September MOTM: queen bee - concept sketch + design commentary // sfw

thanks again to marissa and sonya mann for the suggestions that lead to september's monster of the month! <3

the prompt 'queen bee' naturally made me picture a very royal monster, standing tall and ruling proudly over thousands of people. she needed to look majestic and formidable, the kind whose presence fills a room the second she walks in. i wanted her design to look luxurious but not necessarily decadent, and like you'd do best to respect her sting rather than take her honey for granted.

some design decisions followed naturally from the prompt. most obviously she's based on a bee, but some bee features got lost in translation, others i enhanced or tweaked. 

her proportions mimic those of a bee and similar insects in that she has an unnaturally small waist that widens into broad hips, like a 'wasp waist.' her big thighs sit on narrow shins and feet, in reflection of how many insects have relatively spindly legs relative to their bodies. she's got no breasts, being a goddamn insect, just a gently curved triangle-shaped torso. her shoulders are relatively sharp and absolutely proud, head held high, posture straight and tall--and she's huge, reflecting how much bigger a queen bee is compared to her workers and drones. i decided against giving her a second pair of arms, for the simple reason that my eldritch unicorn and nightmarish raven monster of past MOTMs were many-limbed. i don't want all of my huge lesbian monster ladies to sport four arms, so despite how much sense it would have made, i gave our queen bee a measly two. 

some of her features mimic clothes historically worn by wealthy royalty and nobility. i translated the honey-coloured fuzz that cover honey bees into a fluffy collar around her neck, sort of hinting at a rich fur-brimmed coat of the luxurious kind that not just anyone could afford. similarly, the 'gloria' of detached insect wings mirrors the big starched lace collars of the european renaissance. the crest on her head mimics a crown, topped with a gold band, and her antennae being 'brushed back' sort of makes them resemble pheasant feathers capping a fancy headdress. 

her body is covered by plates and scales, large and curved along her tail and thighs but smaller and softer at other places to keep her agile and animated. her joints are encircled by bands of gold scales, as is her neck and waist, mimicking jewellery, which is in reference to wealthy royals having a tendency to deck themselves out in bling. the colours of her body (in direct reflection of those of a bee) pose stark contrasts to one another, with the bold golden-yellow of the overside of her tail and thighs against the dark brown and black of her limbs and torso. 

her eyes are compound eyes but they have a different shape than proper bee eyes, and on the final painting i also gave her huge gold eyelashes, because it seemed to fit the luxurious vibe. she's got spiderlike pedipalps rather than bee-like mandibles simply because i like the look of it better, but her lower jaw can split down the middle too. i ended up elaborating her facial markings and head design on the final painting, but stuck to my original idea that her face is relatively inexpressive, making her seem aloof and dignified.

she doesn't really have the spiracle or abdomen of a bee, rather she's got something more akin to a tail but covered in the same curved plates and ending with a tapered tip that hides a stinger. this is just personal preference; i love long, thick tails, and it felt like a relatively subtle way to spice her design up a bit. speaking of, the way i drew her fingers mimic insect legs a bit, but the same can't be said about the way i drew her actual legs. this is the first time i've ever drawn a monster with built-in heels, but it just felt oddly appropriate for a queen. she's got big, semi-transparent bee wings that give a cloak-like impression--now that i think about it, it would be cool if they could turn more fluid and cloth-like when she's resting, and then stiffen back up for flight or theatrical display...?

nothing of the outfit made it into the final painting but there it is anyway. if some of her features are inspired by the costume of especially european renaissance royalty, i went down a completely different route for her actual outfit. in ancient egypt, one of the pharaonic titles was 'of the sedge and bee,' aka the dual king of upper and lower egypt, with the bee representing the latter. for this reason i gave her a crown inspired by the (originally red) deshret of lower egypt, with her antennae replacing its swirl, and her dress is likewise based on paintings of egyptian queens. tbh at one point i considered basing her headdress and face (including make-up) on the famous nefertiti bust. but i didn't want to make her face that human-looking and i felt like the crown of lower egypt would be a more direct reference to the bee as an ideogram of rulership. 

if you have any questions about this design, comment below, i'd love to elaborate!

// art + character © me.