Entomology Collection

My Entomology collection is a series of three Acrylic paintings, based on insects I was drawn to on my visits to Liverpool Museum.
My process focused on highlighting the beauty in the insects, I did this by extracting the vibrant hues and focusing on colour. I began with a thick layer of gesso which I applied to the area I knew would be the beetles back. This helped create a textural surface, much like that of a beetles exoskeleton. This also provided a surface in which I could build up layers of acrylic, but allowed texture to still peek out, as seen in the little white bumps of the paintings. I mixed my acrylic with a retarder gel and this gave me a transparency to the paint while maintaining the colour. Allowing me to wash over areas and build up the shiny surface. Lastly I created stronger, more vibrant areas using a water soluble crayon. The crayon defined the overall shape of the insect as well as adding concentrated flecks of colour.

All the pieces in this collection are available to buy as Giclee prints!