The Beetlelady gave a presentation less about illustrating insects and more about the absolutely astonishing diversity of them. No, really. More than that! Still more!

• Half of all described animal species are insects (about 900,000 insects described)
• We think we’ve described close to all the mammal species… but perhaps only 1/5th or 1/10th or… of insects (estimates vary widely!)

From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_biodiversity and https://www.si.edu/spotlight/buginfo/bugnos

You could discover new species!

She did encourage her watchers to also draw some. I paused the video recording long enough to practice with these two: a desert beetle of some kind (sharpie fine line and watercolor) and a scavenger beetle (a hide beetle? For its wingcover texture?) (graphite and watercolor).

Part of me feels I could draw & paint beetles all day.

This sketchbook by the way is wonderful. Ive taken it to Greenland and Iceland, Florida, Svalbard. It’s my travel-nature-practice journal , and has unfinished pictures and entries. It’s hardbound, has white and toned paper, some guidance in the back (that I forgot was there until recently). My pencil marks have smudged over time (no fixative applied!).

There are several other sketchbooks I’d like to try — recommended in different lectures — but I’m pretty well stocked at the moment. Later!