Some Work Acquaintances Asked Me To Make Them A Butterfly Hair Clip After They Helped Me With An Open

I have been making some posable insect themed dragon wings. I am planning to make some articulated paper dragon dolls/puppets for stop motion animation purposes. And also because I love derpy little dragons.

The orange and white one is based off a male orange tip butterfly and the other two are based off different species of lantern bugs.

They are made with watercolour paper, watercolour paint, ink and split pins

Some absolutely gorgeous illustrations. The first one is my absolute fave (dragons are wonderful) Happy birthday btw.

Hey sprouts! 🌱

I recently had a birthday and I would be grateful for a reblog of my favorite works at the moment! :9

My attempt at Smaugust 2024. Though I am randomly selecting prompts from multiple lists.

The first prompt shown is for fungi.

The second prompt is for amphibian.

The third prompt was venomous. I combined an adder which is my country's only native venomous snake with a Hoopoe bird which has a symbiotic relationship with a bacteria which produces noxious chemicals.

My last two atlas moths have emerged from their cocoons. They are beautiful and absolutely fascinating.

Can you see the snake head markings on the tip of each forewing? They are there to deter potential predators, which I think is pretty neat.

They are absolutely gorgeous, and I am so glad that they have all hatched safely. Unfortunately, I think these two are both female so it looks like I won't be getting any fertile eggs.

One damaged it's hind wing a little when it flew into one of my orchids. It is the only one that has shown any interest in flying and has been having short (approximately 2 min) flights around my room every evening. Finding a new place to lay eggs each time.

Some of my old photos of orange flowers. They make me feel happy so i thought i would share them.

Backgrounds and geographical structures are things I, currently can't, but would really like to be able to draw/depict. and these are rendered so beautifully that I am saving it for inspirational purposes

Art by Gui Yuan

I went fossil hunting down at the Warren (in Folkestone, Kent, UK) on Thursday last week. These are some of my favourite finds from the trip (I washed them up at home).

Fossil hunting is great fun. If you live in the UK, and fancy giving it a shot, then there are some really handy websites that you should check out. https://ukfossils.co.uk/ and http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/fossil-locations-of-great-britain/

If you don't live in the UK but still want to give it a go then I would recommend looking for local fossil hunting clubs, societies and websites. Failing that you should try to look for areas where sedimentary rocks are being eroded. For instance, cliffs by the sea, rivers, old quarries, etc.

Just make sure you don't trespass or go anywhere too dangerous. For instance, if you are fossil hunting under cliffs at the beach, don't get to close to the cliffs (falling debris and cliffs collapsing) and plan around the tides (you don't want to get cut off).

Yesterday afternoon I dragged my friend to Denge Wood forest. While there, I spotted one of my top five favorite beetles. These lustrous and magnificent little guys are green tiger beetles (Cicindela campestris).

They are incredibly fast predatory beatles that hunt down and eat other insects. The larvae of this beetle live in individual burrows in sandy soil. They flick out the sand around them creating a pitfall that other insects fall into.

So beautiful but deadly.

Just found some old pictures of the wands my mum and I made for a Fantastic Beasts event at the college LRC (library) where I used to work.

We made them out of newspaper, toilet roll, PVA glue, acrylic paint, beads and plastic gems, and a glue gun.

These were hidden around the LRC and students would hunt for them every day for about two weeks until they found them all. Those that found them got to take them home and we also had some other activities to promote some of our Harry Potter audiobooks, ebooks and physical books and movies.

Bonus points to whoever spots the atrocious spelling mistake I made on the promotional material. Had to remember where we hid them all so I could break out the tipex

Edit: I Would like to mention as an afterthought, I am in no way in support of She Who Must Not Be Named (aka JK Rowling's) personal opinions regarding trans people. In my opinion she has turned into a vial and loathsome individual who has thoroughly tarnished my love of the fictional world she created. Her actions are pointlessly decisive, and harmful to cis and trans women alike.

Though the fanfic + fanart and the diverse community which created it and enriched that world is still incredibly dear to me. Even though I was never an active member (beyond, reading, giving kudos where it was due and occasionally commenting) I still felt like I was part of a friendly welcoming community full of talented (& not so talented), inspiring individuals.

If you are trans then please know that I support you. What is going down at the moment is utter bull. It might not feel like it sometimes, but people are on your side.

I needed to find a relatively inexpensive horticulturaly adjacent activity for little kids. It needs to go alongside a plant sale, face painting and other horticulture and animal care related activities that will be taking place at an open day at work. So after dinner I cracked out my art supplies and had a bit of a play about.

I was trying to do some pastel rubbings, of bark and leaves, but then I whacked out my printmaking bits and bobs to see what they looked like when printed and I decided to go with that. I've since looked online and there are some beautiful examples of leaves being used in printmaking.

If you're doing it with little kiddy-winks then I would suggest using sturdy leaves that aren't too waxy. Really young, tender leaves will work but they tear easily and they get a bit floppy. You can apply ink with a roller to the top or bottom surface off the leaf though the bottom side usually gives better impressions of the veins. Once your leaf (or leaves) are inked up, place them on a scrap piece of paper (inked side up) and then put a piece of paper over the top. You then want to rub the back of the paper with a spoon or barren until the ink has transferred. Then you can peel away the paper and put it somewhere to dry.