nowealth-noruin:

The making of Amegilla cingulata. 

This is mostly for my own reference but some of you may find it interesting also. You have to excuse the blurry photos. My camera didn’t focus properly and I didn’t notice on my tiny screen.

What’s not pictured is the composite sketches I did because I couldn’t find a clear picture of the stationary bee from the perspective that I wanted. There was quite a bit of time spent messing around getting the wings in the right position without completely obscuring the abdomen and thorax - arguably the most visually interesting parts of the bee! 

The first picture shows some of the guidelines I put in to help me scale the bee, put all the right bits in the right places &c. The rest depict the process of layering the “paint” (I make swatches on scrap paper using watercolour pencils and dip a damp brush into that so I’ve got more control over how much colour is going down, when).

I think I need to invest in some gouache paints. Next time I’d like to get a finer grain with the hairs.