Friends With Benefits

Friends with Benefits

the painter Rodney Matthews has done a lot of extremely badass bug art over his career, but i really want to highlight these album covers he did as especially incredible depictions of little bug dudes rocking out

and in particular i'd really like to focus your attention of the greatest keyboardist of all time

Reblog to bonk your mutuals on the head every time they start thinking negatively about themselves

I had way more fun than I was expecting with this one. Genuinely surprised that it wasn't a Common Starling (I was honestly a bit nervous taking so much inspiration from starlings given my suspicions, but it really gelled with the way I wanted to go with it); genuinely delightful birds.

That said, I can absolutely see it being a jay - I imagine they were a bit more common back in the day, but I've even seen them in parks in somewhat suburban areas, and it's always a real treat to spot one :)

Bestiaryposting Results: Wuggthea

Another bird! Kind of speaks for itself, let's get to it.

Anyone unsure about what these posts are should check https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

If you want to see the entry these artists are working from, it's here:

And if you want to participate in the next week's bestiaryposting, that entry is here:

Now, art:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has drawn a very naturalistic bird -- I would completely believe this was a real bird if you told me it was. The linked post explains that it has elements of both mockingbird & frogmouth, and why. I enjoy the neck & beak situation here: this is a certified Loud Bird.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) made the delightful decision to include our bestiary author in this image, noting the entry's apparent antipathy to noisy birds and gossipy men. That's the author in the window, suffering from the noise outside. (I also like the Stylized Tree.) For more about the inspiration and art references, see the linked post.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has also included someone being annoyed by the noisy birds (and alt text, thank you). I really enjoy the contrast between the Disney-princess aesthetic and the birds actually being quite annoying -- also the photobombing Wuggthea in the foreground. For more on inspiration and thought process, please see the linked post.

@pomrania (link to post here) took inspiration from the long-standing linguistics in-joke of the "wug". (Random personal fact: I have a shirt that I got free from the Linguistics department during my masters' degree that reads "Wugs Need Hugs".) I love everything about this -- the usage of IPA here is particularly clever I think. For anyone who doesn't know about the wug, it is explained in the linked post.

@wendievergreen (link to post here) has given us a tree full of colorful, dramatic, presumably quite noisy birds. I really like the coloring choice here, especially knowing the reason behind it as mentioned in the linked post. Also yeah these guys look like they could make a racket. (And thank you for including alt text.)

Aberdeen Bestiary time!

... hm. Well fuck you too, unknown biblioclast.

Ashmole Bestiary time!

That is a heck of a fancy border, and a reasonably nice-looking songbird. This bird is the jay, which is indeed a noisy one, so good job there.

Fellow USAmericans may be thinking of this guy:

But of course these birds are native to North America and would be unknown to our bestiary author. They are actually writing about this guy:

I have never met a Eurasian jay, but given that its genus name is Garrulus, and the Wikipedia page I got this image from describes jays as "usually colorful and noisy," I have no doubt that it is as the bestiary author says.

"ratification" is maybe the most bitterly misleading word in the English language

Another one I’ve never heard of but need to check out now… 🐸

Have you played EXQUISITE BIOME ?

By Caro Asercion

Exquisite Biome is a game about the symbiosis of the natural world. Create an ecosystem, populate it with strange and wondrous animals, and see how they interact with one another.