OniOniOniArt

This tiny mantis nymph looks and behaves like ants. The behavior probably doubles as defensive camouflage and helps catch unwary prey off guard. [January 31, 2020]

This sketch is based off the pink elephant hawk moth (Sphingidae) which is beautifully colored with a rich tan and pink. I'd like to do a color rendition at some point. [January 30, 2020]

Like most adolescents, this katydid nymph seems a little out of proportion. [January 29, 2020]

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]

The ice scorpion is a member of the Scorpionfly family which has the uncanny ability to traverse snow in the winter.  [January 27, 2020]

The 17-year cicada spends most of its life as a larva underground, sucking on tree roots, when miraculously at 17 years of age, all the members of that particular brood come to the surface to mate, lay eggs, and die over the course of many days. How they synchronize their emergence is still a bit of a mystery. Brood IX will be emerging this year in NC, VA, and WV. I'd love to witness their mass emergence and subsequent chaos as they cover every available space and loudly declare their arrival. It also got me thinking, 17 years is a long time...where was I 17 years ago?  Looking back that puts us in early 2003...I was in college and that same year I took a course in entomology. I was working at Petsmart and living in my first solo apartment in Casselberry. I was obsessed with anime and wasn't yet a vegetarian. I had a 1-year old nephew [who is graduating high school this year]. I had two orange fur babies, lots of reptiles, a newt, and some fish. Also, so much strife over t...

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

For today I decided to reprise my old Creative Sprint project from October 2015 . I always wanted to turn it into a card for my shop, but never got around to it (huh, imagine that, Procrastinating...so unlike me!). So I decided to turn it into a two-color stamp. First I made a register, something to help me line up the stamps with (it's the brown paper under the green bee at top). Then I created transfers for the design utilizing the register so everything *in theory* lines up. One transfer is for the black color, the second is for yellow (which for testing purposes is green, because I have a green stamp pad. I use block printing ink for the actual cards). Above is the yellow stamp, in the process of being cut. After inking the completed stamp, I attempt to line it up with the register so I can mark the paper to assist in lining up the black stamp. Right now it looks like a green potato. Above is the transferred black stamp image before ...

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]