrives on scene.
And then there's the decision of how to go about 'bring your pet cottonball companion bond to school'. > Bring Ares into the building? > Ask him to stay up on the roof and somehow convince the teacher to allow the class out to the yard so Ares can do some kind of dynamic entrance? (Assuming there's even an outdoor space on the complex...) > Open the window to let Ares stick his big fluffy head in?
But, aside from all the above... I still very much love everything about this hypothetical scenario.
imagine it’s bring your pet to school day and gregor shows up with ares.