I’ve been putting a few hours into drawing things again for the first time in way too many years, so I grabbed an old sheet of Crescent cold press board from the garage and decided to put it to use.
Here’s a section of what I’ve been working on for a few days in my spare time while I should have been outside doing spring cleaning of our yard. The critters are Prismacolor pencil and ink and are mostly finished. I’m still working on adding the background with graphite pencils.
those are terrific. I love the details and I like the subtle background. Nicely done.
I’m so not a bug person … that being said - Yours are freaking amazing! I love the color and detail. I feel like I’m reading a vintage Entomology book or looking at a print in an old time Apothecary shop. Stunning work as always.
On a side note:
I so adore Prismacolor pencils. Mine are completely worn down. I need a new set … but holy moly they want an arm and a leg for them these days. 
those are amazing! great job.
Insects aren’t exactly my thing either, but when they’re, um, euthanized and looked at with a magnifying glass as I did with these, they’re made up from a collection of pretty interesting parts and shapes.
Yeah, good colored pencils have gotten pricey. Luckily, I have lots of them left over from years ago when I used them more often. I kept hearing that Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils were better in some ways, but they’re even more expensive than the Prismacolor pencils. I bought two or three anyway, just to test, and didn’t notice much difference. I think I’ll stick to my old Prismacolors.
I like the illustration very much but more importantly did you enjoy working on it?
Mad skills. When I tell people I cannot draw, this is what I mean.
I could never do that in a million years.
Yes I can draw basic shapes and concepts. But this is another level.
Unbelievable talent!!!
Well done Mr. B.
Love the color shading and details! Beeeeeeutifil—for a Bug!
It’s fantastic! I love the background design as well. When I blow it up and see all the little dots, I’m even more captivated.
Thanks for sharing your work B. It’s just lovely. 
You could sell them as poster/canvas/framed - they’re amazing.
If I had that talent I’d be at markets each week selling them off.
Great work.
Can I ask - where you doing it for something to do or part of a project?
If it’s just a hobby - you can have some skills that are extremely profitable.
My mother used to run art classes showing people how to paint on glass. She was very good at it and turned over a tidy profit.
Some of her stuff went into art galleries and she managed to sell some paintings on glass for between 500 and 1000.
Something to think about.
Thanks! 
I made the background by sketching the shapes and filling them in with a solid tone using graphite pencils and blending stumps. Then I carved out all the white highlights with an electric eraser.
When I worked for a newspaper, I had plenty of opportunities to do illustrations. After that, the opportunities were few and far between. Until recently, I hadn’t drawn much in years. Now that I’m slowly drifting into retirement and working fewer hours, I have some spare time to do a few things just for the sake of doing them.
The big problem is that I’m slow and deliberate instead of fast and spontaneous. I can focus on these things for 20–30 minutes before mental exhaustion kicks in and I need to do something else for an hour or two. That, and the fact that I get too caught up in the details adds up to lots of time spent on work that few are willing to pay for.
You’d be very surprised what people will pay for.
Truly stunning work. Really impressive.
I felt these remarks deeply in my soul. My leather work usually ends up like this. Feature creep is real.
As long as I’m showing personal illustration projects, here’s another.
I posted this on Facebook a few weeks ago, so some of you have already seen it. Like the insects, it’s a colored pencil illustration. It’s a portrait of Carol Lombard, a 1940s movie actress, that I dressed up in a 1920s flapper outfit. I used acrylic paint for the silver and gold spots on the dress.
Wow.
That’s all I’ve got.
Wow.
