#z-squadron

Hey, I'm back! These are logos for the Z-Squadron, the moth flying team and main characters along with Kiida in Moth to the Flame. They change their name to the KZ-Squadron once they officially recruit Kiida to their team later on. I really like how these came out, especially the negative and positive space shapes flowing together, though it’s a bit more noticeable on the B/W versions.

All of these designs are available on my Redbubble!

okay so i’ve been furiously trying to balance out the colours for the Z-Squadron and it has been taking me literally days to figure out and i’m  d y i n g

my main issue has been trying to make them look like a cohesive group (and look somewhat alike because they’re siblings) while keeping them distinct enough design wise to stand on their own. They all have unique body types and faces at least, but because they’re all based on the lime hawk moth (a decision I made starting with Zander) they all have green somewhere on their designs, a colour I’m not as good with harmonizing ;-; Yellow is normally an accent with it and its been hard to not make it look muddy when making variations

right now they have a spectrum between green and blue overall but adding accent colours for contrast has been the main point of contention so far (looking at you ZANTH with your beautiful red coat I don’t want to get rid of hgfddsgfsgfs) Even with Zeria here I toned back a lot of her colours, mainly the purple accents to make them warmer

i have all of their altered colours now but until i test them out with the lineless style like I did for Kiida they may not work at all, which is why you’re seeing a WIP here. I haven’t drawn much lately and I get self conscious about WIPs so that’s why this is here and not on my art blog lol

I haven’t done full profiles for my moth characters yet but Zeria is the purest bean ever and I love her so much ;;;;;; i may not even use these colours or the ones for the rest of the Z-Squadron but she looks so soft and fluffy and seeing her hopeful face looking back at me makes everything worth it, like she’s willing me to keep going

After finishing Kiida’s reference last month, I started the process of making updated reference sheets for the Z-Squadron, starting with their leader Zander! While each of them have at least basic ref sheets already, not all of them were polished back when they were first made, and thus only some of them have been uploaded so far. I’m hoping to fix that soon so everybody gets new references this time, so stay tuned for those later!

In case you’re curious, Zander and his siblings are all loosely based on the lime hawk moth, and each of their wing patterns has a hint to a personality trait or their main role in the squadron. In Zander’s case, his pattern is the most feather-like, matching his cloak and hinting at the “hawk” part of his design’s inspiration. It also looks a bit like speed lines, hinting at his love of fast and fancy flying. He is the squadron’s leader, after all. Hawks and other birds are predators to the bug characters in this story, so in that context a cloak like this shows a sense of confidence from the wearer, and perhaps recklessness too!

When in doubt, make a character sheet. xD Now that I've been organizing my character art on my Toyhouse account I feel inclined to make reference sheets for OCs that don't have one yet.

One last piece of artwork before the end of the year (uploading both versions because I can't decide which one I like better). I've had this one in the works for a few weeks now but finally got it done now, group shots are hard. xD After drawing Zander I felt compelled to draw the rest of the Z-Squadron. They're all siblings, so it was interesting to design them as such. A good moth fam. :D