Continuing my insect series. This yellow jacket was drawn with Micron pens and water-based markers. I used graphite for the shadow and a Gelly Roll pen for highlights.
Sometimes, a good goodbye is also a fresh hello.
As we wrapped up our "Sacred Spaces" paintings, I asked our student teacher to design a one-day project—something playful, earthy, and engaging to ease the class into her care. She brought mud. Literally.
Using mud and simple stencils, students pressed images—flowers, insects, wings—onto the sidewalk behind our school. There's something timeless about making marks with the ground itself. It felt ancient and immediate at the same time.
These prints won’t last long, but maybe that’s the point. A fleeting image, a shared laugh, a new hand guiding the next phase of learning.
Art is about making marks. Not all of them need to be permanent.
A mason jar filled with glowing fireflies casts a warm, bright light. The playful arrangement of the fireflies creates a whimsical and enchanting effect.
I just finished the Calandra Lark. Here are some facts about this beautiful bird...
Appearance: It's a large lark, about 17.5-20 cm long, with a robust build, a heavy bill, and noticeable pale eyebrows
. Its plumage is mainly greyish-brown streaked above and white below, with large black patches on the breast sides.
Habitat: This species is found in open plains, steppes, pastures, and dry cereal cultivations. It's mainly resident in the west of its range but Russian populations migrate further south in winter.
Diet: Their main food source is seeds, but they also consume insects when nesting.
Behaviour: Calandra Larks are known to be gregarious outside the breeding season, often forming large flocks.
Song: Their song is considered musical and slower than the Skylark's. It has been historically popular as a cagebird.
The Moon Mason Bees spread life throughout the galaxy in the world of Under a Hostile Sun!
Astronauts love them. Hate them. Hate to love them and love to hate them. The Moon Masons are larger than cars, have the curiosity of squirrels, the hive mind of insects and endless mutagenic powers.
https://muckraker.itch.io/under-a-hostile-sun
Watercolor commissions I did for a wedding theme around Mediterrano and Provence, here is the final product integrating all the watercolor illustrations
The Green Heron is one of the world’s few tool-using bird species. It often creates fishing lures with bread crusts, insects, and feathers, dropping them on the surface of the water to entice small fish.
Green Herons usually hunt by wading in shallow water, but occasionally they dive for deep-water prey and need to swim back to shore—probably with help from the webs between their middle and outer toes.
Flight of the bumblebee The lifecycle begins in spring, when rising temperatures awaken a queen bumblebee that has been hibernating alone in the soil. The queen will have spent the entire winter underground, using up reserves of energy stored as fat in her body. When she first emerges, she feeds on flowers, drinking nectar to gain energy. She will then begin to search for a suitable nest site. Frequent nesting sites include holes in the ground, tussocky grass, bird boxes and under garden sheds.
The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is the smallest and least common of the UK's three species of woodpecker. It is most often found in the tops of trees where it creeps along branches in search of insects. Found in England, but rare in the north. Absent from Scotland and Ireland. Its 'drumming' is much quieter and less vigorous than that of the Great Spotted Woodpecker; its presence is often only given away by this or their call.
The lesser spotted woodpecker is small in size, being not much bigger than a house sparrow. Males are black and white, with a red crown cap, and females are plain black and white. They both have a distinctive white ladder marking down their black back.
**Did you know?**
There are now believed to be less than 3,000 pairs breeding annually in the UK compared to nearly 45,000 greater spotted woodpeckers.
The implementation of the project for the Akademos kindergarten in Poznań has ended. The idea behind the project was to create a jungle staircase in which children will be able to cover something new every day while walking down the corridor. Many animals, reptiles and insects are hidden in the thicket of plants. So that the number of details and small elements does not overwhelm the space, we used a black and white combination with small colorful accents, which are also to stimulate the imagination of children. Realistically painted birds are an additional decorative element, which can be a background for photo sessions.
The implementation of the project for the Akademos kindergarten in Poznań has ended. The idea behind the project was to create a jungle staircase in which children will be able to cover something new every day while walking down the corridor. Many animals, reptiles, and insects are hidden in the thicket of plants. So that the number of details and small elements does not overwhelm the space, we used a black and white combination with small colorful accents, which are also to stimulate the imagination of children. Realistically painted birds are an additional decorative element, which can be a background for photo sessions.
The implementation of the project for the Akademos kindergarten in Poznań has ended. The idea behind the project was to create a jungle staircase in which children will be able to cover something new every day while walking down the corridor. Many animals, reptiles and insects are hidden in the thicket of plants. So that the number of details and small elements does not overwhelm the space, we used a black and white combination with small colorful accents, which are also to stimulate the imagination of children. Realistically painted birds are an additional decorative element, which can be a background for photo sessions.
Many thanks to @czapski.gallery for providing colorful paints, as well as to the kindergarten team who supported the activities.
Quick, random Halloween themed doodle that features a bunch of wacky animals being carried by a candy corn shirt wearing dog. Well, not all of them. (the bird and bug're flying)
