Andrew Tyzack - Drawing and Painting Insects

Drawing and Painting

INSECTS

Andrew Tyzack

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2014 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2014

Andrew Tyzack 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 625 3

Frontispiece: Bombus hortorum, oil on canvas by Andrew Tyzack.

CONTENTS

The Five Queens, diamond wheel engraved glass by Ronald Pennell.

FOREWORD

When Andrew Tyzack asked me to write the Foreword for this book you could have knocked me down with a feather. Why me? I thought. After all, my sum of insect art comprises forty or so illustrations for a single book over two decades ago. Not only were they of micro-moths (clothes moths to most of us) but they were almost all of the heads of micro-moths. If that isnt obscure enough, they were the heads of micro-moths from South-east Asia. It wasnt a best-seller.

But to return to the honour bestowed upon me by the author of this book, I didnt ask questions. Andrew obviously had his reasons, and after all, I dont know how many people he had asked before me.

Like Andrew, my opinion of insects was shaped by my experiences in early childhood, and my experiences in childhood were shaped by popular names and folklore. Bloodsuckers really just harmless Lily Beetles filled me with horror. Earwigs were the stuff of nightmares. I genuinely believed that those noisome bags of living pus Leatherjackets would make me wet the bed. And there was that traumatic occasion gathering caterpillars in the school playground when my friend Nigel Turnham and I spotted the same magnificent specimen at the same time. Nigel grabbed it first. I opened my mouth to protest, and just at that moment Nigel threw it in my face

I could never quite forgive insects after that. Far too many legs for comfort, and a disturbing tendency to touch you when youre least expecting it. So its remarkable therefore, that looking through this book, on almost every page theres a picture that I would absolutely love to have on my wall. And its not just the pretty butterflies. Whether they fill you with delight or disgust, insects are possibly the most aesthetically rich, the most romantic, the most enigmatic, and sensually alluring animals on the planet. Yes, Ill say it insects are sexy. Enter the world of barely imagined beings: creatures that see in colours we could never even visualize; follow the pheromones through a mysterious nocturnal world; perform your waggle dance in the hive; survive the chemical carnage of an ant battlefield; become a Mayfly and live for just one day

With insects, its not about what we see and understand its about exploring the realms of the imagination. It would be science fiction, if it werent science fact. As an artist and a scientist (of sorts), I have a great interest in the trade-off between accuracy and aesthetics in wildlife art. For example, is it possible to know so much that it stifles the wonderment you might otherwise enjoy? Or that in striving to get every maxilla, every antenna, in its rightful place you forget to express your feelings? With insects at least you can guarantee that the more we understand the more we must surely be amazed and inspired.

In this wonderful book Andrew Tyzack has generously shared his knowledge and experience for the sake of all like-minded artists, aiding us in our field drawing, our moth trapping, butterfly collecting, bee-keeping and even getting the most out of visits to zoos and museum collections. I urge everyone using this book to take advantage of it. You dont have to be an entomologist to draw and paint insects, but youre missing an incredible treat if you choose not to learn from them.

My brief period illustrating the micro-moths for The Natural History Museum (long before I was employed there as a curator of birds) was a very special time. Id just graduated from the Royal College of Art and, having spent five years saving my pennies, was about to take part in an expedition to the South American rainforest. Would I collect some moths for the museum? Of course I would! But instead of furnishing me with a moth trap, I was instructed to stuff some old fishnet stockings with feathers and hang them up in trees. Oh, and pee on them first. Moths may be attracted to light, but theres nothing like the smell of stale urine to really get em going!

To quickly change the subject, Id like to finish off with a suitably Lepidopteran limerick that I thought up whilst gazing through my microscope at those tiny heads:

There was a poor man from Bowmore

Who lived on the moths in his store

But he ate one too many

With furry antennae

And coughed up the moths on the floor.

Katrina van Grouw

Aylesbury, 2013

Self-Portrait with Deaths-head Hawkmoth (Acherontia atropos), oil on linen by Andrew Tyzack.

INTRODUCTION

When I was a small boy my father was driving me along a dark country lane, and we could see moths in the cars headlights. He told me that every night of the year a moth flies somewhere even on Christmas day. In my childs wonderment I took this literally to mean that no matter how cold or frozen Britain was, somewhere a single moth took to the wing and fluttered under a silvery moon and over twinkling ice and snow. My father obviously meant that in Britain moths flew all year round including in the winter, but he had started a romance within me with all things creepy crawly. In the writing of this book I have been fortunate to be able to revisit the magic of those days when for a child the world was full of wonderful beasties yet to be discovered.