Moths in a human suit (they/them)
LightNews LightNews
banner
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Moths in a human suit (they/them)
@lycomorpha.bsky.social
7.5K followers 740 following 5.2K posts
A collection of moths trying to cosplay a human interdisciplinary artist. MedSci escapee, always drawing, in my chaos-bisexual-enby-hag era. Paintmaker. Moth, disability, & art-related sh*t-posting. https://linktr.ee/lycomorpha & lycomorpha.etsy.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Moths in a human suit (they/them) @lycomorpha.bsky.social · Jan 16
Bemused at all the people suddenly following me, so uhh.

Hi? Here's some things to know.

I swear a lot. If you're offended by words like wankspangled knobcockle, I'm not for you.

I post many moths & other bugs. I talk/yell about alt text, chronic life, pencils, & paint. I post paint-making a lot…
A colour pencil drawing of an imaginary emperor moth. It has wide, fuzzy wings that are mint green with a cream border and red wavy horizontal stripes. There are also startling eye spots, one on each wing. Its body is also green and very, very fluffy. It has thin comb-like antennas. Although it is a fictional species it's still a very good moth friend.
lycomorpha.bsky.social
I've done five (5) tedious adulting chores tonight, how much video gaming does that get me please?? 🙏
December 26, 2025 at 10:02 PM
Reposted by Moths in a human suit (they/them)
thechiller.bsky.social
£49k now, for some of the most desperately vulnerable people. Keep it going with a repost or a quid! x
December 26, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Moths in a human suit (they/them)
kjkillackey.bsky.social
Something looser, more “imperfect” because otherwise it’s indistinguishable from machine stitching and then what’s the point? In other words, put the human in. I’ve carried that with me ever since. (The professor was Victor De La Rosa. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_...)
Victor De La Rosa - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 26, 2025 at 2:33 AM
Reposted by Moths in a human suit (they/them)
kjkillackey.bsky.social
I took several textile classes at SFSU around 2007. For one assignment I did a bunch of hand embroidery, outlining some geometric shapes with thick bands of brick stitch. When I showed it to my professor, he said something like it was beautifully done but I should consider some rougher marks, …
December 26, 2025 at 2:33 AM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Awake at 2am thought:

Just realised that I can worry less about tiny flaws, slight unevenness, or minor asymmetry in my drawing.

Cos those things distinguish it as human-made.

When you look at AI slop, it has an uncanny valley kinda effect. Life is rarely so evenly spaced & perfectly symmetrical.
December 26, 2025 at 2:06 AM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
23. Magpie inkcap

You can't not love inkcaps, they're too fascinating to watch turning to gloop. Used to see these growing out of mulch sometimes. If I remember rightly, another artist painted an inkcap with it's own ink - @bernoid.bsky.social maybe?

#SciArt
#ArtAdventCalendar
A colour pencil and watercolour illustration of magpie inkcaps, Coprinopsis picacea. It shows three stages. Firstly a freshly emerged incap with a white stem and bell shaped black cap with white scales. In the second stage, the cap has started to flare outwards more and is shorter, having started to disintegrate. In the third the cap has almost all disintegrated into black gloopy ooze - the 'ink' that gives it the name.
December 25, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Moths in a human suit (they/them)
franzanth.bsky.social
Have yourself a merry little Carboniferous.
#Art #SciArt #PaleoArt #Inverts
a pine tree with bugs hanging all around it. at the very top is a dragonfly-like meganeura with open wings, circling the base is the giant millipede arthropleura. on the branches sit various insects and circular pine cones.
December 20, 2024 at 4:24 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Evergreen tip here for a long life. Sharing for no particular reason... 😶
lycomorpha.bsky.social Moths in a human suit (they/them) @lycomorpha.bsky.social · May 4
Reminded today of one of the culinary secrets to a longer life:

Never,

I repeat never, argue with Yorkshire folk about parkin*, French friends about butter, or Norwegian fam about grøt.

*Unless you're from Yorkshire, then we can bicker for-fucken-ever.
December 25, 2025 at 3:34 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
I started this drawing last winter, but completely lost it.

Like, I had absolutely no idea where it was.

Just found it stashed in one of my travel sketchbooks, while browsing thru WIPs for summat to draw!

Might have another poke at it 😁 🐚
lycomorpha.bsky.social Moths in a human suit (they/them) @lycomorpha.bsky.social · Dec 23
How things start.

