Artist's Note:

Several years ago I had a pet Bearded Dragon. While I had her, one of her favourite meals was fresh, hoppy, grasshoppers. Now usually she’d only eat the small ones, and after they got to a certain size they were no longer suitable for her to eat. I didn’t want to kill these wary little creatures needlessly, just because they got too big. So the few that did get too big for her to eat ended up getting kept in their own enclosure, and I’d watch them grow and transform. I genuinely didn’t realize how big they got, and only learned that grasshoppers eventually turn into locusts when in large enough groups when one of them became so big I had to do some digging.

As well as being a foodstuff for reptiles, they are impressive critters in their own right. From the cute little bugs they are starting out, to the adults that look like they are ready for war, they are a sight to behold no matter what stage they are at. This struck me as something that would be fun to paint, so I started work on what ended up the painting above. I used it as a way to test out if I could work efficiently between Procreate on my iPad, and Corel Painter on my pc. I did all the base work on the iPad, then finished it all off in Painter. Painting this grasshopper made me realize how fun insects could be to paint, as well as how aesthetically pleasing they can be. If you want to know more about grasshoppers you can find info here.