drawing whatever i want forever

version without lighting and a version with red blood. i knew going in that i wanted him to have yellow blood (like many beetle species) but drawing the blood in Human Blood Color first helped me visualize where i should add smears and splatters

and the speedpaint

the main thing i wanted to convey with this comic was the isolation phyllo experienced during his hermitage. because there's the literal part of him being alone in the mountains, but also the only person he has communication with is his father. and they are not being honest about their lives and feelings, so there's the added isolation of not having any vulnerable communication. i love lying to my loved ones to try to protect them but actually hurting them in the process!

so backstory for this guy: this is phyllo. he's a thrikreen (bug person). his home planet, athas, was at war with mindflayers for decades until they struck up a bargain; the thrikreen would be allowed to keep their home planet and live in peace if the mindflayers were allowed to place mindflayer parasites in some of the children each year. these parasites would grow and eventually devour their hosts to turn into new mindflayers.

years after this, phyllo was born. he was chosen to have a parasite placed in him. this parasite, named mal, was different though. he continuously refused to devour his hosts, and so another mindflayer (mal's biological dad!) in disguise was sent to monitor him. this mindflayer-disguised-as-thrikreen is also phyllo's dad, Para.

phyllo's mom was always distant so para became phyllo's main parent. para found himself becoming attached to phyllo, and took on the mantle of being the best father he could to his 2-in-1 son in stride. as phyllo grew older, and he wasn't devoured by his parasite, phyllo's parents became concerned that it might cause problems with the mindflayer-thrikreen treaty so they sent phyllo to live in an isolated cabin in the mountains to hide him away.

important point i haven't mentioned though; phyllo's parents never told him he had a parasite, and so they had to make up a different reason to send him away. phyllo's mother worked in the government, so they lied and told him that there was political turmoil and that it would be safest for all of them if he hid away. so from his late teens until his mid twenties phyllo was isolated in this cabin in the mountains, which definitely didn't effect him negatively!