I had an idea to draw a dye murex shell with dye lichens growing out of it.

And I'm on holiday so I can say 'fuck it' and draw what I want!

So here's stage 1: super-rough sketch for murex Bolinus brandaris, litmus lichen Rocella tinctoria, and cudbear lichen Ochrolechia tartarea
A very rough graphite pencil sketch of a spiral murex seashell with antler shaped lichens growing out of the shell on the knobbly bits where there would usually be spines. There's an encrusting lichen with jam tart shaped fruiting bodies growing in the opening of the shell where you'd usually find the sea snail that lives inside it. It's a bit weird. But that's ok. It's sketched on paper that's been gridded into sixths, and the drawing takes up about two thirds of the paper.
December 25, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Moths in a human suit (they/them)
hanaayoob.co.uk
Day 16 - one very happy snake plant who started with some leftover watercolour ink and then just grew from there.

I really want to make prints of this in 2026

#ArtAdventCalendar
A green windy snake fills the entire page. It has a big yellow eye and is smiling. The snake is filled with floral mandalas and leaf patterns in green and thwre are leaves sprouting off the spake too. Everything is intricately pattered.
December 24, 2025 at 9:12 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
22. Deadly nightshade AKA belladonna

Drew this for a BG3 video game botany thing. I love that game (even if the mix of real vs unreal features of plants/fungi, their toxicity, edibility, effects etc... has me hoping no-one tries them at home, lol)

#SciArt
#ArtAdventCalendar
A colour pencil and watercolour illustration of a deadly nightshade or belladonna plant, Atropa belladonna. It shows a single stem with bright green pointed oval leaves, some purple flowers and buds, and a couple of berries. The flower has a distinctive bell shape, and the berries are round, shiny , smooth, and black.
December 24, 2025 at 11:26 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
21. Forked tube lichen.

I studied this forest lichen waaay back in 2013, but it's so pretty I love drawing it repeatedly 🤷

#SciArt
#ArtAdventCalendar
A colour pencil and watercolour drawing of a large clump of forked tube lichen, Hypogymnia imshaugii, growing on a slender twig. The thallus or body of the lichen is mage of many antler-shaped branching forked lobes that are white on top and black underneath. The apothecia or fruiting bodies are round concave brown discs, scattered around the lobes.
December 24, 2025 at 8:19 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
20. Cray-pot, crab-pot, or basket stinkhorn.

Related to but not the same as red cage stinkhorn, Clathrus ruber. Which is also called basket stinkhorn sometimes, just to confuse things. Vexing, but both are pretty neat looking, to be fair.

#SciArt
#ArtAdventCalendar
A colour pencil and watercolour drawing of cray-pot or crab-pot stinkhorn, Colus pusillus. It's a red cage-like fungus, growing out of brown decaying leaf litter. Well, I say cage. The shape of it looks more polyhedral than your average cage with rectangular sides. But whatever you call it, the fruiting body is a fleshy red lattice-like structure. A very smol polyhedral cage, maybe would fit a mouse, but looks too squishy to hold it for long.
December 24, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Reposted by Moths in a human suit (they/them)
espiers.bsky.social
This is a model for what actual masculinity should be. Men don’t need to spend more time in caves beating their chests with other men; they need to take their daughters to a meaningful thing and talk to them about it. Relatedly I think the biggest cure for toxic masculinity is platonic women friends
paulscheer.com Paul Scheer @paulscheer.com · 3d
In 2023 I became obsessed with videos of dads in cargo shortswaiting in parking lots during Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. So when she came to town, I grabbed a camera and headed down to talk to them. I thought it'd be funny. It turned out to be something else entirely.
December 23, 2025 at 11:25 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
How I'm turning up to the BlueSky Christmas party.
A delightful oval shaped sleepy-looking chafer beetle lolling around on its back, it's six spikey legs in the air. Maybe it's just had enough of humanity's bullshit, in which case, relatable. Or maybe it's hungover. Do beetles get drunk? Maybe it was drunk and ended up in my moth trap by accident. It's ok little beet. I've been sober 10 years but I've been there, no judgement from me.
December 23, 2025 at 10:50 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
19. Poplar spiral gall in a black poplar leaf stalk.

These are twisty little galls caused by an aphid that induces formation of a short corkscrew of distended leaf stem.

