Moths in a human suit (they/them)
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lycomorpha.bsky.social
Moths in a human suit (they/them)
@lycomorpha.bsky.social
7.1K followers 710 following 4.9K 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
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lycomorpha.bsky.social
…So I tried to capture the texture of moth wing scales & the speckled-ness of their colours using granulating pigments.

& I tried to include a mix of brightly coloured moths and more subtle, camouflage species.

Like the scalloped oak and nut-tree tussock (which is basically a tiny flying kitten)…
An utterly delightful scalloped oak moth perched on my finger. It has a very triangular shape, and sandy tan coloured wings with darker speckles and a darker wide horizontal band across it's forewings. There's long grass in the background. Absolutely A+ moth pal. A very tiny flying tabby kitten. Oh wait. My mistake, it's a nut-tree tussock moth. It's sitting on my hand looking incredibly fluffy, and is grey and brown tabby cat colour. Adorable moth friend, would recommend. A 2 times 4 grid of swatches for the 8 colour moth themed paint set in this thread. Each Swatch shows what the colours look like at different dilutions with water.
November 14, 2025 at 5:12 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
...& It was way trickier than I thought, TBH!

I was trying to catch something of the colours & textures & fuzziness of species that visit my garden. But when you love moths? It's hard to feel anything you make is a good enuf representation!

Also, no species is really one single colour…
The same 8 colour paint set, this time with one big swatch that has a stripe of each colour, and showing the tins. There's a tin closed with a swatched lid on one side, and an open plain tin on the other. A truly magnificent elephant hawkmoth on a grey cardboard egg tray from my moth trap, close up and in profile. It has a pink and olive body and wings, sturdy comb-like antennas, and thin spindly white legs. Also big round brown eyes and a curled up proboscis. Amazing moth pal. Top down view of the elephant hawkmoth to show it's sleek fighter jet shape, and the patterns of it's pink and olive green markings. 11 out of 10 excellent moth buddy.
November 14, 2025 at 2:12 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Can I squeak excitedly at you bee-skees?

I finished my moth-inspired paint set wheee! It's here: www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4...

All proceeds after fees will go to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) again. Find out more/donate direct here: www.map.org.uk

It was this year's personal challenge set...
An eight colour set of watercolour paints in a rainbow of colours themed around moths. There's an A7 card swatch of each colour with an unwrapped half pan of the paint sitting on them. The colours & moths are: blue (clifden nonpareil), mint blue-green (small emerald), oak green (blotched emerald), yellow (brimstone moth), grey-brown (nut-tree tussock), pink (elephant hawkmoth), coppery red (rosy tabby), rellowish tan (scalloped oak.) The pans are sitting on a swatch card showing a stripe of each colour. A gloriously minty blue-green small emerald moth sitting on my hand. It has wide wings with thin horizontal white stripes, and a fluffy body, It is magnificent. A delightfully yellow brimstone moth sitting on my hand on the edge of a specimen jar, about to fly off. Its wings have small brown markings along the edge and a tiny blue eyespot on each forewing. A+ fuzzy moth pal.
November 14, 2025 at 1:54 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Nobody needs to slide over & splain me how it views words within other words & repetition, BTW.

I know. Still annoying.

So is this. Paint colours can lean warm or cool, it's a thing. Yes I know, annoying non-answer machine is bad at context. 1 of many reasons being able to turn it off would help
Another unhelpful AI suggestion to improve a watercolour paint product title. This time it's from a cool shade of blue. Apparently the word cool is too subjective. I wish I could make this useless feature shut up.
November 13, 2025 at 7:47 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Apparently the word "in" should also be avoided, so this should be an exciting challenge
Another screen-cap with an AI slop-machine suggestion to improve the title of a paint product listing. It suggests avoiding the words "paint" and "in".
November 13, 2025 at 5:35 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Am being told to avoid using the words 'paint' & 'grey' int title for grey marl paint.

Made from ground and levigated grey marl rock. Which is grey.

