It’s pretty obvious that there is a fair amount of work happening around the site right now.  Many of our pages have the ”Under Construction” splat on them.  Why?

The Underground is a very complex universe that we’ve spent the last 18 years developing.  The site was meant to introduce our followers to the farthest corners of that universe.  Much time has been spent the last couple of months in organizing/compiling years of insect information.  With all of our facts, write-ups, and artwork in one place, we are ready to bring it all online.  

There’s alot information, and it’s going to take some time to get it all into place.  The groundwork has been laid though, and bit by bit we’ll be implementing these updates throughout the site.  Today we changed our homepage, what’s next? 

You’ll just have to stay tuned and see!

Most recently on our Facebook page we’ve been updating our Insect Benchmark album with a growing image of our various creatures.  The different insects have all be drawn to scale in order to maintain a visual reference of how they compare to one another.  It’s a concept that I’ve been really excited about, and I’ve genuinely enjoyed the process.  It is quite the process though.  In order to keep this benchmark concept consistent, each insect and character in the story should be drawn to the same scale, same angle, and so on.

A light did shine through the tunnel of artwork to be completed however!

While organizing the archives (with over 15 years of work put into the story, we’ve got quite the accumulation of material), I found the character illustrations from The Small Press Idol 2009.  While we took part in the second round of the contest we were asked to provide full characater rotations (images of the character from different angles; straight, profile, and a 45degree or rear if necessary).  For The Underground’s submission  I chose Cyrus, Styx, Queen Azulon, Prince Loxyn, Admiral Cree, and Baron Tarq.  This was my favourite part of the contest, as it gave me the perfect opportunity to really solidify my handle on drawing the anatomy of insect characters; and in an unprecedented display of foresight, I drew them to the same scale and angles that I’ve been using for the current characters! This means the images are ready to transfer into our growing benchmark image, without the need for resizing or redrawing.

So stay tuned to our Facebook page as these characters stand up next to the other insects from our Creature Creations.  And be on the look out for more discoveries from our hefty tome of reference materials, and concept art.

One of the biggest challenges in creating The Underground is the inclusion of real world facts.  Sure, we create a pretty fantastic universe, with vivid creatures and constructs wrought from imagination; but it is the core of real fact that keeps the story anchored to something tangible.  It’s what gives our artistic licenses credibility.  It’s what sets us apart.  One aspect of the real world that we really cannot waiver on is scale, specifically the relative size of each of our creatures and their various surroundings.  We refer to this concept as our Insect Benchmarks.

The Insect Benchmarks (or Size Benchmarks) help to keep all the inhabitants of The Underground in proper proportion with each other.  The same can be said with regards to everyday objects thatt our characters may encounter.  How does one of the Zealots Elite compare to a pencil?  Could Styx leap from the ground to a bottle cap, or would this require more of a climb?  To put these objects into quick perspective we came up with our benchmark template.  A clear piece of plastic, on which I’ve drawn the silhouettes of a couple insects.  By holding this template in front of an object and snapping a picture, we can see how the average bug would compare to it.  The inserted picture shows the template help in front of a white card so the silhouettes can be seen clearly.

Embarking on this portion of our research has clearly given us a different perspective on the inhabitants of The Underground, and what their world feels like.  It is a world within our own, yet at times it may appear to be somewhere far away.  Our continued dedication to the benchmark concept is what builds the credibility of the universe, and the consistency of its inhabitants.  Stay tuned for more on this topic as we’ll  be uploading benchmark photos to our Facebook page.  It’s what we do to look at the world through a bug’s eye.