Stages of a Butterfly

“Stages of a Butterfly” was (is?) my favorite childhood game to play in the summer. It makes superhero towel capes look so pedestrian.

Semi-Still Life with Flowers and Bugs

It’s a half-imaginary still life, and the bugs aren’t still.

Apimania

This month I’ve been participating in yet another daily drawing challenge, #inkpril, which has the same premise as #inktober, except it takes place now. I’m a lot busier in April so I can’t contribute a drawing every day, but I am sticking to my chosen theme this time, which is unusual words pulled from The Wordsworth Book of Intriguing Words. So far I have only illustrated various manias, so it’s become an even tighter theme.

Oh no, I just looked at my sketch and their toes are in the wrong order. I blame insomnia for that one. Actually the alternate title of the book I mentioned above is The Insomniac’s Dictionary. It got me thinking about how wonderful and important it is for an illustrator to build up a good reference library. There is something about leafing through a book of obscure words or a field guide to beetles that Google Image Search and Wikipedia will never replace.

Spring!

Spring is here! Let’s get lost.

Before & Afters

     

BEFORE                                                                AFTER

   

Click on each image to see it in greater detail.

Once the “after” illustrations are available in my Etsy shop, I’ll add the links.

 

 

Anxiety Diary #7: Nice Things and…

Bugs are one of my favorite subjects to draw. I like most of them. However, I have a primal fear of those hulking water bugs, aka American cockroaches, that are the size of mice and not nearly as cute.

I realize they are nothing compared to the Madagascar hissing cockroach, or to “palmetto bugs,” which are flying water bugs, which I thought only existed in tropical Florida until one of them whizzed into my bedroom a few nights ago! Luckily my husband caught it. I used the ensuing adrenaline rush to check all the cracks and openings in the house. There were a lot of them, which tired me out enough to go to bed that night.

Typing Bug Says… Back to Work!

While I was working on this, my husband came over and asked me if it was a self-portrait. Why yes, how did he know? I am a little worker bug, happy that I’m no longer stuck in a cubicle.

I don’t miss typewriters, but there’s a pretty mint green one that keeps showing up on Etsy. Maybe I’ll buy it for one of my writer friends that still use them.

Here’s a little extra glimpse of how I made this drawing, with the line art and colors separated:

Illustration Friday: “Teacher”

Beeeeeeeeee creative! (Argh.)

Illustration Friday: “Swarm”

Bzzzzzzz…. Come join the swarm… Bzzzzz…