One of the things that I’ve noticed this week, while drawing bees with Zev is how inaccurate most cartoon/clip-art bees are. I’m not saying that my ten second cartoon bee draw in chalk on my front walk is a scientific illustration, but it’s a little better than average. I’m going to show you guys how to draw a Slightly better bee. For the purpose of this demonstration, I’ll be using my kids Crayola markers.

Here’s the finished quilt! (Apis mellifera in a bee hive)

Here are the bees ready to print! I’ve arranged seven of them onto a yard of fabric. They should be nice and big for the quilt. I’m making this design free on Spoonflower. That means that you can print them yourself and use them for (nearly) anything you’d like. You still have to buy the fabric from Spoonflower, but there’s no additional cost added by me. Please note that I do retain copyright for the images, so they are intended for personal, not commercial use. If you want, say an Apis mellifera tote bag for farmers market, or a really funky skirt they’d be great though!

Bee fabric: http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/4138184

 

 

Here are the three final bee illustrations for the quilt. They are watercolor and sharpie on watercolor paper. I’m hoping that the sharpie lines are thick enough to hold-up to applique.

I haven’t made any new fabric designs since the Landsat Fabric/dress (https://walkaboutem.com/2013/01/26/landsat-fabric/) which turned out to be a huge hit. I think that me and Zev’s bee drawing might make a fun quilt. I’m planning to use hexagons as a hive and overlay a few bee appliques.

As I start planning the bee quilt I start by drawing a lateral bee cartoon. It’s already a little graphic for traditional science illustration, but I want more clearly delineated edges for a bee applique. I think that anything where I have to cut out and sew around legs and antennae is going to be a mistake. If the quilt really needs anntenae at the end, I can embroider them on afterwards. Also, I’ve noticed that bees in their hive are in more of a dorsal view. Time for a redraw.

Last night, my son and I were drawing bees in a hive on his craft table. I gave him markers for the first time because he seems to have gotten the hang of both crayons and chalk now. I really enjoyed drawing cartoony bees. I’ve never really done that before. I made a few sticker bees from a scrap of sticker paper that I had lying around. They will need legs and antennae still, but should be a nice overlay over his doodles at the end.

 

Zev drawing bees in a bee hive at his art table:

Our finished bee collaboration: 24″ x 32″, crayon and marker. I love how the textures and colors turned out. (I didn’t end-up using the bee stickers, I will mail them to someone who would like them.)

Here’s a close-up of one of the cartoony bees.

Bee stickers! Share this post for a chance to win them!

In loving memory of Dramkon the Dragon.

September 2008 – May 25, 2015