I’m showing you the page from my journal first, then I’ll tell you a little story about a ‘bug discovery’ I had. You’ll see on the right my studies from the lady beetle I found, bottom left is studies of lady bug ‘faces’ so you can see at a glance how this is a handy way to identify them. It’s not really their face but the pronotum which is the part just behind the head on beetles. Then I have a quote by Paul Cezanne and had some fun adding a old style border. (Please click on pictures for a BIG clear image!)
Multi-Colored Asian Lady Beetle studies
You can read my note that the one leaf I actually traced to get the exact size on my paper. That’s a great thing to do when you’re making ‘scientific’ type notes and it saves time for studying other things about your subject.
Ok…now to get on with my bug story. Now this is really exciting, well for someone who’s interest in bugs has really peeked this summer it is!
Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle pupa
When I went out to get the mail I find myself looking down at the weeds in my front ditch near the driveway. I’m getting more used to spotting insects and today was no different.
Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle pupa 2
I thought it was some kind of small bug but I didn’t have my (reading) glasses on so I didn’t really see what I was looking at as clearly. 😉
Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle pupa 3
Well after taking pictures of it I gently set it down by some weeds in my yard, but when I looked at the enlarged pictures on my computer I realized what it was! I double checked in my Field Guide and yup, it’s a Lady Bug pupa. It’s a pupa just like butterflies come out of!
Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle pupa 4
It was when I saw this picture that I realized it was hatching right now! Yikes!
Newly hatched Lady bug
So I ran back out into the yard and found where I had put it, brought it inside and put it in my plastic “Crisco” container you’ve seen me use before. He/she slept in this overnight (yes in my living room!) and the next morning there it was, all fresh and yellow, a brand new Lady Beetle! How cool is that?
Newly hatched with wings still very tender
Can you see the clear ‘spots’ on it’s yellow wing covers? I had a suspicion that these spots would turn into black spots we all are familiar with. And I think just like butterflies do when first emerged, I think it was letting it’s wings ‘develop’ and firm up…they looked quite tender at this point.
Newly hatched lady beetle
It looks like a little lemon seed, I love it!
Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle with it's spots developed
Well what did I tell you? The very same Lady Bug now with it’s spots all developed. I released it as soon as possible onto the same weeds I found the pupa on. What a wonderful experience it was to see this Lady bug go through these changes!
My eyes are getting better at noticing little things on the weeds and plants around my yard and land. I find that I’m seeing many more bugs, interesting eggs and pupas. If you take your kids out on a bug hunt, tell them to pretend that they have “Eagle Eyes” or “Superman Vision” and they need to stand still, zoom in on leaves and watch for little things. It’s a wonderful hobby to get kids interested in, especially if you loan them a small camera like I use, and get them photographing them.
This little beetle is definitely waiting patiently on my list of things to be painted! Below are some note cards I created using the “Multi Colored Asian Lady Beetle” pictures.
Two new beetle studies to share, the Milkweed Borer Beetle and the Rhubarb Curculio. Sometimes I print out 4×6″ photos of my bugs and then as I have time I can sit and do studies in my sketch journals. I’ve been working on lots of bug studies as you’ve noticed lately, but plan to work on a series of small insect paintings soon.
Milkweed Borer Beetle
I love the Milkweed Beetle because of it’s black and red coloring and nice black curved antennae. With the black legs it looks rather coordinated in a fashion sense of the word! I’ve always been partial to red and black clothes or designs!
Milkweed Borer Beetle and Rhubarb Curculio
Then just below I decided to add a little study of the Rhubarb Curculio Beetle. I photographed it in my garden in early spring, it wasn’t ‘on’ my Rhubarb but I bet it was soon to be! I liked the rusty, powdery appearance of it and it’s unusual ‘snout’, typical of a weevil type insect.
My set up while painting
I tried to take some pictures, with my tiny camera, of some of the stages while I painted the Milkweed Beetle. I like to try and show the steps a bit because there are so many ways to approach how to do a painting.
(side note- you see on the page a bunch of dots of color, I was playing around with color mixing with my watercolor crayons and it had nothing to do with these bug paintings)
Laying green 'spots' on top of first light green layer
I missed taking a picture of the first stage but here (above) you can see that I put a very light green wash all over the leaf around the beetle first. I did this before I painted any of the bug, I used a bigger brush and just washed it on quickly but still tried to stay neat around the bug outline.
