cmkosemen

Fox infested with an alien brain parasite

Added 2025-09-11 21:08:35 +0000 UTC

A short and mysterious commission for generous donor J.

"Just a regular red fox with an extra tendril extending from between his ears shaped like a red rose... And instead of pupils a starry field for eyes."

I think the stalk-tendril was inspired by Cordyceps, the famous "zombie ant fungus"; and the detail for the eyes was inspired by degenerative ocular conditions such as asteroid hyalosis or synchysis scintillans.

I started by creating a collage from various photos, and drawing over it.

I used this collage as the basis of my drawing.

I drew the head and the rest of the body separately - and composited them later. I drew the head larger than the dimension it appears in the final image. This allows me to "compress" more detail into the final illustration.

The form of the tendril, by the way, was inspired by the lantern-like spermatozoa deposited by male Amblypygid "whip spiders". This is a pretty minor detail, but I wanted to share it to show how knowledge of "obscure" zoological details can inspire realistic spec-evo art.