OniOniOniArt

Using the same methods as for the beetles in this post for Days 59 - 61 , I've made outlines of hoppers, (oak treehopper and candystripe leafhopper), with a brush pen, painted them with watercolors, and then masked them off for a splatter paint background. Day 64: Brushed Oak Treehopper The outlines are basically pen sketches. I don't do any pencil work first with the brush pen, so there is always a bit of a wonky look to them because I can't erase anything! This has the benefit of not needing to transfer a drawing onto the paper which can be time consuming (drawing with pencil directly on watercolor paper is not ideal because erasers can shred the surface). So the drawing is a bit more organic and less accurate! Day 65: Brushed Candystripe Leafhopper Day 66: Color & Splatter oak treehopper gets its minty fresh hue (I did add a light pencil line to help with the striping...) Before splatter:  After Splatter: Leaf...

This counts for three days...because I need to catch up!  (And I'm combining posts, also because I need to catch up). Day 59: A blue pleasing fungus beetle (yes, that is its common name), outlined with a brush pen onto ACEO-sized watercolor paper. Day 60: A metallic wood boring beetle, also outlined with a brush pen on the same paper. Day 61: Color and Splatter! As seen above, I've painted the beetles with water color, and I'm masking them for the splattering process ( t his is so I can splatter the background without getting any onto the beetles in theory) . For a mask, I've traced the outlines of the beetles onto clear acetate film and cut them out. I actually do have some Frisket film which is made especially for this sort of thing, but it is more time consuming to cut out and this method works pretty well. Using water color paint and a paint brush, I splattered the paper by "flicking" the bristles. Once it dr...

The dobson fly is a large member of the order Neuroptera and looks pretty fierce, though it is quite harmless. The females do not have the elongated jaws. I have gotten really behind here... [February 24, 2020]

I tried a little bit of a lighter hand with the brush pen today. I think I have been pressing too hard; this is an improvement. Then I decided it would be fun to splatter watercolor paint on it (and it was!) I put a small paper cut-out over the head and pronotum to keep it clear of paint. [February 20, 2020]

I have had the worst luck with getting sick this year. For the last 3 days I've had a very bad stomach virus and have either been miserable in bed or vomiting in the bathroom. I just got over a cold a couple days prior to getting this illness and I had another cold in December. I hope I'm done for a while. At any rate! Rather than add more horrid roach drawings (which I've been doing if I miss a day) I've decided to just lump the missed days here, and present this syrphid fly sketched with the brush pen. Simple. Done. Caught up! Is it cheating? Perhaps... [February 13, 2020]

This particular scarab is a dung beetle. A very noble profession. [February 10, 2020]

Pasimachus is a genus of predatory ground beetle. The pronotum and head are broad and fused. Mostly they are black, but some species have beautiful iridescent green or blue/violet margins. My rendition appears to be dead...squished...sorry Pasimachus. Once the trajectory of the brush pen is in place, it can't really be changed! [February 5, 2020]

This predatory ground beetle (Carabidae) has a beautiful violet streak down its sides and on its pronotum. This is a sketch with the brush pen and violet acrylic paint. [February 2, 2020] PS - Happy Groundhog Day

I still have some gold & brown ink splatter paper leftover from Day 20 and decided to sketch another fossil insect. The wasp looks like an ancestor to today's spider hunting wasps with its curly antennae. I actually made this paper a few years ago and then decided it was too textured to use. The brush pen handles the texture pretty well, but there are a few spots where the metallic gold is too thick and the India ink (from the brush pen) doesn't quite adhere. [January 28, 2020]

This morning again, I suffered from shaking coffee hand...so it's a bit jagged. [January 25, 2020]

I seem to be making a lot of stag beetles this year. In 2016 , it was preying mantids. Here I've taken my brush pen sketch from  Day 12 and turned it into a stamp. I mostly use these to make greeting cards in my etsy shop.  First I printed out a smaller version of my drawing and outlined it in pencil. Then I taped it face down to a piece of speedy carve, a rubber stamping material.  Rubbing the opposite side with the pencil transfers the lines to the speedy carve. I carve the outlines with my lino-cutting tool: ...and here is the finished stamp... UPDATE!: I made mini greeting cards with this stamp which can be viewed in my shop HERE [January 23, 2020]

The brush pen is a fun thing to use, but the quick sketch does not always come out as hoped. I don't do any pencil sketching for these, it's just brush to blank paper, cross my fingers and hope for the best! Could be worse I suppose :) If I do this for a year, I'll get good at it, right? [January 22, 2020]

My hubs was very sweet and bought tickets for me to see Jurassic World Live. Once there, we realized that the vast majority of adults were accompanied by children for a reason. It was a good diversion, but definitely geared for kids and not quite what we were expecting ( Poor S! He apologized profusely. Your heart was in the right place!) .  At any rate, in the spirit of Jurassic Park, one of my favorite movies, I've sketched a fossilized mosquito with the brush pen on a background of brown and gold ink splatter - a good substitute for stone I think. Side Bar: I want one of those raptor costumes for Halloween! [January 20, 2020]

In my defense, I had too much coffee this morning and my hand was shaky - check out those jagged lines! I was also in a hurry to complete something. Mantispids, AKA mantis flies, are darling little Neuropterans which resemble and behave similarly to mantids. They have a parasitic phase, though, in which they raid spider eggs and wasp nests, so I think that elevates them a bit above mantids in the bad ass department. [January 14, 2020] Side Bar: My husband is dragging me to see Star Wars in the theatre today for a second time. If that isn't love...pray tell what is?

Here is a stag beetle rendered in a brush pen. I think I'm coming to terms with this brush pen... [January 12, 2020] Update: I transformed this drawing into a stamp for Day 23 ... ...and then used the stamp to make cards for my shop which can be seen HERE

With an unwieldy brush pen, I have sketched this ambush bug lying in wait atop a thistle-like flower. The ambush bug is kind of like the True Bug (Hemiptera) version of the preying mantis. Today's project is very simple because I have some Etsy orders to complete! [January 1, 2020]