Mulled into watercolour paint. Which is, shockingly... paint.

I, uh... Don't think repetition will matter if I don't tell people it's fkn paint, bud
Screen cap of an AI suggestion to improve the product title of a watercolour paint made from homemade grey marl pigment. There's a big exclamation mark and the suggestion reads: "try to avoid using the following words when crafting titles so they're clear and effective." The words it suggests avoiding are "grey" and "paint". To describe a grey paint. What the whole and entire bleep. Apparently I should also try to avoid repetition, but I'm not sure that will matter if I don't describe paint as paint, to be honest.
November 13, 2025 at 5:03 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
(Cackles in moth...)
Eight half-pans of watercolour paint in a rainbow of colours, each sitting on a little paper swatch showing its colour. They're all inspired by moths.
November 11, 2025 at 12:31 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Warming up with a dice doodle from my last 2 workshops before I send out the notes! I'll put all the games on my blog too & post a link below when they're up.

This was a potion game, using a D6 to design the bottle, stopper, & contents. (Giving it a ridiculous name & effects is optional 😂)
Two potion bottles doodled on an out of date diary page. The first is in black ink, and is a tall bottle with 4 rounded segments and a plain cork. It's filled with a bubbling solution of tentacle, and has a label reading 'potion of tangled tentacles'. A note says it 'will tangle your enemies hair... Forever!' The second one is a wide squat bottle with 3 triangular segments and a very spiky wide metal stopper. It's filled with a swirling green potion that has weird olive coloured strawberries in it. A note says it is 'Elixir of false strawberry - makes strawberries taste like your least favourite flavour of pickle for a year.' This is the kind of shit my brain comes up with on a Tuesday morning apparently.
November 11, 2025 at 9:54 AM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Heads up - my shop will be closed for restock on Wednesday, so if you want paints shipped tomorrow, drop by lycomorpha.etsy.com before 1pm (GMT.) 🖌️ 💖
An 8 colour half pan handmade watercolour set. There's a swatch card showing a strip of each colour, and an open pan of each resting on the swatch. There's also a swatched square tin to one side. The colours are granulating and semi opaque mixed pigment colours; red, peach, orange, grey, green, blue, violet and bluish black.
November 10, 2025 at 8:17 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
A pleasingly round and stripey snail.

The variations in background colour and stripes on its shell have been studied by geneticists and ecologists.

We salute your contributions to science, little snail pal!

#SciArt
Colour pencil drawing of a brown-lipped snail, Cepea nemoralis, and four empty shells demonstrating variations in the thickness of brown stripes on its yellow shell. The snail's shell is pleasingly rounded, and its body is a glistening slimey grey wedge-shape with little bumps all over. It has 2 long thin eyestalks, and 2 shorter ones. Adorable. A watermark in the corner reads @lycomorpha - lycomorpha.etsy.com.
November 9, 2025 at 3:30 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
More making paint (well, paint-ish) ont beach. Using flint with holes in that trapped a little seawater as pans, & another flint to grind up chalky pebbles. 🪨 🖌️ 💖

Heading back to the kitties now. Thanks to everyone who's been shopping in my store the past few - I'll be shipping this aft!
Making rudimentary paints on the beach using flints to grind chalky pebbles with seawater. There are two pairs of flints with two different colours of mushed up chalky rock, grey-pibk and creamy white. Each has one bigger flint with pock-marks that held onto some seawater, and one smaller flint to grind up the chalk. The whole lot is sitting on a boulder.
November 7, 2025 at 12:28 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Beach colour doodles. Made by wetting soft ochrey pebbles & rubbing them with a flint to release colour.

Used sticks, rolled up paper, other pebbles, fingers etc as brushes.

