Fur and Eyes

After carefully examining a lot of bee images, I realized that they are very fuzzy insects. In these drawings I was experimenting with the idea of making the Bobby Drone puppet furry. I thought that fur would make him look friendly and distinguish him from the shiny insects in our bug noir puppet show, Bugsy Brown: Private Fly. I also started to experiment with different sizes of eyes.

Man or Bee

Part of the puppet design process was to determine how human the bug characters were going to be. While I like the design on the right, it was determined that he was a little too insect-like for a main character. The design on the left is closer to the direction I wanted to head. Although I abandoned the goggle idea for Bobby Drone, I revisited it when it came time to design Starfly.

First Stab or Sting

This wacky first attempt at a bee design was my way of clearing out the creative cobwebs. As is usually the case, the first puppet design I do is light years away from how I hope the character will actually look. Putting these ideas down on paper helps me clarify the direction I want to go in... This obviously was not it.

Bee Inspiration

Before I started designing the Space Bugs characters, I did some research online. I searched for insect and space images to help guide me visually. This compilation of images was my creative inspiration for the Queen’s best man, an adventurous bee named Bobby Drone.

Bee Hive Space Station

I wanted everything in the Space Bugs universe to look like it was designed and built by insects. One idea that didn’t make it into the shows was this Bee Hive Space Station, which was to be the home of the queen bee. This design was based on the star base from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and a bee hive.

Space Bugs A to Z

Space Bugs Alpha and Zeta are Swazzle's newest puppet shows, the prequel and sequel of a science fiction adventure that features a group of intergalactic insects on a mission to save the universe from the destructive and ravenous Robo-Locusts.

The live shows feature a variety of interesting puppet characters and exotic environments custom built by Swazzle. As puppet designer and set designer, it was my job to visualize the Space Bugs universe. Over the next few weeks I will share with you and discuss some of the designs I created for these unique puppet shows.

Space Bugs began its Southern California library tour on June 11 and will run until August 28. Check out Swazzle’s online schedule to find a performance near you.