Praying Mantis

Ah, back to the art. This is one of my recent projects in my 2D design class. We had to choose a bug and exaggerate it to make it more visually interesting. It could only be in black and white, no grays. I chose a praying mantis and decided to exaggerate his head and front arms. My intent was to make him look a little scary like you are about to be lunch, but really he just looks a little to friendly and cute. Oh well.

Paint: acrylic
Colors:black and white
Paper: Bristol board on black matte board
Size: 8"x8" Bristol board, 12"x12.5" matte board






If I did this project over, I would try to find a detailed pic of a praying mantis's head and make it look scarier. I think the head just looks too cute. I also would make the head a 3/4th view or 2/3rd view. Straight on, it looks a little too much like he's posing for a picture, even though I wanted it to appear like he is staring you down.