Phoebe is a female phasmid. First of all find out the main lines of her body. So this is a little bit like a spiral. Then you can add in simple lines for her legs. Just press lightly.
Next the shape. So lines and shapes. Next the shape is of a head. Pop in her neck and then you can start filling in the shape of her body. This applies to anything that you're drawing really. This is the way that I always go about it. Start with the lines and the shapes. Now we can start doing the next layer which is the finer details. If you've got a magnifying glass to look at your animal that's even more useful. Perhaps Phoebe's got little spikes on her head. In fact, she's got spikes all over her body and all over her legs to help her to grip. Um so then next start filling in her body parts. Once again, we're looking at a line. The lines of her legs and she's got little tiny feet with little tiny claws on them to grip on. So draw them in. Keep continuing with all the details.
So Phoebe's got little tiny wings. Female phasmids don't actually use their wings. We're going to draw the leaf that Phoebe's sitting on so she's not suspended in space. You might even see the little bite mark that she's made in her leaf (cockatoo squawks). So just draw it as you see it, as well as you can see it, doesn't matter if it's not the same. That's fine. So filling in the leaf. Now going back to, you can choose any body part that you want to, start building up. So these are what's called layers. So the very first drawing part of the drawings are under drawing then you're adding on the details in layers. And you're pressing probably a little bit harder with your pencil now because these are the lines and shapes that you want to stay. Do a little bit of shading under her head. When you do the shading the darks and the light areas that begins to give your drawing make your drawing look 3D. Now I'm looking at the segments in um Phoebe's abdomen. So body's segmental and she's got little spikes all over her there. All I think to help her um to cling on to branches and leaves and stay safe and maybe make herself look a bit fierce like a scorpion. Okay at the end it's a great idea to label your picture with things that you know or you'd like to find out about and um yeah it can become a really interesting record of your observations of your animal.
Thank you.
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