An evolving journal page--insects and friends...

Planning ahead isn't really necessary unless you're planning on publishing your journal pages!  I wasn't, I was just delighted to find such a wide variety of insect life all on the door frame of my shed/studio.  So this is an evolving sketch that I played with over days--I started over a week ago!  I did the rough sketch below with a Prismacolor Verithin black colored pencil--almost little more than quick gesture sketches--then took photos to refine them later.

I worked fast...I was standing up, the butterfly might move at any time, and the katydid, DID!  Sort of a slow-motion sloth effect...and of course added more details and more creatures as I went along!

 

slow-moving but definitely MOVING bush katydid...the leaf-like designs on his back were much more visible in this macro shot--I couldn't really see them with the naked eye.

My reference photos were really helpful in getting at the details I'd missed, although I never COULD get my camera to focus properly on the walking stick. 

I used my magnifying glass to get the details of the chrysalis--it was thin as tissue paper, delicate and almost translucent.  I thought I was done when I did the version below, with a headline, border, and color...

I waited a few days to add the color, until my new open-stock Verithin pencils arrived from Dick Blick--and then decided to add some watercolor after all! 

A day or so later still, I went back in and strengthened the darks and added a bit of tone to make the chrysalis at upper left stand out...

I couldn't resist adding the daddy longlegs or harvestman, which strolled up later...and before you say "ick, I hate spiders," these aren't spiders at all!  They have their own order, they are non-poisonous, and they eat other small insects.  They're very beautiful, up close, like a jeweled mosaic box.

A wonderful new book really points up the value of field sketches over more mechanical means of nature study.  It's Field Notes on Science and Nature. 


Edited by Michael Canfield and published by Harvard University Press--if you're interested in nature study with your journal, you'll love it too. 

Colored pencil and watercolor.