"Making Art Should Make You Feel Naked"

Hi, I'm Bug! He/They/She, 22, Black 🇺🇸🇧🇿. COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN!  bugmangaka.carrd.co

[bugmangaka]

Hi, I'm Bug, or The BugMangaka!

I'm an illustrator, comic artist, storyteller, and animator based in the Chicagoland area.

I'm one semester away from completing The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s BFA program. I make artwork both professionally and as a hobby, you'll usually find me drawing LOTS of whatever special interest I've fallen into, as well as producing freelance work and autobiographical comics!

"The BugMangaka" is the name of my business, where I sell all my comics, stickers, prints, and more both online and in-person at events all across the Midwest. To find out where I'll be showing next, check out my carrd:

https://bugmangaka.carrd.co/

^ Here you can also see my portfolio, and all of my other socials!

I also have an Etsy and Kofi shop where I sell all of my work, and my Kofi has over 300 pieces of exclusive art on it! For information on my commissions, look here.

Current Special Interest: DR. STONE (especially StanXeno)

[bugmangaka]

WHAT THE F*CK IS A KILOMETER!!!1!1!

One of my favorite pieces from offset production this year!! It evolved a LOT from the initial concepts and got so much better!!

These are the original sketches:

[bugmangaka]

Portrait of the moon based on the Artemis II photos 🥺 This piece is a 4-color riso print. I can't lie, watching the Artemis II launch and fly around the moon deeply changed the way I view space and the world itself, it was so beautiful I can't describe it

[bugmangaka]

Little Jirachi, Mew, Celebi, and Wurmple prints for riso :>

[bugmangaka]

SO.. I may be insane…. I wanna do a risograph portrait of all 20 vivillon forms!! LISTEN- I think it'll be a really good way to practice mixing colors for riso and getting the most out of just a few! My riso currently only has a black drum, so I'm using my school's as a way to see which colors come up most often (aka, which drums to buy first!) Here are the Meadow, Garden, Archipelago, and High Plains forms! All four are currently being sold at conventions. These are the digital mockups, I'll post the actual prints later on :>

[bugmangaka]

Every year at DuPage Comic Con the same group of kids ask me if I have any Murder Drones merch yet... I couldn't dissapoint them again, so I made a riso print of Uzi! This is the digital mockup, I'll scan the actual print and upload it later.

[bugmangaka]

I made Dr. Stone meme prints for my offset class! THESE WERE SO MUCH FUN…. they were based off two sketches I did of the Ginro and Ryusui ones months ago.

I aimed to fill an entire grid with them so I had my friends help me come up with four more! my favorite is definitely "I LOVE MY WIFE" lmao

These were the two original sketches from last year:

[bugmangaka]

Very simple illustration of Skyloft for my offset class! It's going to be printed on this light blue and white textured paper, which should make it look like the sky.

[bugmangaka]

Next offset piece! This was based off of a strange vague sketch I did a year ago, some sort of biblical rendition of Kaworu and Shinji. I had a bunch of green paper I needed to use, so I tried something weird to use it! The two colors are actually green and florescent pink, the pink mixes with the green paper to make the purple of the EVA.

[bugmangaka]

My second offset piece! Printed it's on one piece of paper to fit the 11 x 17 requirement, but after the semester I'm going to cut it in half to make the two intended prints. ENAAAAA MY DAUGHTERRRRRR..... The theme for my offset prints is to make prints based off past sketches I've done but never finished. I had these sketched around a year ago :>

The original sketches are under the "read more"!

[bugmangaka]

11 x 17 offset illustration using black and purple... this time with StanXeno! I love the fanart I see of them that sillouette their figures and I wanted to try it. The pose was based off of a photo I took in my Xeno cosplay with my friend!

[bugmangaka]

question, is your art (specifically the rhythm doctor art you made most recently as of this ask) allowed to be used as a pfp with permission?

yeah totally! All I ask is you give credit please :>

I'm glad you like it so much!

[bugmangaka]

Ok this one actually made me want to blow up BFHJBSDFHJFDS

Another offset postcard! This one used pink and blue, and had to showcase a piece of media we recommend. I highly recommend Rhythm Doctor!! It's such a good rhythm game with a GREAT story that I didn't expect to make me so emotional. The colors did not mix the way I thought they would, but I'm still learning :>

[bugmangaka]

First assignment in my offset productions class! The two colors our class chose were red and yellow, so I drew fire-type Miku from Project Voltage and BIRDBRAIN Teto!!

[bugmangaka]

Cute pinup I did as a commission for @floofiepuppie! Thank you for the support, it was a lot of fun~ Drawing the squishy parts of a body is surprisingly difficult, this was such great practice :>

[bugmangaka]

I needed another design for Printmedia Practices and I had just designed Alien Xeno, so my friend convinced me to use him as one of my screenprints.... It was kind of really embarassing to present this but it was also a lot of fun!! I really liked the composition and I printed on a BUNCH of different papers, so there are 20 variations of color. This was also the only time I used registration pins. This screenprint was 4 layers!

[bugmangaka]

This was the first piece I made in my Printmedia Practices class this year. It was a 3-layer wood carving reduction, and I had never carved wood before so it's pretty messy. I started with random colors and then ended up doing a set of pink prints along with it. I love my pinup series, they're one of my favorites to make and I've always imagined them being printmedia instead of digital pieces, so this is finally achieving that! As for the caption, I made this the day after my insurance denied my OCD medication.