Afraid of Bugs

Spiders On The Drying Rack

When I was little I sat with my dad as he fished the creek by the light of a Coleman gas lamp. There were bugs all over. I would play with the bugs until my mom came down to collect me for bed. Then one day the feel of their legs on my arm tickled and I was instantly creeped out by them. At the same time I am obsessed with them. They are as beautiful as they are creepy, with their tiny tarsal claws, elytral markings, antennea, and external mandibles. My sister Polly has a story about spiders and our attempt to navigate under the culvert. Spoiler, I was a total chicken.

During the month of October, I was very enthusiasticly working on spooky crafts. Above is the result. I had a spider made out of wood. It was flat. I wanted to make a bunch of them so I copied the one spider on my printer. I then mounted them on cardboard and cut them out. I glued legs between two cut outs and puff balls on top for bodies. Here is the result.

Moth In Process

I used my watercolor butterflies to create a watercolor demonstration for my IT training class. I took pictures of the process at different stages. Then, I used a powerpoint presentation to walk the class through how to use blocking to enhance simple watercolor pieces. The technique is something that I developed and it is great for painting leaves in fall.

Dragonfly On The Fly

"Hey Rocky, watch me pull a dragonfly out of my hat." (should be read in dopey moose voice) Lately, I have been thinking about a way to make a clothespin dragonfly. I am not sure how to approach the task. Maybe they will be a success and make their way into future assignments.

Well, since this is not a writing assignment, I will end the tale here. I hope that this page is entertaining to grade. I had fun creating it. I have been learning photoshop on the fly. This dragonfly was set up as I worked on the assignment with stuff that is just laying around in my project room. HepCat is asleep in a basket of ribbons on top of the Buddha cabinet.