Jen C Mars
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jencmars.bsky.social
Jen C Mars
@jencmars.bsky.social
5K followers 480 following 2.4K posts
Illustrator: Fantasy & Nature - Wildlife Photography Enthusiast - TTRPG Player - I like birds and bugs

Portfolio: https://www.jencmars.com
Shop: https://jencmars.bigcartel.com/
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jencmars.bsky.social
My precioussssss
Close-up photo of a greater angle wing katydid (a green, grasshopper-like insect) with its front legs holding the tip of the leaf it's standing on while its antennae slant dramatically over its eyes, giving it a possessive and defensive appearance
November 14, 2025 at 7:33 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
An experimental painting from this past summer

Watercolor and pencils on 11x14" paper
Surreal watercolor painting of a portrait of a woman with brown hair and what seems to be a prairie rose bush with bright green leaves and pink flowers with yellow centers. There are bumblebees and other small bees, a red weevil, a flower fly, a ladybug, and a secret crab spider in and around the foliage. A large green katydid is resting on her collar bone. The background is a soft green with vignette of blue-green
November 11, 2025 at 3:54 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
My 7 y/o wants everyone to know it’s #SaveTheVaquita week!

Check out the hashtag to find art streams raising money/awareness, and visit porpoise.org to learn more about our smallest and most endangered marine mammal and to donate directly
A kid’s drawing in marker of a stylized porpoise with black marking’s on its face, alongside a baby with a sad expression. The large porpoise has a speech bubble that says “Save the vaquita porpoise” and the small porpoise has a speech bubble that says “Yah! Only 10 left!” On the left side is the word donate and along the bottom it says porpoise.org
November 7, 2025 at 4:31 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
Apologies to the guy with the stroller I almost bumbled into while trying to rescue this wasp I found in a coffee shop window
Photo of my hand, looking like I don’t know what moisturizer is, with a small long wasp standing on the middle knuckle of my thumb against a background of out of focus plants Close up zoom of the same wasp. She is black with a long abdomen and visible pointy end, long slender wings, long antennae and reddish legs that become black and white striped on the hind pair
November 4, 2025 at 3:41 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
Costume parts with a clear shot of the needle
Photo of Hornet costume with gloves and needle weapon in a patterned rug
October 29, 2025 at 2:40 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
Shaw!
Photo of a small person dressed as Hornet from Hollow Knight Silk Song. The head is a big, white shape with black oval eyes and two big horns, wearing a red cloak that covers most of the body, and a “needle” is visible from beneath the cloak
October 29, 2025 at 2:37 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
Carolina mantis, found on the tire of a parked car and relocated to our backyard where I hope she finds snacks and maybe leaves us the gift of more mantises
Photo of a female green Carolina mantis standing in profile on on some clusters of drying magenta flower heads, the pseudo-pupils lined up so that the mantis seems to be giving the viewer some serious side eye. The background is very dark. The legs of the mantis blend in with the narrow stems and leaves of the plant.
October 8, 2025 at 3:28 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
Happy book birthday to the perfect spooky season MONSTER book!

Here's one of my favorite seasonally appropriate contributions
Black and white line art illustration of what appears to be a massive evil jack o' lantern with spider legs and vine tentacles stuffing a person inside of it's opened top and generally having a good time
October 7, 2025 at 1:23 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
I found this mantis on a car tire in a parking lot and brought it home because aww, but upon closer inspection I think this is a female Carolina mantis which I haven’t seen in my area before
Photo of a green mantis standing on the plastic baggy I was trying to get her into against a background of dirty parking lot
October 6, 2025 at 4:57 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
Step one complete

Excellent Hornet mask pattern by LilitCosplay
Photo of a foam mask of the character Hornet from Hollow Knight and SilkSong. The mask is gray and unpainted and surrounded by crafting supplies on a wood table
October 1, 2025 at 1:19 AM
jencmars.bsky.social
Found this friend wandering around the alleyway
Photo of a swallowtail caterpillar crawling on some asphalt Closer photo of the same caterpillar crawling off my hand and onto the thrift store comics I was also carrying
September 25, 2025 at 7:58 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
I’ve been noodling around with this sculpture for many months
Photo of a sculpture of a chonky moth with large antennae perched on a curved branch covered in lichen with a curled up lead in the foreground. It’s unpainted, showing the gray clay and white elements which are actually paper.
September 23, 2025 at 10:46 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
City ripped up a whole tree for utility work and dropped it in the street so I did some investigating and gathered a bunch of gall-covered leaves. I’m assuming they overwinter, and I think the big ones are psyllid galls, but I welcome info from bug experts
Photo of a pile of what I think are hackberry leaves covered in big gall bumps
September 22, 2025 at 6:10 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
Spooky season approaches