Then I started to paint the beetle; I used a water brush to wet the paper only where I was going to paint. The water brush was very handy to use instead of dipping my brush in water and wiping. I tested the red out on a piece of scrap paper then added a little at a time. The dampened paper was a nice way to keep the shading soft. Start with the overall color or the ‘background’ color first, then the darker values of red will be layered over it after it dries. I was careful not to paint red to the edges because it would ruin the 3d effect and also he had a powdery look that I wanted to imitate.
To make the leaf veined pattern, I thought I’d try just adding these little green ‘spots’ in a sort of organized pattern. By organized I mean that I would put them next to my pencil lines that indicated where a light vein would be, just arranging them along it was enough to indicate a vein.
Green 'spots' layer is finished
I’ve finished the green spots layer and you can see now how the bugs legs don’t look as dark? That’s relative to the new value of color around it and now will need to be darkened some more. That’s usually the way as you work on a detailed watercolor, it’s many layers to push things darker and bring out detail.
My set up today on an easel to give my neck relief!
Here’s a picture just showing you my set up as I worked at this stage. Before I had it flat on the table but that starts to hurt your neck after awhile, so best to prop it up somehow, this is a basic wooden paint box that you use on the table and the lid serves as an easel. I just stick the photo to it with “Blue Tack” or “Sticky Tack” and then I put my field palette of watercolors on a small box in front of it (so it’s raised up closer). This table easel a great little box because I keep ALL of my color pencils in it, separated by colors with rubberbands. I used to always use color pencil on my watercolors to add details at the end, but find I haven’t done that in ages!
Milkweed Borer Beetle finished and edited
I took a wet brush and gently wet the spots and rubbed very lightly to blend them a bit, then I washed some blue faintly over areas of the leaf to tone down the yellow green a bit. The picture above is of the Milkweed Borer Beetle all finished and cleaned up (the edges) on the computer so I could use it in my shop on note cards. (if you click on it, it will take you to see Note Cards in my shop). Now I wanted to comment here that if I was making this as a finished painting to frame and sell I would have worked on it more. I would have washed over more of the pattern here to ‘push it back’ and not make it so spotty looking, though I don’t mind it much. And the area right in front of his face I would have tidied up a bit more but that’s it for now, I consider him a good study for a better painting someday!
Thanks for stopping by, leave me a comment if you like, I LOVE reading them and replying! And I hope I encouraged you to stop and look a little closer at the bugs in your garden, you may be surprised at how interesting they are! If I could encourage one more thing, it would be to get you to leave some areas of your yard go wild with local weeds and wildflowers. I have some huge Bull Thistles growing now and have discovered many interesting bugs living on them all summer. It’s like a highrise building in a city, some live at the bottom, some at the top and they climb up and down the main stem all day long! The other day I saw a Ruby Throated Hummingbird stop at the huge pink bloom of the thistle and soon the Goldfinches will be using the down from it for nesting and in fall they will eat the seeds.
There are many other ‘weeds’ growing around my yard besides the thistle, more because I have trouble keeping it neat with my neck and back giving me trouble. BUT I have also noticed new bugs almost every single time I walk around the perimeter of my yard and STOP to look. If you stop, stand still and just watch awhile, you’ll see so much. Here’s a little rhyming quote from me:
“When you stop, study and sketch, a fine image you will catch. Study even longer, your drawing will be stronger!” Mary McAndrew
OK, go have some fun now looking for bugs! (and please get your children to look with you!)
Yes I know, what a name! This bug is a type of “Shield Bug”, so named because when viewed from above it looks like a shield. I don’t have a definitive identification on it but closest I could come was a type of Stink Bug.
My sketch page with finished paintings of Stink Bug
This one I found was much smaller than others I’ve seen in the garden, you can see from the picture below. I put my subject into the “Crisco” container that I like to use for bug study and photographing. It crawled around constantly and was a real challenge to draw!
Stink Bug and sketch book
Below you can see an experiment I tried, I colored swatches of watercolor pencil on a heavy piece of watercolor paper. I used it with a waterbrush to paint the Stink Bug studies. I wanted to try it because it’d be great to take along right in my sketchbook into the field. It worked pretty good for small studies and I’m going to try it out some more. It helped to mix the colors on a small metal palette to the side to keep this color palette clean.
Watercolor pencil palette and waterbrush
Another tip, if you need to show some white highlights you can carefully scrape off layers of paint using a very sharp blade. This was just a small penknife I sometimes have in my field bag. Scrape sideways, gently and repeatedly to remove layers; sometimes scrape the opposite direction to remove it.
