Sunday, December 3, 2023

Praying mantis

 








It does seem to be the current trend that I come to my bedtime urgently needing to write my daily column. 

Working on my series of spirit animals of library workers as tirelessly as I have been (well, sometimes I get a little tired) feels to me a lot like I am working all day on clerkmanifesto. So it is a curious surprise to come to the end of it and suddenly realize: There is still one more thing to take care of, this precious post I, as a last thing, place before your eyes.


Which is how we come to the praying mantis.


When I asked a librarian to take part in my daemon in the library photo project I was absolutely delighted when she asked if her chosen animal could be an insect.

An insect?

Yes!



She wanted a praying mantis.

This seemed like a very interesting challenge!


I have been working all this night on the praying mantis pictures and I will confess that it might be a little too interesting a challenge. I have a couple of mildly successful iterations so far, but I am going to have to go to sleep not entirely satisfied, dreaming of praying mantises and how to bring it all together. As per my reticence here I can't quite show you where I am with finished pictures, but I do have some pieces I've created, concept art if you will, and I can show that. 

If I could get my final picture to have some of the feel of this stuff, while rooting in a real person, I will end up very happy indeed! But that is for another day.

































































































































































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