Eka's Portal

Myself I tend not to anthropomorphisize (That a word?) my preds overall; I prefer beasts to be beasts. When I do, though, I go with those already existing in myth (werewolves, minotaurs) or something close to it. Turning an insect humanoid, to me, is a little harder precisely because, as has been said, the chitin-shell makes it a little harder to do. Maybe I just like to see the shapeliness and/or muscles?

I *do* go with non-anthro arachnid and insect preds from time to time. For me the "They're creepy" factor is exactly the appeal, and I strongly favor the use of venom to subdue or even arouse the prey. Long before discovering the Portal I already had the delightfully cruel "manspiders" who paralyzed their prey, wrapped it up, and "played" with her and fed off her for a long time.

To me a horde of small critters swarming over a person and reducing them to bones or even less (again, before the Mummy came out, it was all in my head) is terrible and... well, I like the horror aspect of it. Having a large insect devour its prey is equally terrible. In the last SOS story a giant Mantis cut a girl to pieces with its serrated limbs before eating her; in a stand-alone SOS tale three women fell to a swarm of mosquitoes of different sizes; in a recent series my sorceress Chelsea got paralyzed and sucked up by a giant centipede. After all, if you disregard real facts about centipede feeding habits, isn't that critter like a giant snake, just with segments?

I like insects as preds, but rarely as humanoids. That said... I should give 'em a try.

I've always loved bugs, so I fully support the idea of using them as predators more often.

To those who complain that real insects don't tend to swallow their prey whole unless it's MUCH smaller than them, let me point out that real insects also aren't fortuitous enough to stand as tall as a man. If you're going to take the liberty of creating a large, fictional bug, why not go ahead and make it prefer to swallow its prey whole? It's nothing new to fiction.

4ofSwords wrote:

Jacquelope wrote:How do giant centipedes eat? I saw a video of one attacking a mouse.

Similarly to chewing insects, per the mighty WIkipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouthparts

Okay cool, I knew that centipedes were fairly hard vorish creatures which would basically fit them in with the hard vore crowd. You can even anthro-ize ants. (See: "Z")

Im my personal opinion any thing with an abdomem is perfect for UB, spiders, wasps, ants all great (im tryin to draw a humanoid spider girl, but i keeps coming out like a copy of black rains.)

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I like you sketches Spiderbone, I really like the last one.

Me, too! More imagespamming is encouraged! And Syndrome, it certainly wouldn't bother me if you had cross-posted your pictures here.

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Those are great! I love the way you have multiple eyes crowded into a single socket.

Something I drew some time ago, but just added tonight. A non-antro centipede attack, the linked image and next four.

http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=177521

(warning for the squeamish: the fifth image, after the centipede section, is an M/f bestiality pic... so if that squicks you, don't click after the centipede drags away its meal.)

The media. Insects are portreyed as creepy, prickly, or scary little things. When it comes to iconic, loveable characters of childrens' movies and cartoons, artists favor a cuddly bear or a cute kitten--they choose something that people have been brought up on thinking that it was cute. If people grew up on Balto the Honeybee, or Lady and the Spider, then insects would probably be more popular in vore drawings.

That said, it'd be the exoskelletons for me. I want the soft fur of a tiger, not the armor-plated exterior of a wasp. =/

A selection of my stuff. I AM partial to spiders...

a couple of MUCH older ones (God, was I THAT bad?! Looking at these makes me realize I HAVE improved! A little. ) :

http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=94619
http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=94622

A "Sketch" I have yet to turn into a full piece:

http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=172288

...and a selection from a recent Lianna pic...

http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=173364

...aw, heck. Here's the full pic.

I would love to see more insect stuff. Insect/human. In a horror vore setting where a huge insect slowly works human prey into its mouth, with all those mouth appendages (madibles, labrum, maxillars and whatever all of those are named) moving energetically around the humans body, slowly dragging him in.

4ofSwords wrote:So what do you think it is that makes them less interesting? The extra legs? The chitinous shell? It can't be that only mammals are cuddly - there are plenty of alien characters on the board far more frightening in the face than a grasshopper, and expressive lips and eyes are that much more foreign on a beetle than they would be on a snake, are they?

Maybe insects somehow fall inbetween.. They are not soft and cute enough for the nice-vore crew, and not alien/special enough for the horror/monster crew.. (?)

KavenBach wrote:Something I drew some time ago, but just added tonight. A non-antro centipede attack, the linked image and next four.

http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=177521

I love it how she is slowly dragged into that cave and into the insect..

Spiders are also nice. Here are some from Christuffer's gallery

http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=160974
http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=167611
http://aryion.com/g3/showitem.php?id=163302

I had an image for some spider vore planned out when my Art Program started to crap out on me. I managed to crop up the areas that looked semi-decent for your viewing pleasures. Not much, but it's something.

prisoner wrote:That said, it'd be the exoskeletons for me. I want the soft fur of a tiger, not the armor-plated exterior of a wasp. =/

Yup, I can see that. Usually when I try to draw insecty-type creatures, that gets turned into something more like rubber or latex - from armor into fetish gear.

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Spiderbone wrote:Though wasps are pretty badass.

Aren't they, though? And not in the least for their egg nourishment techniques: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitic_wasp

Spiderbone wrote:It eats people by ... uh ... biting them and having them melt into a goo which it sucks up with either a straw or a hollow sucker-like tongue.

Hahaha - a straw! I hope he has a good pocket on him somewhere to keep it handy!

Edit: possibly the most bad-assest of the bad-asses: the tarantula hawk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_hawk
(That's my daily quota of colons right there.)

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4ofSwords wrote:that gets turned into something more like rubber or latex - from armor into fetish gear.

Oh, I see what you did there. ; )

Spiderbone wrote:B-but... Bumblebees are cute and fuzzy? As are moths?

I've seen two highly attractive bee anthros...probably have both those pictures saved away somewhere, along with a moth/butterfly or something. Other than that, I haven't seen much of insects that I've enjoyed.