I'm more familiar with wasp galls on oak. So I I thought this aphid gall was very curious.

#SciArt
#ArtAdventCalendar
A colour pencil and watercolour drawing of a twisted, lumpy poplar spiral gall in the stem of a poplar leaf. The galls are the result of an aphid, Pemphigus spyrothecae, developing in the leaf stalk of black poplar, Populus nigra. The aphids cause a spiral structure with 2-3 turns to form in a petiole (leaf stalk.) Galls start off green, turning to yellow and red as they mature in August to September.
December 23, 2025 at 8:19 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
18. Durian tussock moth

I love moths with these see-through hyaline patches in their wings, they just look cool. Also nice green wing veins on this one.

When it rests on a leaf the leaf colour shows through. So I guess it looks like a partly brown leaf to predators? 🤷

#SciArt
#ArtAdventCalendar
A colour pencil and watercolour drawimg of a durian tussock moth, latin name Arctornis ecnomoda, synonym Carriola ecnomoda. large brown moth with hyaline patches or 'windows' in it's wings. It's got wide wings, and over the windows the green wing veins are visible. It's got a very fluffy body and big comb-like antennas.
December 23, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Moths in a human suit (they/them)
tarabush.bsky.social
Day 23 #ArtAdventCalendar

Creepy folk horror Christmas owl-creature :) 🦉😱
#folkhorror
Mixed media artwork of an 'owl-type' creature, it has most of the features of a barn owl, except where the beak should be, there are what looks like a human nose and human mouth of perhaps a small girl. It also has ears of a long eared owl. The image is very low saturation, and only the top half of the creature is in the picture. It looks like it is in a forest.
December 23, 2025 at 7:12 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Sooo many pans of paint drying right now that it takes more than half the workday to add layers!

These are for custom orders & restocks in Jan/Feb. Drying time = 3-6 weeks.

My first vegan batch of Naples yellow tribute is in here, too. That was the last 1, all my paints are gonna be vegan now. 😁
Rows and rows of pans of watercolour paint drying on metal trays that are also in a row. One tray is mostly different green paints, one is yellows and reds, one is blues. The main point here is that there's a lot of pans in a lot of different colours.
December 23, 2025 at 3:23 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Really, it's amazing how much mess I can make with a few grams of phthalo green (blue shade) PG7, a couple mL isopropyl alcohol, & a bottle of binder... 😬
December 22, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Moths in a human suit (they/them)
jayispainting.earthskyart.ca
For Day 21 #ArtAdventCalendar

A Little Night Magic
32 x16 81x40cm
Oil on Canvas
2021
Abstract landscape. Tall rotating storm cloud with a funnel at the bottom at night illuminated by a lightning strike.
December 21, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by Moths in a human suit (they/them)
lgvdart.bsky.social
Dec 21: Winter Soltice
#watercolour #watercolor #ink #pen #landscape #ArtAdventCalendar #solstice
A front facing house nestled in trees, with a fence and lots of snow in the foreground.
December 21, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Moths in a human suit (they/them)
holboldoart.bsky.social
Happy Solstice ❄️
A snowy scene in which a humanoid figure in long black robes with the head of a rook stands in a churchyard holding a long spear. By its feet is a red fox. Both are flecked with fallen snow. Around them are many weathered snow-covered graves. In the background is a medieval church of warm coloured stone with large rectangular windows and a battlemented parapet topped with pinnacles. Behind the main body of the church is the tower with clock face and belfry. Behind the church are tall but bare trees dusted with snow. More snow falls in the air.
December 21, 2025 at 6:56 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
17. Contrasting wood cockroach

There's so many species of blattodeans (cockroaches & termites,) with v few being considered pests by humans. Some are incredibly colourful, some are metallic & shiny like jewel-beetles, others have bold patterns. They're very underrated.

#SciArt
#ArtAdventCalendar
A colour pencil and watercolour drawing of a contrasting wood cockroach, Eushelfordia pica. It's got a teardrop shaped body, black with bold, blocky patches of white and orange. It has a small head with antennas that look like beads on wires. Delightful.
December 21, 2025 at 9:32 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Confusing my friends by telling them I had a good experience of special assistance at a major airport, & found a fake-gin-no-alcohol thing that I actually like.

(It's baffling to me too TBH. 🤷 🙃)
December 21, 2025 at 6:22 PM