Acrylic ink & colored pencil on 9x12" hotpress
Illustration of a wren perched on a yellow and orange pumpkin growing on a vine, surrounded by coiling vines and green tendrils. Yellow blossoms are visible in the foreground, and an orange and yellow moth rests on the pumpkin. The background is a soft, hazy blue.
September 15, 2025 at 8:43 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
I’m finally playing Hollow Knight and I’m obsessed of course and my almost 7 y/o is making Hornet fan art

#HollowKnight #SilkSong
Photo of a child’s drawing of a bug-like creature in a red cloak wielding a giant threaded needle with a speech bubble that says “My game is coming”. A smaller bug sits on the end of the needle
September 4, 2025 at 1:10 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
Today I released the last monarch of 2025 raised from our yard.

Over the summer I released 50+ butterflies from eggs & caterpillars found on-and fed with-milkweed in our city backyard. I cleaned up a lot of poop is what I’m saying. I’m also saying a small natural area can do a lot.

#InverteFest
Photo of a monarch butterfly standing on a purple echinacea flower in a garde
August 31, 2025 at 10:54 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
A leafier angle
Photo of a moth that looks like a small brown leaf standing on a green surface. The moth has long slender antennae and fluffy front legs and skinny hind legs, with middle legs not visible at all.
August 31, 2025 at 7:46 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
Unlocking

Watercolor, pencil, and acrylic ink on 7x10” hotpress

#InverteFest
Illustration of a pale green, yellow and black swallowtail caterpillar clinging to an old ornate brass key against a blue wash background
August 31, 2025 at 7:43 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
What if leaf + muppet + bug

From overhead it looks like a leaf, but every other angle 100% muppet. This is a boxwood leaftier moth, found on my shower curtain, which is not made of boxwood. It's found in the eastern US, but the larvae feed on dead leaves from the genus Buxus...

#InverteFest
Photo of a moth looking straight at the viewer, but it looks like a weird muppet with pompadour hair and purple-red googly eyes and red poodle puffs on its white legs but also kind of like a leaf. It's standing on a green surface with a dark blue out of focus background. Photo of the same moth but from the side, it still looks just as ridiculous but now it's giving the viewer side eye and you can see it's body is weirdly triangular and and it's pompadour actually curves up and forward and is very stylish
August 29, 2025 at 2:28 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
It's been a grueling couple of weeks so I'm doing this
Photo of some sculptural stuff in progress, including a mostly sculpted huge moth body, a twisting sculpture of a dead branch, some various mushroom and lichen sculpts, wire, tools, wing and antennae drawings and a glass bell jar all spread out on a wood desk.
August 22, 2025 at 6:38 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
Waiting

Pencil, watercolor, and a splash of acrylic ink on 11x14" hotpress
Illustration of a bullfrog looking directly at the viewer, its body mostly submerged in water, with only the very top of its head above the waterline. The submerged body is monochromatic blue, while above is full color with orange and gold eyes.
August 20, 2025 at 5:19 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
Get that pollen
Photo of a metallic black sweat bee standing on the anthers of an yellow flower, completely covered in grains of bright yellow pollen.
August 19, 2025 at 2:19 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
I’m at Glenwood Ave Arts Festival all weekend and if you’re a person in Chicago looking for art this is a great place to find it.
Photo of an artist tent at a fest with green tables and a lot of bug and bird related art on display including a painted plaster cicada and a cicada mask/hat
August 16, 2025 at 3:58 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
Just a leaf
Photo of a green cone headed planthopper, a small true bug that looks remarkably like a leaf except for its pink eyes and feet. It's standing on the stem of a milkweed plant and looking remarkably like a newly sprouted leaflet and trying very hard not to be noticed.
August 12, 2025 at 2:38 PM
jencmars.bsky.social
I tried shooting bumble bees in flight using my handheld manual lens (for fun)

This is a two-spotted bumble bee, probably our most frequent bumble visitor
Photo of a bumble bee from above as it rises from a pink briar rose. The bee is very fuzzy and has a yellow thorax with a block spot in the middle and yellow on the first two segments of the abdomen. The wings are extended upwards and blurred in flight.
August 11, 2025 at 6:08 PM