Authentic and hotsell original illustration titled, “Cicadas,” part two

hotsell This is an authentic and original illustration titled, “Cicadas,” part two. You are viewing a continuum of the artist's (myself) current series dedicated to the historic seventeen year cicada species appearance in Bethesda, Maryland. As a local Marylander, I have very fond memories of this rare species, having witnessed two cycles of their arrival. As a nature lover and avid outdoor enthusiast, I enjoy daily monitoring, quiet study and activity in their natural habitat. It's almost impossible to avoid contact with the Brood X Periodical Cicadas with constant daily observations, surrounded by the increased activity since they first arrived. A few weeks ago there were sightings of modest amounts of cicadas flying around making their debut, keeping the community in wonderment. Like myself, the inquisitive minds of many other locals are having fun monitoring their ever changing activity. With procreation and eggs hatching, obviously there is more buzzing and mid air flight all over the place. I think everybody can vouch for the fact that they themselves have been innocently hit by one or two and humorously see them stick to their clothes. This particular painting is of a photograph I captured showing ten cicadas on a tree. The healthy tree had much more than ten, but here you are viewing a close up and “abstract,” version of the original image. The colorful and textured recreation portrays an intentional exaggerated perspective of how it was seen in “real time.” If your not familiar with my work, I highly recommend a thorough review of other illustrations in my collection to better acclimate yourself with my preferred pattern and technique. Phase one was the initial graphite sketch. On quality mixed media and graphite, I sketched the background tree first and foremost to help frame a visual layout for the other elements within. I then proceeded to sketch the ten cicadas in varied angles similar to how they were positioned in original photograph. The other features noticeably seen, represent the scattered moss patches, lichen growth and bark naturally attached to the tree. Phase two was the implementation of colored pencil. With beige, green, gray, gold, brown, red, black, silver, and white, I blended and shaded over phase one. This phase always helps visually guide my focus to separately work on on all the distinguished elements within. Phase three was the application of acrylic paint. With varied size fine paint brushes and with the same colors used as in phase two, I applied thicker layers of paint over specific areas that I wanted to enhance. This procedure always helps create a more natural painting. Anything in nature has it's unique rugged features and imperfections, but that is what I find to be more attractive ultimately inspiring my work. When working on any illustration, my intentions are to visually “bring the subject to life,” to better educate the reader, viewer and buyer on the true “Behind the Scenes,” narrative. The cicadas had red eyes I wanted to portray, along with textured winged bodies, with elongated legs noticeably seen in this painting. I left the turquoise blue lichen growths in graphite and colored pencil softening the interior features on the tree. If you carefully study the painting close up, you will see thicker textured rich golden tones mixed throughout the moss patches and on the cicada bodies. The entire illustration was better portrayed once the cicadas were fully painted outlined with graphite to promote depth perception and accuracy. Upon completion I sprayed it with clear acrylic sealant to prevent any damage or “bleeding of the colors.” The authentic and original illustration is available for purchase in print. This would make for an ideal housewarming gift or simply be a nice addition to an existing collection. Please enjoy. Jessica Ahmadi