Bug Art #1 The bee and Ladybird {Art}

On May 26, 2023May 27, 2023 By ArtyMissKIn ArtLeave a comment

Hello my friends!

One of my favourite things in life is listening to the bees buzz and watching the ladybirds zip across the garden. So seeing as I haven’t posted a drawing or painting for a while I thought I’d share two little pencil drawings with you, that I’ve been working on while sitting in the sun enjoying being part of nature.

I’ve drawn a very fluffy bumblebee and a seven spot ladybird beetle, two of the most recognisable bugs in the world – both are postcard size 300gsm paper and are only 13x18cm. They are drawn free hand and created using Arteza pencils.

It’s odd but I don’t often sit down and actually work with colouring pencils too often, but it’s been nice to change things up a bit. Also they’re definitely better than using paint while sitting in the sun.

Seven spot ladybird beetles are particularly beautiful, I love the way they bustle about in the grass and I love having the chance to create some really bright and nature inspired art.

I’m so pleased with this bumblebee, I think I captured the fluffiness of him pretty well, actually I drew one similar back in 2021 and its really cool to see how my style/technique has improved and developed over the last couple of years.

Thank you so much for stopping by to check out my art…I hope you like it! Do you have any suggestions of other bugs I could draw? I wish you a truly wonder filed week ahead…next weeks post is shaping up to be the third of my Fleeting Thoughts.

Ps. If you wanna check out my 2021 bumblebee its HERE!

Orange tip {Embroidered Butterfly}

On May 12, 2023 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs2 Comments

Hello my friends!

How ya doing?

I’ve got a new butterfly embroidery to share this week. I recently got the chance to be the adoptive parent of some Orange tip butterfly pupae – I did a post on them a couple of weeks ago (links at the bottom incase you fancy giving it a read!)

So this is #2 on my Embroidered Butterfly challenge. According to Butterfly Conservation there are 59 types of butterflies in the UK.

Unlike the Small tortoiseshell (that kicked off my project) you can easily distinguish between the two sexes of Orange tip butterflies. The males are unmistakable little white butterflies with bright orange wingtips and the females are white with black wingtips.

I thought it would be fun to create both a male and female and have decided to call them Gary and Gladys (I have no idea why) size wise this lovely little pair are both about 8cm across. The body of each one has a crocodile clip sewn on so that I can attach the butterflies to plants, my intention is to fill the house with them…

I’m also starting a hashtag for them so my butterflies will be tagged with #ArtymisskButterflies on here and my other socials.

Creating these butterflies always starts with sketching the basic butterfly shapes, I only focus on one upper and lower wing and then copy it in reverse, the Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland by Richard Lewington is full of these amazing sketches and facts about each type of butterfly. Once I’m happy with the design I then transfer my sketch onto calico and colour them in with the closest matching threads I have – actually picking a colour for the veins is tricky with a white wing so in the end I went for a pale grey.

Well that’s it for this week…what do you think? I’d love some feedback on this piece and I’m hoping that you’ll stay with me on my butterfly creating adventure. Thank you so much for reading this post, and I wish you a prosperous week ahead!

Ps. My Orange tip butterfly post is HERE and if you want to have a look at butterfly #1 its HERE!

©️ ArtyMissK (2023)

Bag End and Beyond {Art}

On April 7, 2023 By ArtyMissKIn ArtLeave a comment

Hello my friends!

Lets travel back a couple of weeks…

Incase you didn’t know March 25th was chosen by Tolkien as the date on which The One Ring was destroyed, defeating Sauron forever and finishing Frodo’s quest!

It’s known among fans of the author as Tolkien Reading Day. As I’ve mentioned before J.R.R Tolkien is one of my two favourite authors (the other being Terry Pratchett). Celebrating the 25th and Middle Earth can be as simple as picking up a book and reading or creating a piece of art, writing some poetry or just watching the movies…I know some of my fellow nerds who spend the day in their awesomely recreated costumes!

Tolkien Ready Day has a theme each year set be the Tolkien Society, 2023 was themed Travel and adventure. So I drew a quick little postcard sized pencil sketch of Bag End and the Wide World Beyond as I love to draw new places I’ve been to when I’m out adventuring and painted it with my watercolours.

I don’t often paint landscapes but its been nice to change things up a bit.

Tolkien himself was a really good illustrator and actually illustrated the early versions of both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, his line drawings are amazing. If you’ve never seen them I defiantly recommend having a look – The Art of Tolkien is a great book filled with his drawings and sketches.

Well that’s about it for me! Is there anywhere in particular you’d love to adventure to? As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week filled with excitement and adventure!

Small tortoiseshell {Embroidered Butterfly}

On March 31, 2023May 12, 2023 By ArtyMissKIn Art, needlework, Needlework Bugs10 Comments

Hello friends!

I’ve got a new butterfly embroidery to share this week. I’m really happy with the Small tortoiseshell photograph (that I posted last week!) I particularly love this type of butterfly, they always seem so happy – don’t get me wrong all butterflies seem happy, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who didn’t like/was scared of them (not that there’s anything wrong in that of course).

So now I’ve created a few of these I have decided to give myself a bit of a challenge…I’m gonna have a go at creating all 59 types of British butterflies…in scale with each other!

Obviously not actual life-size scale – they’ll still be larger than normal, ones like the Chequered skipper or the Small blue are tiny and would be so fiddly to do, I’m going to use the Large white that I made last year as the starting point for the sizes I’m using because its one of the biggest butterflies we get here.

So, first up is one of my favourites – the Small tortoiseshell, they have a wingspan average of 4-ish cm and are one of the first butterflies to be seen in spring after hibernating over the winter in adult form, amazingly these butterflies can live for up to a year! They lay their eggs on Stinging nettles which grow into spiky green and black caterpillars.

Now, this little fella is only 8 centimetres across and I’ve tried to make the body seem as fluffy as the photograph (my plan is to make them twice their normal size!) Ain’t he cute?

Size wise my Large white is about 4 inches across – there are only a few bigger than this, one is the Swallowtail another is the Purple emperor. The body of the butterfly has a crocodile clip sewn on so that I can attach the butterflies to plants around the house or even wear them in my hair!

I start by sketching the basic butterfly shapes out on paper, I’ve gone and bought the Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland by Richard Lewington which is super helpful. Once I’m happy I then transfer my sketch onto calico and colour it in with the closest matching threads I have and when finished I attach the wings to the body and create a backing canvas with the butterflies name in an embroidery hoop with plain calico.

Each one takes roughly a week to do so I’m expecting this to be a long haul hobby!

©️ ArtyMissK (2023)

Mothers Day World Turtle {Art}

On March 17, 2023March 31, 2023 By ArtyMissKIn Art, World Turtles9 Comments

Hello friends!

This coming Sunday is Mothers Day (in the UK) and one of the things I’ve always done is make something for my mum, I decided a while back that I wanted to paint her something which evolved into a new World Turtle illustration, that I want to share with you.

This is the fifth World Turtle and my growing collection now contains Spring, Autumn, Winter and Valentines illustrations and now I can add a Mothers day one too!!!

So this painting features not one, but three World Turtles – a mummy and two hatchlings! As its a mothers day themed painting I wanted there to be a lot of pink and flowers – so its kinda incorporating all the colours you’d find in a bouquet. Foliage wise the trees and bushes are in bright shades of green.