Fear of Affection & Unsettling Stowaways

These two works were created for the #DAHorrorChallenge on Deviantart (Prompt: Your Worst Nightmare) and were created only a week before the deadline (10/27/2021).

Unsettling Stowaways was created first and was inspired by my mother's trypophobia and distaste of insects carrying their young. I do not have this phobia but I noticed that among the other entrants there were very few featuring insects or spiders. This gave me the impression that competitors had a similar aversion and unwillingness to depict the things which made their skin crawl. So I wanted to see if my intuition was right.

We were allowed to make multiple submissions so long as it wasn't a duplicate. So I utilized one unfinished creature design for the work: Fear of Affection. I completed it a day before the deadline. This one I feel is more true to my style and I'm happier with how it turned out. Could use a bit more polish but with the deadline rushing up so quickly I had to make do.