Scraping with a sharp blade
Here’s a bunch of pictures of the interesting little bug. If bugs aren’t your ‘thing’ I want you to just take notice of a few things. You can appreciate some things in insects that you may also appreciate in birds. What catches me about birds is how you identify them by checking their shape, patterns, colors and behavior. Well the same is true of insects; you can identify species by their special shape, patterns, colors and behavior!
Stink Bug 5
This guy has an interesting shape from every angle you look at him. Just check out those red antennae!
Stink Bug 4
And the spotted legs! Looks like he needs a shave! But isn’t it fascinating that it has such pattern?
Stink Bug 3
This angle is very interesting, his head seems to streamline right into his body, and the eyes are right along the edge.
Stink Bug 2
Stink Bug 1
Here we see his pointy shoulders, like he’s wearing football shoulder pads! And I love the pattern along the edges of his back. Can you see the fine veins patterns in that little section at the bottom of his back, that’s part of his wings folded up. His underside was a gorgeous light green that reminded me of marble, but it was hard for me to capture as he kept running around! After I took all these photos in the garden, he flew away, I think just to show off!
Hope you enjoyed my insect study, I’ve been on a real bug kick this summer! More coming!
PS. I have a Flickr page that I’m trying to add to when I can. Check it out here.
After a long night time drive from Muncaster, I arrived at Rydal Water and settled into my room at Cote How Bed and Breakfast. I had only one day to explore as I spent an extra day under Muncaster’s spell. I spent the entire day hiking, taking photos, sketching, talking to people and video taping. Every few steps I had to stop and exclain “wow”…”oh!”…”beautiful!”…I couldn’t stop taking pictures. I wish I had a week so I could really go out to draw and paint. I’ll do work from the photos in the studio and try to return there perhaps to teach a class as we hike around the lake?
After a wonderful breakfast at the Cote How b+b, I came down a path and this is the view of the lake as I approached. The day had a promise of rain; I had my rain gear in my backpack, some snacks bought on the way to Rydal, bottle of water, and extra art supplies. My video camera was hanging from my waist in handy reach, 35mm around my neck, and my art kit hanging from my waist also. Umm…I felt a little like a pack horse but believe me I tried to keep it light! I always try to not carry too much, my back just can’t take it.
Sometimes the path veers away from the lake but always followes along through woods and over hills. Every gate I came to was set in a different scene, mood and lighting. I saw wooden gates and metal, all attached to ancient stone walls with lush green moss on anthing that wasn’t moving!
Once I got out and walked next to the lake, I did a really quick sketch looking across to the other side. I put color notes on the sketch and wrote about some nice walkers I met along the way.
Another gate, this one is for the cows who are lazily lounging along the lake. I put a video clip at the end of this post that shows this view with the wall. Can you see the other side across the water? That’s where I’m eventually headed, this hike today will take me around the entire Rydal Water lake.
Ok…no one said the hike was super easy! This is one part of my walk that took me up the mountain on the other side of the lake. Sometimes I was following a dry creek bed for a path.
After that part of the hike I smartly decided to sit and have lunch, maybe it was a cover so when people walked by they wouldn’t notice my heavy breathing! haha…I sat and did a micron pen sketch of the gate on the path. I added notes about color and things so I could remember later if I do a painting. Just as I finished the sketch my favorite little European Robin landed on the gate! I had to sketch him in.
I’m on the other side of the lake now…looking back and down the valley at the sheep in the fields. They were everywhere, wandering about even on the paths were I was walking.
Along the way I met all kinds of nice people, this is a group of photographers from Scotland. I knew they’d be friendly if I chatted with them, I have friends in Buffalo who go shooting and they love talking shop. As we talked standing along the valley stone wall, a friendly European Robin came and started looking for handouts. One of the group put some crumbs out and we became instant friends with the little bird! Here’s a picture taken with my tiny camera on zoom, not so great for clarity, but it works!
I love when you’re hiking along and if you keep your eyes open, really take notice of what you see, you may see something almost underfoot, literally! I was chatting with an older gentleman while up on the far side of the mountain, a good thing to do to catch your breath. I pointed out a dung beetle crawling along on the ground. I took lots of photos…it’s just great to look at later and notice all the cool things you don’t see at the time. His feet had long ‘toe’ parts, his antennae were a beautiful color with several parts to it, his legs a gorgeous deep purple. When I looked at him from above he was just like the ancient scarabs the Egyptians used in their jewelry. Ok..yes, he’s still a dung beetle, as I studied him…he crawled directly across the path and found..umm…dung! I spared you the picture of that!
