I swear I'm not a wof blog I swear. Anyway, here's the bugs and a plant for some reason
Transcribed notes and other info on these guys:
the little doodles are just scribbles about where and their special glands are (which are colored yellow) amd how they work. From the top down and left to right, they say
'wrist spinneret with starter, mouth gland with proteins, combining them causes a chemical reaction makes a lot of quick-hardening silk.'
'Venom (soldier or Queen)
Worker-similar to silkwing silk
Drone-nothing in wrist'
'Extended periods of inactive sun time helps store energy' slightly to the left is 'like a leaf', slightly below is 'ambush attacks'
'No acid or venom, but secretes poisonous mucus and saliva' then to the right is 'very scary-looking because they have skin with bones under it instead of am exoskeleton'
Next to beetlewing head says 'acid spitting glands' below that says 'spinnerets on tail for building and subduing prey'
Some other general info:
silkwings are the smallest pantalan tribe amd they're omnivores, primarily eating plants but opportunistically scavenging when possible. they have a long tongue and a set of spinners in their mouth, the tongue being their to access the flowers,bugs, and fruit from the giant plants on the continent. the spinnarets from both their mouth and wrist have to be mixed to create the strong substance they use for building and defense (there is a ratio they can mix it at that causes it to combust when exposed to air and slung at enemies) the scakes on their wings are a bit poisonous but otherwise they have few defenses beyond this, they're also slow clumsy fliers. they have an exoskeleton but they also have an active respiratory system (so they actually breathe in and out unlike a real butterfly i think) unlike hivewings, they're not eusocial but they have been forced into those roles by the hivewing occupation. they're what's left of the beetlewings, having changed drastically in appearance over the years due to a lot of different pressures.
hivewings are large and omnivorous, but primarily eat meat to help fuel their flight. they're bipedal when on the ground, standing in a weird splayed fashion but able to run at fairly high speeds. when in flight, just like silkwings, they use both their leg wings and chest wings. hivewings can buzz them both at extremely high speeds and therefore fly much quicker and with more agility. also like silkwings, they have an exoskeleton and lungs, and their ither organs are stored in their abdomen tail thing to keep them away from the massive internal muscles needed to twitch their wings that fast. they are eusocial, and have several different classes. soldiers, workers, and queens are all female, and while they're larger than drones the queen is the largest (laying all the eggs in the colony. there are several dozen queens and hives on the continent, but they all answer to one). workers have a setup similar to silkwings where they can mix substances from their mouth and wrist to help them build the hive and trap prey. soldiers can't do this, and only have venom in their mouth and tail like a queen. drones are only there for the queen and don't do much else, having very little political or social power. hivewings are another offshoot from beetlewings that was mixed with some nightwings (which is why their faces, horns, and spines look a bit nightwing-ish and where their black coloring and sparkles of white dots on their wings came from)
leagwings are the only vertebrates, and look very scary to the others with their transparent skin,large eyes, and bones. they spend most of the day immobile somewhere in the sun,only occasionally moving to get water or ambush prey. their many frills help maximize surface area to photosynthesize with. they're entirely carnivorous when not getting energy from the sun. they're much more active at night, using the battery of energy they got from the day before returning to somewhere high and exposed to the sin so that when morning comes they can start to recharge. their main defenses are their teeth and claws, but they can also secrete a poisonous substance from their mouth and skin to deter others. it's mainly disorienting, but in a high enough dose it will kill. their long frog like kegs are for jumping from tree to tree and gor climbing because it's harder for them to work up the energy for takeoff from the ground. some of them are also magic and can control plants (magic is also how the One Queen can control all hivewings, but they also have their own natural pheremone signals) they have largely been wipes out thanks to outcompetition, habitat loss, and deliberate extermination on sight, but pockets of them are still around. they may have been from the same place as rainwings and share some of their features, but have changed drastically from those roots.
no one really knows a lot about beetlewongs because the version I drew is now extinct, but they were likely omnivores with both acidic spit and spinnerets, along with heavy armor. unlike their descendents they're still built more like a dragon from phyrria (idk if I spelled that right) with their big wing limbs being in front with the little arms being behind them instead of the other way around.
I decided to keep them all hexopods even though I think the hive and silk officially have another smaller pair of wing things (bringing them closer to being 8 legged in my version of things)
Special video finished wow
Make sure to WATCH until the END for a SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT and HIT THAT BELL to win IPHONE
this was tough, to say the least. SO MANY beautiful designs (which I’ll be compiling as the voting goes on) and so many tough decisions between them. I chose the three that I could see best with the prompt, but everyone did so so well. Thank you for your submissions.
