This is a photograph I took recently of a butterfly, according to some research this is a common European butterfly species called Sulphurs. I think it's fascinating how similar the closed butterfly wings look to leafs of plants. It is a clever way for insects like butterflies to camouflage themselves from any dangers that they may face. This gives me inspiration for my butterfly theme, so far I have mostly focused on butterflies and their colours, but now I have an idea of observing how butterflies use their bodies in order to blend in, become unnoticed, unless focused on closely. It reminds me of some work that I have done in the style of Rebbeca J Coles, where I painted a sky, from my own photograph and then created paper butterflies that looked similar to the background to make them blend in more. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz7lGA1Tb7GT865WVkeWQye8a6Gx3WnyC0SUX4S06i0xcGIYNf9edZvw92l9LNw6joT8vG9q_8PaXFJRJlBAOvNBZ1GmcoNcLt14D98ofnusG8gzLl-2F0A8yYD53YWgBIsZEqssfGMWE/s1600/BeFunky_DSC_1353.jpg . I want to take this idea further, I want to show butterflies captured "flying" in some sort of sky or background, like they are frozen in time. Because I found out "An adult butterfly probably has an average life-span of approximately one month. In the wild, most butterflies lives are shorter than this because of the dangers provided by predators, disease, and large objects, such as automobiles. The smallest butterflies may live only a week or so, while a few butterflies, such as Monarchs, Mourning Cloaks and tropical heliconians, can live up to nine months." (1) So although we usually see them round both spring and summer, we may not realize how short their life-span is, and the fact that most likely we see a specific butterfly only once.
Also not so long ago I managed to capture images of 2 different moths that were on my window during night time.
I have discovered "Butterflies and moths are evolutionarily related group of insects, called lepidoptera, that share many characteristics, including having wings covered with scales...Many butterflies are very colorful and almost all butterflies are active exclusively during the day. In contrast, most moths are fairly drably colored and are active at night. But there are quite a few butterflies that are dull and quite a few moths that are brilliantly colored and fly during the daytime. " (1)
I find the whole idea of moths being the "night" butterflies quite interesting, because before seeing those two moths on my window, I never really thought about them, or even the fact that they are relevant to my butterfly theme. It's like a contrast between good and the bad. Because usually butterflies are assumed as the pretty non-scary looking insects, whilst moths are quite dull and seen more as pests that aren't as likable.
Maybe I could consider connecting the two insects together, to represent the day and the night, although I am not sure about this. However I still did some moth drawings inspired by Michael Cina.
Michael Cina - "Past Context" Collage.
I have already drawn butterflies in the same style before earlier in my sketch book (although using conte crayon and chalk for butterflies that are light coloured and delicate was not very suitable, I think it works well for drawing moths because the neutral paper colours, conte-crayon and chalk combined together create this dull organic and natural looking colour tone, that is quite similar to a moth. Overall I still prefer to have the main subject as butterflies, however it was interesting to examine and draw moths, to discover different ways to draw them.
References
1) http://naba.org/qanda.html
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