[Siren wailing]... Big pink hawkmoth season is upon us. I repeat, big pink hawkmoth season. This is not a drill.

This is an elephant hawkmoth, warming up its wings & taking off. It's caterpillars are also magnificent chonks, and they eat rosebay willow herb (AKA fireweed in the US I think?) This is a perfect reason to do less weeding. Keep some weeds, get big pink hawkmoths like this one.

Thank you from the Moth Promotional Board ✨🦋🐾🛹✨

Here's a test-sheet vs final that you may not have seen, and one of the initial sketchbook pages that goes with. This was my fav commission of last year

Test sheets always feel a bit like the portrait of Dorian Gray... They contain all the mistakes, angst, cussing, internal screaming, etc. But they also store all the learning. I return to them many times to remember how I did things.

Test sheets are also the part of a commission that I get to keep. Sometimes I put them on my wall next to a print of the finished work. They remind me that even drawings that start out looking like they were made by a hangry toddler on a rollercoaster... Usually turn out good at the end 😂

🎶🎵Moth traaaaap is on tooooniiiiiight 🦋💖🎶🎵

Fingers crossed. Here's a beautiful lime hawkmoth that dropped by previously. Not so much warming up it's wings as just deciding I'm furniture and it's not going anywhere heh!

Moth friends to improve your Monday. Little one is a shuttle-shaped dart with tan & dark brown patterned wings. & big fluffy soft grey one is a poplar hawkmoth, with its characteristic hindwings that sit protruding out in front of its forewings 🦋💖

Smol Friend eats lots of low-growing "weeds", so don't tidy up your garden (you know the drill.) Big Fuzzball eats a whole bunch of other trees & shrubs in addition to poplar.

Trees feed moths. Moth caterpillars feed baby birds. You like birds? Then you need to love moths & make sure they have trees. Thank you from the Moth Promotional Board.

It's Monday. Look at this beautiful lime hawkmoth & it's utterly fkn delightful wings. That's better.

Moths. They're improving the world by existing 💖🦋

May we always be blessed with incredibly fluffy moths that make this world worth living in. That is all. 🦋💖

First hawkmoth of the year! Elephant hawkmoth which feeds on willow-herbs/fireweeds (UK/US)

The diversity of species, and overall numbers of moths visiting my light trap this year is so much smaller this year vs last. Gonna guess that's bc of the havoc the heatwave and drought is wreaking on the local plant life that insects rely on. Next week we're on drought water restrictions here. I've been taking a watering can can to the wildflower areas, and I've seen neighbours watering street trees that are looking crispy, but there's only so much any of us can do. 😭

Poplar hawkmoth & lime hawkmoth

These are the two hawkmoths that have visited my moth trap in the month I’ve had it. My nieces have had privet hawkmoths so hopefully I might get one of those dropping by when the weather clears up :)

Willowherb Hawk-moth - Proserpinus proserpina by Pete Withers Via Flickr: Taken using Nikon D300 and 105mm Macro combo

Cryptic Cards Week 35: Jack of Spades, Bee Hawkmoths

Flying post this week! (lolmoths)... This weeks card was a jack of spades with moth shape based on bee hawkmoths. These come in two flavours that you can see in my prev two posts! I love their aerodynamic shape, and the windows in their wings :D

Next week will be a little bit different. I considered taking a week off (my stupid spine is making preparation for my exhibition which installs next week a right ‘mare). But rather than disappear completely for a week, I’ll try some low impact digital activity! I’m putting together A6 printed tests of a few cards - if I can’t spot a flaw in something that's bigger than the printed playing card, I’ll know their good. So assuming they go well, I’ll put them on etsy so anyone who wants to get their hands on a cryptic card early, stay tuned! I’m also learning about animated gifs... look out for flapping moths on cards coming soon I hope!

Cryptic Cards Weeks 30 & 31: Mystery Card & King of Spades

Last week was a mystery card - you can find out more about those here - and I was actually in hospital. Fortunately the surgeon was too busy with poking around in my spine, & didn’t mind me bringing paint into the hospital... and all my kit travels well :D I was working on the back of card design. Between that and the joker mystery card I painted last time, I can barely contain my squee.

But contain it I did, my spine surgery went fine, and now I’m recovering. I can only type, and paint, for short periods, so I’ll keep this brief. The good people of twitter voted for the king of spades this week, and as you can see its a monster moth! Based on the ginormous privet hawkmoth, this one goes really well next to the queen of spades. I might make a panel with them both in to keep my tweeps in mothcard-eye-candy next time there’s a mystery card :)

Anyhoo, I need a lie down after all the mothy excitement. Have a great week y’all, happy 2016, and watch out for more moths coming in the new year :D

Cryptic Cards Week 26; 7 of Spades

Last week’s timelapse took aaaages, so no video this week - I’ve got a lichen-themed drawing workshop to run, so I need to just stay on schedule for a couple of weeks :)

Spades are hawk moths and this week its another one with intersting shaped underwings, not unlike the poplar hawkmoth we’re most familiar with in the UK. Hawkmoths are often associated with a single shape, the torpedo kinda shape of elephant or bedstraw hawkmoths, say. But actually looking around, lime hawkmoths, willowherb hawkmoths, etc all have slightly different shapes :)

Vine Hawk-Moth or Silver-striped Hawk-Moth (Hippotion celerio) by Pete Withers

Cryptic Cards Week 22: 10 of Spades

Sorry but its another flying post, if you’ll pardon the pun! This week’s moth-card comes hot on the heels of a crazy coupla weeks in my day job as resident artist in a brain tumour research lab. I’ll get back to my usual witterings eventually... until then enjoy this peek at another hawk moth-inspired spades card! Have a great week all xx

Cryptic Cards Week 18: 4 of Spades

Didn’t think I’d make it with this one with all the hospital shenanigans going on for my stupid spine! Took around 7 hours to paint this one, which I reckon is par for the course.

I didn’t know how big the family Sphingidae (hawkmoths) is until recently. There are more than a thousand species. There’s the lime hawkmoth, oleander hawkmoth, and Pandora Sphinx in my favourites, but there are absolutely heaps more. They have a really streamlined appearance. I imagine ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ playing in my head when I see one go! :D

They also have some of the most amazing looking caterpillars around. Whoever the hell thinks moths are boring hasn’t seen this, this, or this, clearly. Or this snake mimicking caterpillar. Or this stripey one.... You get the idea! I really want to draw some one day.

Lime Hawkmoth (Mimas tiliae). by Steve Covey Via Flickr: A freshly emerged individual taken at MV light at Covingham, Swindon, Wiltshire, UK. 2010-04-27. Eldene, Swindon, Wiltshire, UK. [?]

Handmade Jewellery Box, Moth Design - available on Etsy