Work in progress, Insects - Gregory Carter

I started by researching the beetles I was going to illustrate. I was able to explore the Museum of Zoology collections at the University go Michigan and select a range of beetles to illustrate.

I started the drawing process by creating a 1 by 1 grid to go over the beetles. Which I then duplicate onto a larger piece of paper. I drew the outline of the beetles using a microscope when necessary.
Once I have a detailed outline of the beetle I then used carbon dust and graphite pencils. I used the real beetle for reference and also close up photographs to see the textures.

When the drawing was finished I then scanned the drawing and edited it on Photoshop. I usually edit some of the levels in Photoshop to get a better range of values.

With the finished and edited drawing I then added colour on Photoshop.