This is a reprint of my submission to Salad Magazine issue 2. Check out the other cool stuff people did too!
A gouache painting of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus). The butterfly is a bilateral gynandromorph: its left wing has the dark morph female pattern, and its right has the male pattern. It feeds on a white daisy with the dorsal sides of its wings facing the viewer. The flower is slightly out of focus and melts into the green background. The butterfly's wings extend out of the frame.
The painting was done using four paints: Prussian blue, cadmium red, yellow ochre, and white. A glitter gel pen was used to add iridescent glitter to the blue spots on the butterfly's hindwings. The photo of the painting was taken in a sunbeam.
I'm not an adult Lego connoisseur by any means, but I've received a handful of the adult/collector sets as gifts over the years. I was pleased as punch to see that they released a collection of realistic insect models consisting of a Chinese mantis, a Hercules beetle, and a blue morpho. I thought they were sold separately, so I spent a long time agonizing over which one to buy until I found out that all three came in a set!
Since these guys clock in at under 30 bucks per model, they're not particularly complex or difficult, but they still provide plenty of mental stimulation for an adult. I'm physically incapable of doing Legos in more than one sitting, so I finished all three of these over the span of an evening — around 4 hours with some distractions, give or take.
These are all made to scale, which is delightful. And the finished bugs are fully poseable! Bug legos: $80. Being able to hold your new little bug friends because you'll probably never get to do that in real life: Priceless.
