This is my first attempt at drawing a realistic beetle. Creating this little insect challenged two of my weak spots; 1. My ability to draw realistically 2. My uncomfortable feelings about bugs. When I first started I felt a bit sick from looking at it, but it grew on me while I was drawing. A colorful leaf beetle is quite beautiful actually.
How I made it
I first drew it with a normal drawing pencil. Then I colored it with colored pencils. After that I enhanced the colours with some markers and acrylic paint. Here is a picture of the work in progres.
wow such amazing artwork!
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thank you! :D
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I thought it was real. Wow. You have great skills.
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thank you! that is what I was aiming for :D
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The beetle! Fantastic. The colors you used are simply perfect. I can see its iridescence. Wow, Camilla. Now will you let him crawl up your arm? :)
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thanks jlwkolb! haha thats another question :D
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How about hercules beetle? :D
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That might be my next drawing! They are pretty ugly though...
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Oh... If that's the case...How about ladybug? :D Do tag me if you're planning to do so~
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Haha I was just studying ladybug pictures! :D I think I will have to draw one now
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Great job! For the shadows you have to think what is the point from where the light is shining, if that makes sense.
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haha yes it does make perfect sense :D the problem is that I don't understand how shadows fall, I might have to study that.
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Hey that is really really good. You have also done a great job on giving the illusion of it being 3D a tad with the slight shadowing. Welldone:)
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So real from the top picture.
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It looks pretty real when its a small picture, but when you see it closer it is obviously a drawing :D
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This turned out really great!! :D
For the shadows I would have either softened the pencil a bit (using the fingers, a tissue or a blending stump) or used a grey color pencil until they looked at smooth as the rest of the beetle. When it comes to where to place the shadow, you first need to decide your light source. If you have a hard time deciding where the shadow will fall I recommend that you study different objects under different light, for example using a lamp and study how the shadow behaves when you either move the lamp or the object :) I'm not an expert on shadow and light, but studying the real world has helped me a lot :)
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thank you for this helpful comment Pixielols, I think I will have to spend some time practising with shadow, it is actually pretty important when making realistic looking art.
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Well done @camilla! I like how you captured the sheen of it's carapace.
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thanks, it was quite difficult. I could probably spent more time on it but I have no more patience left :D
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