July 19 work in progress

Some drawings practically draw themselves. This is not one of them. I think my struggle with this piece is probably all my head, because it's a subject matter I tend to avidly avoid, but I'm making myself do this to prove that I can. Of course I can! At its most basic form, everything is line, color, and texture. Just takes a bit of convincing sometimes. :-) ("But these aren't the colors I normally use!" "But it's not an animal!" "But but but" Yeah...) I'm sure this will have a moment where it all clicks into place. It just isn't there yet...

In total randomness, I found a dead scarab beetle on the sidewalk and took some pictures this afternoon. Pictures similar to these were one of the first things I ever posted when I started blogging three years ago (wow, three years and I haven't scared you all off yet!). That one was alive though. These things are out in the garden/orchard all the time, they're huge and buzzy and scare the bejeebers out of me. I know these are kinda gross, I'm not a bug fan, but I think that color is way cool.


By my standards this is a huge bug. If I ever encountered one of those really giant rainforest beetles I'd probably keel over.

And on a cuter note, nap buddies...awwww.... :-) (Olin and Jessie)