My working method so far on the allotment has been to look for activity that is likely to be repeating itself. I’d like to have tackled the common blues but there seemed to be only one male around… so back to gatekeepers on scabious and then seeing that the common carder bumblebees were coming to...
blues, bees & sparrowhawk
Enjoying plugging away at how to interpret themes just outside the back door. The main study theme for the day was common blue butterflies… I’m really gratified when they stick around… there is now masses of birdsfoot trefoil to keep them happy and i’d like to up the numbers. I really get bogged down drawing...
knapweed buzzing
Focusing on knapweed. in the morning I returned to ink pen drawing… filling sheets to explore the details that I felt least sure of… mainly how to capture the bumblebees but there were new species of hoverfly that I hadn’t sketched & I wanted to look more in detail at the character of the knapweed....
scabious & knapweed
After 3 days of poor weather insects out in force, feeding up. More meadow browns but looks like the end of the ringlet season. The straggly knapweed candelabras busy with mainly male red-tailed bumblebees, shoulders and forehead tuft a sherbet lemon.
toadflax & common carder bumblebee
The only species of bee I’ve seen visiting the toadflax, but there are ants and tiny beetles trying to find access to the nectar. The opening is above the pouting orange lip but has a rim of hairs which make it hard for these pygmies to enter… it needs the weight of a bumble to...
courgette & nasturtium
Yesterday in the heat before the storm making more ‘collection’ studies… When I’d been sketching the one below on the previous day I realised I knew less about the big ‘glossy’ species than I did about the more bit part players. The allotment is on quite a slope and I’ve been cultivating wildflower banks as...
comma & courgette
Blocking in elements with goauche to make some kind of architecture to hang the crayon drawing on. In the sun lots of butterfly activity, adding a kind of electricity to the vibrant colours in the plant life (nasturtium flowers and runner beans, poppies etc… that I’ve yet to deal with).
gatekeeper & bees
Female gatekeeper, forewings a sea of orange. Honeybees with troubador hindlegs (something of them expanding to a wide flattened boot) . Sinking their small heart shaped faces into pillows of marshmallow scabious. Need more work and more exagerration to find the form and feel of the red-tails… quick moving buzz, fuzz of blackness. Finding two new...
small skippers
More collection of detail. Small skippers one of the most obvious protagonists on the meadow at this time of year. Flashes of orange copper. Miniscule and tricky to get a feeling for their anatomy. One pair mating, clasped together for at least 3/4 of an hour….The orangey species are the most prominent butterflies at present…...
meadow insects
Re-engaging with fieldwork discipline after various family related escapades. Gradually building up some fluency in how to deal with plants and insects. There were more species on the carrot… including spider hunting wasps but figured that I should try to learn to draw one creature (the soldier beetle) and then build from there. As ever...
