“It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s an– algae!? Best known through grainy weather balloon photos and hollow watermelon-sized black lumps turning up in people’s cornfields, Trichodesmium astroidea has inspired both curiosity and bemused speculation about extraterrestrial origin.”

Preview of my 2-page spread for Almost Real: A Speculative Biology Zine! I had really wanted to make something with cyanobacteria since speculative biology tends to focus a lot on animals, but prokaryotes do some incredibly wild and bizarre stuff here on Earth without any human creative intervention. Plus it was an excuse to learn more about digital painting, since I didn’t think line art would compliment such simple structures. I hope you’ll enjoy learning about my funky little sky cryptids!

For those of you who do prefer animals, fear not: our other artists are submitting flying alien ecosystems, opossum-like gliding raptors, gliding turtles, flying squids, and "feathered" serpents, just to name a few of our fantastic creatures.

Support us here: https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....e-vol-2-fligh/ 🌸🦎🕊️