Will scan some of these tomorrow when I'm back home with Kitty & the cats. Just wanna share how to doodle with pebbles. 🪨 🖌️
Rough lines, dots, squiggles, and seaweed shaped doodled on a sketchbook page. They were made using various ochre pebbles, rubbed with flint and water, and using debris as brushes. So when I say rough, I mean it.
November 6, 2025 at 11:22 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
(For real tho… There's times I think you're as likely to be hit by a falling dickhead as falling rocks. The 'unstable cliffs' signs don't kid, but there's always a few butt-walnuts that think physics won't apply to them.)

Anyways. A lot of ray (?) egg cases around all over the place lately, too.
Three ray egg cases, that are a bit like little puffy leathery black pillows with long tendrils at the corners, lying on chalk and flint beach pebbles. Also known as mermaids purses, though you'd think mermaids would want something with a functional zipper top stop things falling out when they're swimming around.
November 6, 2025 at 8:20 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Some ochre and brick pebbles from today.

(Turns out I'm not quiet on here this week... Gimme mobile reception, will post pebbles/yell about cliff-related safety, lol. 🤷)
Testing soft ochre pebbles and a brick fragment for colour on a harder piece of rock. Red pebbles, pieces of yellow soft rock and a small fragment of washed up brick have been swiped across the hard grey rock to leave various yellow, brown, burgundy, and red lines.
November 6, 2025 at 8:01 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Quiet minute listening to the sea, in case anyone else needs it.
November 6, 2025 at 7:21 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Some not-mud from today, to keep the rock people happy.
Testing softer pebbles and brick fragments for colour on a harder piece of flint. Small chalk pebbles, pieces of marl and small fragments of washed up brick have been swiped across the flint to leave various white, grey, green, and red lines.
November 5, 2025 at 5:02 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
One of my favourite big sketchbook pages. I might be a bit quieter than usual this week. So int meantime, please enjoy this crab/lichen/catchfly! #SciArt
A big A3 sketchbook page covered in watercolour and pencil sketches of a crab, lichens, and catchfly plants. The Atlantic lyre crab has a teardrop shaped dark red body, long thin walking legs and big pinchy front crabby legs. The pelt lichen has lots of big leathery irregular green lobes with round black fruiting bodies. The arctic catchfly plants have small strap like grey-green leaves, long thin stems, and flowers like bulbous paper lanterns. There's little test swatches of colour all over the place, and scrawled illegible notes that I can't read without my drawing specs on (sorry.)
November 4, 2025 at 6:13 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Another one for my upcoming moth set - rosy tabby. 🦋

& While I'm here:

Thanks to everyone shopping in my store this weekend, I'm so happy to spot some bee-skees dropping by! 💖 I'm shipping Monday, then Tuesday & Saturday day this week (I'm on smol field trip int middle.)
A red earthy shade of watercolour paint with pink granulation. There's a postcard swatch showing how the paint looks at different dilutions with water, and three open pans sitting on the swatch. There's shells, pebbles, fir cones and paintbrushes around the edge of the picture. A rosy tabby moth, the species that inspired the paint colour in the previous pic. It's sitting with it's coppery wings spread, and some of it's thin legs are sticking out from under it's fluffy body and wings. It has round black eyes and long wirey antennas that sit down it's back. It's a very good moth pal.
November 2, 2025 at 8:31 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Heads up #RdgUK friends!

There's 2 days of free art workshops & events at the Rising Sun Arts Centre today+Sunday.

I repeat, free weekend art shenanigans, this is not a drill.

www.risingsunartscentre.org/events/free-...

Join me at 12pm for dice doodles today & making watercolour paint on Sunday
A delightful monster called Dr. Blinksworth the hopping beast, doodled using dice. They have one leg with lots of toes, a vaguely triangular body, & a long thin neck. Their head is shaped like a curvy sausage, they have a pigtail with a hair bow and they have 4 eyes with nice eyelashes. They also have 4 small wings. And 4 pointy tails. Brick red watercolour paint being made on a glass plate using a glass mulling tool (which looks a bit like an upside down glass mushroom with a flat top.)
November 1, 2025 at 9:45 AM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
The zine is also about an ancient stone in a forest graveyard, & how it was used to tell stories about continuity, found family, & community. I love bonfire season, it reminds me of celebrating different festivals within 1 community.

