Flycatcher
09-26-02, 04:52 PM
Memories of an entomological holiday in the English Lake District a few years ago. One of the few sunny days in an otherwise often rainy fortnight - all that water in the lakes has to come from somewhere, I suppose.
We had to make the best of a poor deal weather-wise. Dodging out between showers and downpours, we ventured onto the fells and valleys to collect plastic carrier bags full of, er how to put this, sheep and cow dung. Then many a happy hour (!) was spent sitting in the glazed front porch with a bucket of water between us ladling the dung into the water, stirring it around and waiting for the beetles inside to float out and be collected. I deliberately say "between us" so that it is clear that there is more than one lunatic around who found this a fascinating pastime, though only I was sufficiently certifiable to spend many more subsequent hours setting and identifying the brutes. You'd be amazed at the huge numbers collected, from tiny little ptiliids much smaller than a pin-head, all the way through to big geotrupids, a couple of centimetres or more long, with deeply sculptured black uppersides, strong digging legs heavily armoured with blunt spines, and amazing and beautiful iridescent purplish or bluish undersides - though often encrusted in reddish-brown mites. You almost wish you were there, right? So now you know what to do on holiday when it rains... I hope I have enriched your life a little. Or maybe it was more than you needed to know. :D
Anyway on rare days such as this local balloonists also took advantage of the break in the weather, hence the inspiration for this simple landscape. (Be grateful I didn't portray the rainy-day activities!)
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1033084241yht.jpg
100% ZBrush.
We had to make the best of a poor deal weather-wise. Dodging out between showers and downpours, we ventured onto the fells and valleys to collect plastic carrier bags full of, er how to put this, sheep and cow dung. Then many a happy hour (!) was spent sitting in the glazed front porch with a bucket of water between us ladling the dung into the water, stirring it around and waiting for the beetles inside to float out and be collected. I deliberately say "between us" so that it is clear that there is more than one lunatic around who found this a fascinating pastime, though only I was sufficiently certifiable to spend many more subsequent hours setting and identifying the brutes. You'd be amazed at the huge numbers collected, from tiny little ptiliids much smaller than a pin-head, all the way through to big geotrupids, a couple of centimetres or more long, with deeply sculptured black uppersides, strong digging legs heavily armoured with blunt spines, and amazing and beautiful iridescent purplish or bluish undersides - though often encrusted in reddish-brown mites. You almost wish you were there, right? So now you know what to do on holiday when it rains... I hope I have enriched your life a little. Or maybe it was more than you needed to know. :D
Anyway on rare days such as this local balloonists also took advantage of the break in the weather, hence the inspiration for this simple landscape. (Be grateful I didn't portray the rainy-day activities!)
http://www2.zbrushcentral.com/zbc_uploads/user_image-1033084241yht.jpg
100% ZBrush.