Repulsively attractive

I had to look hard at the tarantula and black widow spider. Up close. Again and again. Wincing wasn’t helping. Short sittings did — a little. So over many short sittings I drew the pages of insects needed to complete lesson 4 (applying construction to insects and arachnids) of Draw-a-Box. Done. Earned another badge, “Fearless.”

Curious, though — Why are things that are so repulsive, so attractive to draw? Couple of reasons occur to me. Let’s see if they ring true in the writing here.

Lesson four gave us a little insect anatomy and that smidgen of info goes a long way when looking at a reference. (Did you know that all insect legs come out of their thorax even though some look like they’re coming out of the abdomen?) We focus on how heads, thoraxes, abdomens, legs connect together in 3-D space. How the insect’s armor wraps around its abdomen. How the leg segments zig and zag.

I got better as I drew more insects. Pretty soon I was like, yeah, I bet I can draw that. And it was at that point, looking at scorpions, ants, flies and spiders became interesting. It seems that it’s more appealing to draw something that has a chance of coming out alright. Rings true (if a bit obvious).

Another benefit of drawing insects is that I’m getting pretty good at finding and using reference photos. Trick: on the iPad, head to Google images and filter for only high resolution images, then drag them into VizRef (has to be the most intuitive app out there). And when ready to draw, put iPad on drawing table, open VizRef and tap on the image to bring up a big, clear picture. This streamlined workflow is attractive to engage with — I’m going to have something to work with in no time! That rings true too.

And with insects being a subject matter I now assume I can figure out, the rendering step in charcoal is a blast. How will I capture that furry fly? The hard surfaced ant? Let me turn this into an insect portrait next. I’m more free to try things, make a mess, find a few things that work.