Bumble Bee Species Copy

Below is the piece of art I will be attempting to copy. I found this off Pinterest and decided to copy this piece due to it linking to my makeup products as the lip butters will be based off the ingredient beeswax or honey. I also decided to copy it as I love the style of the piece and how detailed the bees are compared to the scruffy handwritten type.

I started by copying the type with a ink dip ben and a light box under the piece of paper  so to ensure it was as accurate as possible. I decided to use the light box for the type as this handwritten type is so unique that I thought it wouldn't have looked as effective if I didnt copy it. Even though there were a few mistakes such as the ink filled in some of the gaps in the letters and was thicker or thinner in places, It made it look more like the original due to that containing mistakes too. 

I decided to draw the bees on a separate piece of paper just so that if I made any mistakes with the bees I could start again without messing up the page containing the type.  I drew the bees in pencil first and then began colouring them with watercolour pencils so that I could add detail to them when they had been coloured.

Due to the wings being such a pale grey/ white I decided to watercolour them as I did not have a pencil that matched the exact colour I was after. As with watercolour you can mix the specific colour you desire. Below is a picture of the fully coloured bees and me about to paint the wings.

Here is a picture of the watercolour painted wings.

To get rid of the pencil like stroke on the bees (as the original does not have these), I decided to use tiny bits of water and add texture to the bees and blend the colours together so to make my version similar to the original.

To put the piece together I scanned both the type and bees into Photoshop. I then cut the bees out so they were directly editable and could be easily placed on the document containing the type.

Below is a working progress shot in Photoshop of both parts being but together. I used the original as a reference to ensure I placed each bee next to the correct species and name. 

Here is the final piece, I ensured the lighting, colours and shading were correct for each of the bees as I wanted them to be very detailed just like the original.