Sketch Saturday: First Creature Sketch – The Khautfly
Sketch Saturday: Khautfly
This is the first time I’ve shared one of my creature sketches from the world I’m building. I’ll be honest, I’m a little nervous about it.
While worldbuilding, I realised I needed to see what I was describing. So I took my list of Lunaaris creatures and decided to start sketching them, beginning with the smallest and working my way up. I assumed the Khautfly would be one of the easier ones to start with. I was very wrong!
I’ve never had much skill (or desire) for drawing insects, though I haven’t tried since I was very young. Somehow, this one (whom I named Kortney) insisted, and he soon became my first creature sketch.
I initially drew him in a cheaper sketchbook to test things out and then cut out the page and pasted it into my better one. The reproductive cycle is on the following page. You’ll probably notice a few pencil smudges — those were from before my fixative spray arrived. The names beside the sketches were added digitally. I had originally planned to do them in ink with calligraphy, but I ran out of time. Hopefully, I’ll come back and add them properly in the future.
KHAUTFLY / KHAUTFLIES
(Pronounced something like “Kawt-fly”)
Khautflies are small, unsettling creatures drawn to places touched by death and old magic. Their wings resemble aged parchment, with faint runes that appear only under certain light. Although they fly silently, they begin to hum softly, like a whisper, when near powerful residual magic or someone close to death.
The drawing above shows an adult Khautfly. The second sketch below shows the known stages of their reproductive cycle:
- Eggs – Mornrepurle (Deathpearls) – small, dark bead-like eggs laid near corpses, cursed relics, or fading spells. In my head, they were similar to marbles.
- Larvae – Khautworms – ghostly, almost transparent, they float above the dead to absorb magical remnants. They resemble the moth caterpillars we find in our garden.
- Pupation – Khautcoiling – spun from shadowy silk, the cocoon flickers in and out of sight. The patchier it becomes, the closer it is to hatching. I wanted this to be a webby-style egg.
I’ve written far more about these creatures like their ecology, magical interactions, and the stories that surround them — but I’m keeping most of that close for now. Eventually, I might like to collect these into a small book of creature sketches, so I’m choosing what to share carefully.
As for next week’s Sketch Saturday, I haven’t quite decided which sketch to share next. It might be another creature or possibly one of the flora entries I’ve finished.
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