I love watching dragonflies. Shimmering in the heat of a summer day, shiny as the lake they swoop over in their zig-zag search for tasty prey, their slim bodies gleam like living jewels.

Since I’ve been doing a few fairies again recently, I have been thinking that I should brush up on my insect-wing drawing skills. It’s been many years since I did an intensive drawing study of butterfly wings (back when I used to draw lots of fairies), and I’m pretty rusty. I don’t like faking it badly when, with a bit of research and practice, I can fake it really well! I was going to start with some nice, simple butterfly wings, but I found some beautiful close-up photos of dragonflies, and got a bit distracted… I think tomorrow’s drawing project will be to do some colouring. I had a lot of fun translating a dragonfly’s body markings into her gown — fashion designers could learn a lot from studying insects!

Dragonfly Fairy — Micron Pigma pens and graphite pencil.