The insect population is Earth's largest animal population.
Drawing insects might seem a difficult task because of the enormous variety of insect shapes and sizes. But, many insects share similar features, which makes drawing them easier. For example, termites and ants have bodies that are about the same in length, color and number of segments (three). And there are other facts that make drawing insects easier: many insect body parts have instantly recognizable shapes. For example, the body of ladybugs is a simple oval. The more time you spend drawing insects, the more visual aids you'll discover to improve your drawings.
Instructions
1. Form the insect's body by draw an oval on your paper of any size, and ensure its length is greater than its width. You can also form the body by drawing a chain of three ovals, like a figure eight with an extra oval on top.
Choose the first option to draw bugs like cockroaches and beetles, which appear to have only a single body segment. Choose the second option if you want to draw insects whose three body segments are visible, e.g., ants, bees, termites.
2. Make legs. Draw three pairs of "L"-shapes, with three of them extending from body's left side, and three from the right side. For your first few bug drawings, space the legs evenly along the body's width so you see each leg clearly.
Experiment with different leg lengths, but keep this idea in mind--many flying insects have short legs. These include fruit flies and termites. (Mosquitoes, however, have long legs.) Therefore, if you want a flying insect, try making short legs first.
3. Create wings. This step is optional. If your insect doesn't fly, move onto the next step. If your insect does fly, draw wings as teardrops, whose thinner portion attaches to the center of the body, and whose wider portion extends out toward the rear left and right of the body. Experiment with drawing the wings at different angles with the body. The wings of the dragonfly, for instance, form 90-degree angles with the body. The angle of fruit fly wings, by contrast, is less than 45 degrees.
For more attractive insects like butterflies, turn your paper counterclockwise one-quarter turn so the head is on the left. Draw a curvy "M" slightly above the body, and as long as the body. Then, connect the left and right ends of the "M" with a curve that bows downward to touch the body.
4. Draw antennae as a pair of curves that sprout from the head and arc left and right. Experiment with different lengths and curvature amounts, with these facts in mind--many flying insects (e.g., fruit flies, termites, bees) have very short antennae, while cockroaches and crickets have long antennae.
5. Add details for realism. Draw horizontal lines across the lowest oval of insects with three body ovals. These lines represent the body's segments. Also, draw tiny lines or curves on the insect's legs, if the insect frequently crawls (e.g., cockroaches). Color the insect's body if the color is clearly visible (e.g., grasshoppers, ladybugs, black beetles).
Tags: Experiment with, insect body, left right, angles with, angles with body