But the “love” element this time is devoted (see what I did there?) is the love story of the sextant beetle.
It goes like this: When a sextant beetle (or burying beetle) sniffs out a dead mouse it will defend its find against all comers. Apart from the one true love of its life. When they lock eyes on each other they fall in love and get married. They have children - inside the dead mouse - and the babies hatch out of their little shells, the mum and dad place them very gently into a little crypt - not crib - that they made next to the carcass. Here they will grow and develop with the help of regurgitated and liquified mouse meat. Now that is love.
But back to slugs. The workshops are quite short so there isn’t much time to go walking and recording nature - so we concentrate on drawing techniques and basically looking at how to make a start on creating a journal. I provide the kit and materials and we start with learning to love and draw slugs. They really are such wonderful things to draw.
I encourage drawing straight on the page with a fineliner - no sketching in pencil first. Why? Well it is a great way to learn to draw quickly and without fear - you can’t rub out so you have to just get on with it and draw and be happy to make a mark. It also helps to get you to think about the mark you do make, rather than just scribbling any old thing!
The best thing about these workshops, though, is when people start the day saying that they are NOT artists and go home learning that in fact they ARE artists,
And that makes me so happy.
