Without context, my hyper specific obsession with robot alien bees is likely going to seem very odd...
And it still will even after I explain the story behind them but I might as well since you're here.
SO WHAT'S WITH THE ROBOT ALIEN BEES?
They're part of an ongoing personal project of mine that I aim to present through character art, illustrations, and potentially short comics, which currently lacks a proper name. It all started in 2021 when I created a lineup of alien designs for a tabletop game assignment and one of the playable characters were a pair of android bees; originally intended to be a one-off design, something about these two stuck with me and ever since, they have become a recurring subject in various personal and school-related work.
WHO ARE THEY?
They’re an artificial race known as the Vespians who are built for a single purpose: to assimilate every corner of the galaxy into their hive and unite all beings under one rule. Like a real bee colony, roles in the Vespian Empire are split into workers, drones, and the queen. All subjects are assigned an identification number and only high-ranking members of the hive are given names, which must start with the letter V, and an extra set of arms to denote their importance at a glance.
Despite their fearsome reputation and ultimate goal of galactic conquest, the Vespians are very petty and behave much like your typical high school bully if said bully was part of a giant expansionist empire of angry bees who can shoot lasers out of their eyes. With this in mind, I designed them with a school motif, using letterman jackets as the default uniform and basing their infrastructure off of education institutions with a hint of postmodernism.
THE HIERARCHY
For a school-themed race of alien bees, it would make sense for the highest authority to resemble a principal/headmaster, followed by faculty and the obscenely rich and popular queen bee who's always flanked by the football team.
That last part refers to Princess Vee (though she prefers queen), one of the two original Vespian designs where this whole concept stemmed from. At the time, her visual resemblance to the blond mean girl in every teen drama was purely coincidental but I eventually chose to roll with it and designed an entire alien race centred around a college-like setting with a hierarchy that takes elements from bee hives and exaggerated depictions of public schools in media.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom of this page! At the moment, I don't have too much content surrounding these bees but I have a lot of ideas for them so stay tuned for more art and story in the future!