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LuxDani — Warnings on Wings
Published: 2008-09-29 01:01:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 3160; Favourites: 19; Downloads: 40
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Description
Title refers to the fact that in the natural world, it is very common for insects and amphibians to have very bright colours if they are toxic. The bright colours act as a warning to those that want to make a meal out of them. These here probably wouldn't be toxic, but the colours could say otherwise.I had a huge urge to take out my watercolours and make use of them, and to draw and paint butterflies and moths.
I based these both off a collection of them. The green mostly off the Death's Head Hawk Moth . Tweaked the colours a bit, emphasized on the skull pattern.
The blue one is heavily based on a Blue Morpho , a bit off a
Swallowtail Butterfly and a Monarch Butterfly .
I found huge enjoyment in painting this. The more I use watercolours the more I come to love them.
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Comments: 12
wowza, very coo' ^^ I was surprised to hear that it was watercolours you used; the colours are so strong (which is a good thing for this pic methinks! xD) The blue really stands out quite nicely
And neat choices of butterflies to mix 'n match ^^ (Whenever someone mentions monarch butterflies, I instantly think "HALLOWEEN!" lol xD)
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Oooo... this is different. It's been a while since I've seen you do butterflies.
First off, the veins on the blue butterfly are too thick. In your example , you see how all the veins are very thin and bump out? You can use that to your advantage by drawing the lines skinnier and just doing light shadows under (or a light effect to make them shine out more - both effects are pretty).
Great job with the coloring, it is definitely one of the harder things to do in these sorts of pictures. One of the things you could do to improve it is decide whether the dark colors should be near the body or the edges of the wings. It adds some volume to your pictures and it's a cool effect (from very dark gradually to the amazing light blue color). So there was your example, now here's one of mine that has the light near the body instead of on the edges of the wings.
Body itself is fine for both - I would add some more shadows and such to the green's body, but besides that, both are very well done. I especially like the ridges on the blue butterfly. You did a nice job with making it look ridged.
As for the green moth, the lower wings are very well done - wouldn't change a thing. It's the front wings that bother me. Because of how they're done, you can't tell whether those wings are on top, bottom, or side by side with the lower wings. Here's a picture I found that could be of some help to see how a moth would look with wings spread out . What I would do to help settle things straight is actually either make the front wings larger or the lower wings smaller. Moths generally create a triangle shape with their wings, and it helps with showing how they're set up. Besides which, nice job. Sorry I couldn't be of as much help as usual with this butterfly picture, but hopefully I was of some help.
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It was my intentions to make the lines on the wings of the blue thicker than how they would normally look on a regular blue morpho, I was leaning a little more towards the pattern on the wings of a monarch, but taking the colour from the blue morpho. Like in this ref here .
I do agree with you about the variation in the darkness of the blue, I think I should have darkened it more either towards the edges of the wings or to the body. It would make the lighter blue brighter and more luminescent.
I had a little trouble with the wings of the green moth, mostly the top set. Now that I look at it again, I should have curved the wings on the bottom part a bit, making it more convex. Mine are very concave all the way through, they arch far too much.
Thanks for critiquing.
I'm going to have fun going through the latest ones that you left.
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Oh now that photo was strange. Not only are the veins on the wings thicker, but there are also white spots on the body. You don't often see that - this is actually the first time I saw something besides black/grey on the body. Almost makes me question whether the photo's real or not. ... *ponders*
Yup, no problem. ^^ Now what was especially funny to me was that I said "Ok! I'll get through all of Kodriak's pictures and then go to bed." so I go through, and once I finish all of them, you posted your newest picture. I just went "oh gosh......" So that was really funny. I ended up not doing it because it was late and I wanted to give good critiques, not an oh gosh, I'm tired I want ta go to bed....
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Now that you've mentioned it, I've never really noticed any spots on the bodies of monarchs before. But I just did a bit of researching on the internet and its very common for them to have white spots on the bodies. The Viceroy Butterfly too, a Monarch look-alike, has the spots. The ref I linked to you in the last comment is a monarch, so it looks like Monarchs do have the spots.
I suppose the reasoning behind never noticing the spots is that they don't have them on their backs. Its pretty common for a photograph to be taken of the open wings (though a quick search on "monarch butterfly" on DevArt contradicts this...).
This talk about monarch butterflies reminds me of when we raised one. We've got some milkweed plants in our yard and we usually get some of the caterpillars feeding on them, though we didn't get any this year. One time we took two of the caterpillars and put them in a makeshift cage (large icecream container with screening on top) and they actually made cocoons and turned into Monarchs. I remember watching them come out, and as soon as their wings were dry enough for them to fly we let them out of the house. It was a really neat experience.
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Huh... well that's definitely different. Hey, learn something new each day. ^^
Oh, now that is cool. That would be fun to watch them form their cocoons and then crawl out. I mean it, what other sort of animal goes under a transformation like that where they have to wrap themselves alive in a shell?
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Very pretty colors and the shapes are quite nice.^^
I'm so intimidated by watercolors but you made this look as easy as pencil crayons for me! I may have to give it a go again one day soon.
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You really should try watercolours again!
I used to really dislike painting with them, I found that it was so hard to be in control of the paint. But after an art lesson I took I really came to enjoy painting with them again. They have a much looser feel and I find its easier to get some neat effects with them.
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I should try! My only real experience with them was back at a very young age. I'd just wet my brush and the paper as much as possible and everything bled everywhere. lol.
Think I'll look up some tutorials online. Thanks for sparking my interest again.^^
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Ooh, that reminds me of this store...gallery I once went to. They had glass boxes with -dead- insects in them. It was so cool. I especially loved the butterflies; all of them were so vibrant and exotic! I never would've imagined that butterflies (and moths) had so many variations.
I think that...my most favorite creature has turned from the cicada into the butterfly, as of lately...
On to the picture!
I love how you colored big blue over there; it has a very nice coloring effect...almost like stained glass, which perfectly fits the butterfly. And I love that green moth so. Its little skull pattern kinda scares me, though...
Great work on this Kodes.
It's, as they would say, badass. BD
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Deep down inside butterflies and moths have always been my faves. <3
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