TOP THREE WINNERS (voting is below them)
@sidyashchiy-na-plakhe
Allseer! I’m in love with the shapes used, and the colors and patterns are wonderful. Overall totally hit the mark with “recognizable but not overloaded”! He looks like he’d fit right in with the gang.
@longbird47
Naysayer! I loved this one because I didn’t expect a Karen type, but I’m not complaining! Was pleasantly surprised. Very unique wings, and her face is perfect for her personality idea.
@cowgomoo1123
Brightfuture! I found myself being really drawn to this design. The pink belly is super cute, and I adore the wing patterns. I was really stuck between Brightfuture and a few others, but kept coming back to him.
VOTING
Go ahead and pick who you think should win! Each winner will receive a doodle of a character of their choosing, and the top design will be the official character for the story. I want to say I hope there’s no hard feelings, or disappointment to people who weren’t chosen. I love EVERY design submitted, and I encourage you to use the character if you wish :] whether it be making them your own, selling them, etc.
Useful
If you ever need references for bird wings/tails I cannot recommend this collection enough! It has images of the dorsal/ventral sides of wings from a wide variety of species.
NightWing design I did for @beefscrap
"I call her Naysayer, though that might be too silly, idk. Perhaps that name was given to her in the hopes that she wouldn't be too gullible and fall for fanciful things. She's the stuck up, boomer Karen type. The condescending teacher that seems to hate kids and you'd wonder why she chose to be that in the first place. She's a history professor, though not super reliable and might alter records to fit her beliefs. Very skeptical about anything magic, since she's all about there being scientific explanations and calculations to everything. A bit hypocritical considering how little sense dragons make but she's not gonna admit that. She doesn't really believe in mind readers and seers either, seeing it all as an elaborate scam. She definitely doesn't let her children read about magic, or anything fantastical at all. Design wise, I gave her musty looking colors and some pearls to clutch. Plus glasses, a ring, earring, some eyeshadow, and some starry stripes that may be reminiscent of a certain flag that has stars and stripes. I draw NightWings with bat features, beaks, and plantigrade feet."
[Image ID: digital art of a NightWing from Wings of Fire in a simplified style, facing left. The character is of a medium build, with a long, narrow face. She has dark, dull reddish scales, with a lighter underside and darker legs, with stripes, the back, and the top of the tail of the same dark color. 3 white teardrops on the neck and tail each. She has long, pointy ears, a sharp nose horn at the end of her gray beak, and downturned gray horns. Claws are also gray. Has some of her teeth exposed in a disapproving expression. She has some wrinkles under her eye, and wears purplish eyeshadow. She has golden glasses connected to the horns by a string, a pearl earring, a gold ring on one finger, and a string of pearls necklace. There are three spines going down her neck and three more at the base of her tail. Her wings are dark with a few stripes of white dots across the inner membrane. End ID]
What is a wof thing that you absolutely disregard constantly? Mine is color restrictions for the tribes. Blue skywings pink icewings red seawings. I don’t care I just like making pretty dragons.
Another food for thought. What if Firestar joined WindClan instead of ThunderClan? Tallstar was close with Jake and would probably see him in Firepaw. They already had an interesting dynamic but it could be explored more. Maybe a father/son or mentor/apprentice relationship. Replace Graystripe with Onewhisker, who Fireheart already knew anyways. And the main antagonist would become Brokenstar instead of Tigerstar. Yellowfang could go to WindClan instead, as it also borders ShadowClan. More conflict would happen about taking her in because ShadowClan drove them out, but she's just a medicine cat so they might let her in. WindClan wouldn't depend on ThunderClan anymore. They'd be the hero clan. Now ThunderClan would need rescuing from Tigerstar or a senile Bluestar. And it would avoid the whole Onestar going crazy to prove his clan's independence from ThunderClan thing. Firestar could still choose Onewhisker as his deputy after Tallstar makes him leader. Firestar could've started off as a barn cat instead of a kittypet for this, he could even know Barley. And the fire alone prophecy could be made by Barkface instead of Spottedleaf. So I'd say that Firestar could've worked as a WindClan cat just as well as a ThunderClan one. And WindClan is just cooler in my opinion. If there's an AU like that out there already that is awesome.
Useful
I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard
Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.
Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.
Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.
Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.
SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.
SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.
Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.
Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.
Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.
Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.
Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.
Я водяной, Я водяной, поговорил бы кто со мной
a wet gentleman