Eggtober 21st, 2025: Egg Nest
Egg Nest (or "Concept for Breadbug Eggs) (Krita, Wet Circle, 21 colors, 45 minutes)
Bugging out and speedpaint under the cut.
So at the beginning, a friend recommended that I try drawing eggs for a creature that doesn't lay eggs. And I have indeed played with that concept. But I wasn't really sure what to do. One of the concepts thrown out was "what if dogs laid eggs?" and honestly I can't think of anything more creative than just a boring leathery oblong egg. Because when I think of where dogs or wolves would live in the wild, it's underground dens, and that makes me think of snake eggs and what they're adapted for and I think a dog egg would be the same or similar.
But I figured a similar concept would work when I asked @lady-quen if there was anything she wanted for Eggtober. We had the few collabs that I loved from 2023, so I guess I should have seen it coming. Breadbugs. Lovely critters. So I extrapolated beyond just "Breadbug stealing an egg."
I combined the ideas. Breadbugs are never explicitly shown to have eggs in the Pikmin universe. But if they're an insect, they probably lay eggs to reproduce, right? Or some sort of leggy grub considering they have 2 legs instead of 6 like an insect. But still, they would lay eggs, right?
So I thought about how Breadbugs behave. They like to gather things and take them to their burrows. That must mean a lot of stuff gets shuffled around down there. So laying eggs in a burrow like that wouldn't be ideal. Crumbugs are theoretically baby Breadbugs and they're very small. So they'd get crushed. So I thought that maybe they'd lay eggs in a sticky foamy substance on the ceiling. That would keep the eggs out of the way, insulated and protected from the weather above ground, and close by so the Breadbugs can keep them safe when they return to the burrow with treasures that could smash the eggs.
And it sort of evolved into a web-like nest with foamy anchors and yeasty strands to suspend the eggs so they get proper air flow and stay dry, but can shift if the earth shifts without having to be moved like an ant colony would move eggs if the hill was disturbed. And in the unlikely event that a burrow was disturbed, the sticky nest could theoretically be picked up and dragged by a single Breadbug without too many eggs coming loose and then reattached somewhere safe when another burrow got made.
It was a fun experiment to think about! I need to practice painting environments in this style, though. I do enjoy "item in void" style art, but I should get better with environments and having things interact. Challenge myself.
And hey, if imaginary eggs don't count? Egg gummy. Checkmate.
