For the last video in this short series of butterfly painting videos I chose to sketch a moth. Drawing moths follows similar rules as for butterflies, you work with the same triangle shape and just switch it around.
The Russian Bear (also called Spanish flag or Jersey tiger) is a big moth (over 50mm) with intensely red hind wings that are only shown to scare predators away. When their wings are folded, they’re actually well camouflaged and hard to see. They like sunny and open terrain and dry grasslands.
This species is still somewhat common, but the biggest population can apparently be found on the Greek island of Rhodos, in the aptly named Valley of the Butterflies. You can find up to 1.000 individuals per square meter in summer, when they’re sheltering in the valley from the summer heat. The local crabs use the butterflies as a food source.
I thought it would be nice to sketch such a colorful moth, and I had a lot of fun with the pattern on this one.
Here’s a shorter outtake of the video, I hope you enjoy it!
Sketching a Russian Bear moth in watercolor and colored pencil
For those of you interested, a longer version of this tutorial is available in my (updated!) class “How to paint butterflies”. The class covers the basics of butterfly anatomy, I show sketching techniques and tips, and give several demonstrations in watercolor and colored pencil from start to finish, including several different butterflies, caterpillars and moths. The whole course has over 2 hours of video.
This tutorial came at the perfect time. I’ve been moth crazy lately, stitching them over and over. I’ll have to see if I can draw, then stitch a Russian Bear Moth!
Ohh, stitching moths sounds wonderful too, I’d love to see the result if you end up stitching the Bear Moth!!