Urocerus gigas

As you may have noticed I am obsessed with insects, so naturally I love to draw them, something I haven't been doing a lot lately to try and broaden my technique range, but today i decided to go back to a familiar subject.
This drawings is mainly permanent Pro-markers, fine line pen, and acrylic paint. On cartridge paper.

Urocerus gigas is a huge species of Sawfly, found here in the UK. the female has a large ovipositor which she uses to drill into sickly pine trunks or logs and deposit her eggs. The females are around 45mm long, and I have yet to see one!

Recent work...

I have recently completed these three small paintings, I never really use paint so was good for me to get some fairly quick work done in this medium. The images are not about anything in particular, in fact I made them up as I went along because they aren't fully resolved pieces, but I am pleased with how they turned out, especially with a finish of spray varnish to give that authentic religious Icon look...
All 3 are around A6 size, acrylic paint and pencil on cartridge paper.

Specimens

Recently i visited the Huntarian museum, part of the Royal college of Surgeons in London. The museum is small, but packed with all sorts of amazing medical specimens, from insects and chickens to human foetus's and deformed skeletons.

I have been fascinated with any natural history artefacts almost all my life, especially the strange and morbid sides of nature (probably why I love insects!).
The museum rekindled my desire to create my own specimens, so here are the family:

They are all modelled with Fimo, and coloured slightly with ink, before being baked to harden. Then sealed into their new homes. They are all quite small, the two in the smallest jars are around 25mm. i am hoping to make a larger specimen soon....

How Gargantua was Born in a Strange Manner

Today we finally performed our strange cabaret to the rest of the Illustration group, it seemed to go down well, and we managed to create an appropriate atmosphere with a red lamp and our choice of eerie music...

Here are some photos taken of us performing:

Gargantua, the baby...

Our short performance is almost ready, we are acting a small extract from The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel, a 16th Century tale. Our chapter is " How Gargantua was born in a strange manner" - so, of course we need a newborn Gargantua!
The head is paper mache (shaped over a balloon) finished with Acrylic, Varnish and some human hair!

Cabaret ...set Photos...

So, today we started filming for our Cabaret project, as part of the Illustration course at Camberwell.
Photos aren't amazing, but just to show the costumes and some of the fun we had!

Cabaret Nightmares

Some Photographs taken for an Illustration project I am currently working on....