Carpenter Bee

Today was gorgeous!  After eating lunch, my family and I took our camping cots out onto the front lawn to take a snooze, enjoy the sunshine and the beauty of just BEING outside, and to nature journal.  I recently got a set of watercolor "pats".  (I don't know really what they're called.  They're little squares, cakes? in a pan.  Dry.)  I also finally was able to watch a video on how you actually USE watercolors, and discovered that, viola!  You use mostly WATER, and very little paint.  Huh.  So after, arming myself with this helpful bit of information, I decided to give it a go.  

Drawing proved to be intimidating to me.  I have drawn a lot from looking at pictures, and I have drawn a bit here and there in nature, real-life.  But it's been STILL life.  For some reason, I got hooked on the idea of trying to draw a bee today, though, as I was observing them in my weigela shrub a few feet from where I lay on my cot.  So I spent a good deal of time just watching them before putting pencil to paper, and comparing what I saw with my Field Guide pictures.  Then I started in, frequently consulting both sources.  The bees were not at ALL cooperative with me, moving constantly.  I was determined to do this drawing live, though, and not from a photograph or the Field Guide.  So I watched and watched these guys.  While watching, I learned something interesting, too.  --  I always thought the bees went inside the flower to retrieve the nectar.  But these guys were stabbing their ??tongue?? through the flower's flesh and sipping the nectar out!  Novel!  When you're this big, I guess that's the only way to go!  

Anyway, with the help of my Field Guide, I identified these guys as Carpenter Bees, and not simply a bumble bee, as I had thought.

Oh, the things one learns when they sit still and observe!  I'm so glad I'm doing this!

My nature journal is small, maybe 8x8.  And it's just drawing paper, not intended for watercolor.  So I've got some wrinklage going on.  But I decided that for my first nature journal, I will keep this for learning and then get an appropriate one after this one is filled up.  This helps to keep me motivated, because I really want a big, nice one.  :)

By the way, I am HOOKED on these watercolors!  I had SO much fun doing this entry!  Next time I would not put the leaf coming out of the bee's back, but, this is all in the name of having fun while learning.