I taught a watercolor class where we painted an insect quite large.  I chose to use a little familiar looking brown insect.  We might not know what to call them, but we know them and we love them; they are gentle, they are the coreids.   Also known as a leaf-footed bug, this beautiful hexapod lives simply, so that others may simply live.  Or something like that….
Just quietly jabbing and sucking plant fluids, they just do their own thing…

I chose this one because it has a somewhat subdued array of coloration.  I warned the class that this should really be a 9 hour class, and I came in at about 7 hours total.  I clocked about 3 hours during the class, and another 4 here at home, but the most important groundwork we all did in class, (getting proportion right, building the color foundation, figuring out the drop shadow). I built a wire voodoo insect that we could manipulate and light to understand how the drop shadow works, and it was very helpful.  Here is how it looked at the end of the classtime along with some images from the class:

I then built off of the foundation from the class and pushed it further in contrast and detail.  I used some gouache for the highlights, (which I recommend for all watercolor.  Don’t spend the precious time you have on earth trying to reserve every white or lighter area!)  This was minutes of time dabbing in some highlights, and is always the best time of all.  And at the very last, I nicked some areas with pencil and colored pencil to get some bright hints of translucency.  Let me know what you think!

I am also doing a class in Wenatchee at the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust on Thursday, December 11 from 6-9pm.  Sign up thru Wenatchee River Institute.

** update, the last two photos are from the class in Wenatchee.  It went great and was fun to have a packed house.  Look for more classes this winter in Leavenworth and Wenatchee.