There's some more new colours in today's update too, & restocks 😁
Promotional image for a handmade watercolour paint in greyish granulating violet with a blue undertone. There's a postcard swatch showing how the paint looks at different dilutions with water, and an open pan and two brushes resting on the swatch. Promotional image for a handmade watercolour paint in granulating orange with a strong pink undertone. There's a postcard swatch showing how the paint looks at different dilutions with water, and an open pans and brushes resting on the swatch.
October 31, 2025 at 9:09 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
After covid-19 handed my own arse back to me this month, I really wasn't sure if I'd get these sets done in time! But I made it. 😌

Haven't quite finished editing the zine I made to go with these sets tho, about community aunties, the woods, & finding your people. But here's a sneaky unedited peek:
Three square drawings from the artwork for an upcoming zine, in their untidy and unedited form. They feature; a twig covered in wolf's milk slime mold and moss surrounded by fallen leaves, a clump of webcap fungi on the forest floor, a heart made from a lichen covered twig superimposed on the outline of a standing stone in nonbinary pride colours with a sky in trans pride colours behind it.
October 31, 2025 at 8:59 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Happy Halloween, time for a Samhain surprise! (Unless you're on my mailing list... In which case you already know.)

2 new paint sets that I've been surreptitiously working away on just landed in my store at lycomorpha.etsy.com

Bonfire season (Samhain-midwinter) 🔥 & Into the trees (woodland theme)🌲
An 8 colour half pan handmade watercolour set. There's a swatch card showing a strip of each colour, and an open pan of each resting on the swatch. There's also a swatched square tin to one side. The colours are granulating and semi opaque mixed pigment colours; red, peach, orange, grey, green, blue, violet and bluish black. An 8 colour half pan handmade watercolour set. There's a swatch card showing a strip of each colour, and an open pan of each resting on the swatch. There's also a swatched square tin to one side. The colours are woodland-themed, granulating and semi opaque mixed pigment colours; blue-green, yellow green, grey-green, pale brown, dark reddish brown, brick red, orange, and pinkish grey.
October 31, 2025 at 8:51 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Lol it still works tho!

My drawing kit gets a lot of abuse because I can't feel all of my fingers. So I'm legit impressed by how long these last.

(This is also why my 'days since last accident' counter rarely makes double figures. 🙃 🤷.)
October 30, 2025 at 2:26 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
In case any pencil people here ever wonder...

Yes, these screw-collar pencil extenders from Derwent are spendy.

But it's taken me 10-12 years to break this one, so y'know. Worth it if you're feeling fancy.

(Nowt wrong with cheap sliding collar extenders either, mind. I've got a shit-tonne of em.)
My hand holding up a screw collar pencil extender with a small triangular piece of the metal collar broken off. The collar and most of the barrel are black, but the broken areas reveals the brassy colour of the screw thread. In the background are blurred out autumnal drawings.
October 30, 2025 at 2:02 PM
lycomorpha.bsky.social
Doodling dead trees & rock posy lichens in my travel sketchbook this morning.

I expect the dead trees aren't really that dead, they're probably full of life - beetles, fungi, & things nesting etc. It's only the tree part that's expired.
A travel sketchbook with various doodles. It has lined paper on left hand pages, plain on the right. On the left there's a line drawing of a dead tree with notes that read: dead trees have patches of bark clinging on, especially where there were limbs. On the right is a doodle of rock posy lichen in pencil and watercolour. The lichen forms two round-ish patches on a rock surface, with white-rimmed peach coloured apothecia. It's labelled as Rhizoplaca chrysoleuca. My water brush and a grey colour pencil are lying on the page. At the top there's a pencil sharpener and the piece of kitchen roll I'm using to catch pencil shavings.
October 30, 2025 at 9:47 AM