I am back to commissions and some commercial work this week but hope to have a little more time for just sketching and drawing.
When teaching my workshops I am a bit of a nag about drawing and practise, everyday if possible, so I really must practise what I preach!!
But it’s back to completing the Wool Carder Bee first. I almost finished it for the Meadow Days show and was able to have it on display and chat about the process of drawing and painting a bee. Here are a few stages of the work:
Referring back to my preliminary sketches I lightly draw the bee on the frighteningly clean and pristine paper. This always makes me very nervous.
Thank goodness it is tough stuff because I still do quite a bit of re-drawing and adjusting on the paper.
i.e. was not quite sure where I wanted that front leg…..
Leg adjusted, I put in first colour guides.
Stages 3 and 4 are just building up colour depth and getting the eye right. It’s important to me that I have the eye done fairly soon. “Eye contact” with your painting helps make a bond between you and your work!! It’s a bit of a responsibility creating something!!
and by this stage I have erased up some of the pencil lines!
Stages 5 is more building up and I use quite a bit of lifting out and add white gouache to paint the lovely long silky hairs that this bee has on the underside of her thorax.
The almost last stage is the wings, sorting out the detail of the abdomen markings and the antennae.. when I pray for a steady hand!
There is nowhere to hide mistakes made here!
I then leave the bee and get on with the background. I will go back to do further adjustments later on if I see any glaring mistakes. It’s good to leave things alone for a while!
The pencil work takes a long LONG time as, again, I do draw and redraw on the paper and it is forgiving, but only up to a point.
Some times I rough out the leaves and flowers on tracing paper and position them here and there to check the composition.
I didn’t take stage images as that would be very boring..
Its almost finished now. Just a few adjustments to do and I need to add a small image of Wallsworth Hall, home of Nature in Art gallery. I have sketched it roughly on tracing paper to position it….It might go about here!
I will be finishing it this week…unless, perchance, we have SUN??? Hope springs eternal …….
Oh wonderful, these are the posts I treasure. I am awed by your skill, made real to me as I follow the steps.
wonderfull drawing , this as if photograpy
Thanks for sharing your process. It really helps to see the painting develop step-by-step. Lovely detail in the fur and wings.
What a wonderful post! I so enjoy your writing and illustrations, and the way you explain the steps!
Thanks very much all!
Diana.. Many thanks as always..you are just too kind! 🙂
But I am glad you like seeing the development.
Zeysim.. Thank you so much and I am very glad you like the work. I do try to bring these little creatures to life..This one is a particular favourite!
KJ..Thanks you! The differing types of fur on bees can be a challenge. It is silky under the wings and then sometimes quite bristly on the thorax depending on the species. Some are velvety and some are tufty… I could go on and on and …….. 🙂
Mags.. Hello and thank you. I often forget to take stage shots of the work but its quite nice for me to see how it developed. But I am not sure it makes for a sizzling blog post… something about watching paint dry? 🙂
I love how the bee gradually 'comes to life' on the paper. Truly beautiful! – Clare @ CVF
I think I'll want one of this prints.
It's lovelly!
Waiting for the final picture!
I finally hang the four prints I bought from you in my small country house but I guess I need two more.
🙂 I'll keep in touch.
And I finally found out what was eating the leaves of some plants in my garden. I didn't know about the leaf cutter bees. I'll take some pictures for you to check!! i was looking for beatles or caterpillars but found nothing… It must be bees!