Draw a ladybug
and learn insect anatomy
What you need: Pencil, eraser, felt tip and red marker.
| 1. The beautiful hard shell of the ladybug covers much of it's thorax and abdomen. Draw a large oval for the shell, a smaller one for the visible part of the thorax and a tiny oval for the head. |
2. When dividing the wings, be careful to follow the contours of the creature by drawing your line in a steep arc. Our ladybugs has 7 spots although we cannot see 2 of them. The largest spot straddles the wings. Legs are easy when you remember how they work. The front 2 legs are forward-pointing and the back 2 are pointed to the back. The legs are jointed and you can think of them as having knees and ankles. |
3. Give form to the legs. Remember that they are thickest at the top. Erase the parts of the middle oval that go under the head and shell. Outline the white spots on the thorax and the eyes on the head. Add antennae. | 4. Gently remove some of the excess graphite (pencil) on your paper with an eraser. This will make the ink stick to the paper better. Now is the time to really refine your drawing with the felt tip. Be careful not to fill in any white spots Your final step is to fill in the wings with your red marker. You have completed the ladybug! |
Observe the legs of an insect at rest. The front legs point forward; the back legs point backward. The middle pair can go in either direction or even straight out to the sides. The head, thorax and abdomen of the familiar wingless insect on the right are clearly visible.
When drawing any insect it's important to remember that all 6 legs and the wings are attached to the thorax. If you examine the under belly of an insect, this will be obvious.