While my current field of study is in environmental science, my afterschool hobbies very much lie in the arts! In my free time, I like to design, draw, craft, web design, and more.
Last year, I participated in the #COSScienceArt Competition 2020 organised by the NTU College of Science. It's an annual competition open to students from COS that welcomes artwork inspired by science. I submitted a digital artwork that is close to my heart, as it's related to my URECA research project I'm currently undertaking with the TEE Lab. I'm grateful to have come in 1st place in the competition!
This was my winning piece, and its accompanying caption:
Singapore is home to more than 300 butterfly species, but many go unnoticed in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. However, they play an integral role in supporting our ecosystems through pollination, so my current URECA research project focuses on how Singapore’s nature ways can boost their survivability. While the butterflies I encounter during my fieldwork tend to be fleeting, disappearing out of view in an instant, I hope that my illustration can preserve their beauty forevermore. Here I drew and labelled nine of Singapore’s common butterflies in a style reminiscent of a museum’s entomological collection, using an oil pastel tool to mimic the scaled texture of butterfly wings.
I can't help but feel it's a win for us entomologists as it features our beloved local butterflies. I strongly believe that conservation action stems from an awareness and understanding of what is to be conserved, and so, what better way to spread awareness to the greater public than through showcasing its beauty?
MY ART PROCESS
This artwork was created in the iPad app Procreate, which is my current go-to art tool. Each butterfly was actually drawn on independent canvases, but I eventually "stitched" together each completed butterfly piece in the final submission. I was too indecisive and couldn't bear to submit any one individual butterfly! The final product, looking like a museum's entomological display, appropriately parallels our lab's current efforts to build up our internal reference collection — Check out our pinning party session in October 2020!
Curious about how I drew the butterflies? Here are some timelapse videos of my digital art process.
30-second timelapse of drawing the common mime, Chilasa clytia clytia
5-minute timelapse of drawing the three pansies (chocolate pansy, peacock pansy, blue pansy)
Most time was invested in getting the anatomy and cells just right. I searched up many reference photos, some of which were my own photography. I found breathing colour into the pieces the most satisfying part of each work. I used an oil pastel tool for colouring, because it nicely mimics the scales of butterfly wings.
Close-up 1: Plain tiger
Close-up 2: Chocolate pansy
Close-up 3: Blue glassy tiger
Did you know? Butterfly wings are composed of tiny coloured scales. If you handle or brush against moths and butterflies, the powdery substance they leave behind are these scales. They also allude to the etymology of "Lepidoptera", the order of butterflies — it literally translates to scaled (lepido) wings (ptera)! ... Did you catch my pun in the title of this blog post? ;)
I hope to be able to illustrate more of our local butterflies in the upcoming summer holiday, or maybe some of our other local biodiversity too (in between my fieldwork sessions of course)! If you're interested in keeping updated with my art, you can follow me on my Instagram @xuekoi.
Thank you for reading and see you next time. :)