This I did while up at the highest point, looking down at the b+b I came from. I stradled a cold, damp stone wall and tried to sit on my coat. I had to hang one leg over the side towards the valley, it was a pretty big drop off. People passed by and I just tried to do my best with my small set of oil pastels, smearing the clouds as the weather changed and mist came in.
This quick sketch was done on the fly…the weather was changing and I was a little worried about how long it would take me to finish my hike. I did take pictures so I could do a little color study later, if I can I’ll post it.
And this is the last page of my sketchbook for today that I wrote while at the Badger Pub. After my hike I freshened up at the b+b then walked the back path to cross over the bridge to the pub. The dinner was excellent and when 9pm rolled around, we were invited to go out back of the pub to watch the badgers get fed! I counted at least nine of them! It was really cool, my only experience with badgers was when I was a zookeeper, his name was Boris! You had to keep a shovel between you and him to keep from being nipped!
I hope you enjoy the video clip below of the lake from my hike. It was a fantastic walk that has filled my memory with wonderful things. I hope you come along with me on the rest of my journey in England!
Well, it’s time to play ‘catch up’, this is from July, but better late than never! If you click on the pictures you’ll see an enlarged view, where you can read my notes.
I did these two pages in my sketchbook following a very upsetting visit to a surgeon. I left the office in tears because he said I needed surgery on my discs from my car accident! He told me the symptoms to watch out for, all very nasty and debilitating, and then about the surgery and recovery. It was a little too much for me to handle after all the months of trying to recover from the car crash! So….on my way home, I pulled over at a nice little park by the Niagara River and was determined to look at birds, do some sketching. It was hard but, as most artists know, once you get started there’s nothing better to take your mind off pain and worry. The reason I share this with all of you friends around the world, is to let you know, it’s not always as it seems. That is, I’ve seen other doctors since who believe I can make it without surgery (Yay!!!) and my hopes for proceeding with my life fall back into place. How awful those kind of days are that throw us for a loop of self doubt, or “how will I ever cope?” The page above shows some sketches of water plants, and I think Purple Loose strife, considered an invasive weed here. Two bugs, including one of my favorites, the milkweed beetle and notes about birds and flowers seen. I was sitting on a rock that had waves splashing up on it, jutting into the river a bit. What a gorgeous day! The second page was more plants, a close up view of some kind of sedge I think…I love the seed pods on this, all pointy and green, and as I studied it and drew, all of a sudden I realised there was a furry catapillar hanging on under one of the leaves. At the bottom of the page you can see a tiny landscape sketch of Niagara Falls in the distance. I wish the pictures were colored in but I didn’t have time or the energy to stay and do that. Just so you know, All is Well with me!!! I’m getting ready for my trip to England and Ireland now, I’ll be blogging from there I hope, keep tuned!
Yesterday I had fun playing around with my watercolors, “can we say Avoidance Behavior?!” haha…well I should have been working on a painting but I wanted to test out some colors and tried an experiment with my field kit. Here’s a photo of my, um, mess! Well when you’re in the middle of working, you know just where everything is. You can click on these for larger views, you can see the painting in the background I want to work on of a kestrel.
It might seem silly, but I think I can write a book for a hundred and one uses for ‘sticky tack’ or ‘blue tack’! I wanted to add more colors to my field kit but there are no more places, so I made some! Where the brush should go, I put three little blobs of sticky tack and smooshed them down. I then put just a bit of wet paint into the divided areas and let it dry. Then the little removable water pan (I mean LITTLE!) I’ve been using for black paint, so I added a little wall to that and added Naples yellow, I thought it would be good for grasses, people etc. I will let you know if it works, the stuff is amazing, really!
This is a page from a little sketchbook where I tested the colors out. I was comparing reds as you can see, which ones were similar so I didn’t have to order new paints. (it’s not cheap you know!) The colors at the bottom are tube colors I put into a plastic travel palette, (see it at the bottom of the photo of my ‘mess’) they’re like a repeat of the colors in my large studio palette. I want to see if they’ll stay put or will they flake off all over the place? The drawing of the beetle I did from a field guide. I always try to grab something to draw when I know I’ll be sitting, wasting time in a waiting room. I have a vinyl ‘bible’ cover that I picked up at Barnes and Noble that fits a 6″x8″ sketchbook and across from it a field guide or other book. I’ll post pictures of that sometime, it makes a great little travel kit when outfitted with my ‘travel art supplies’.
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