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