Wild Life Drawing Online: Stag Beetles

Join us to study the U.K's largest terrestrial beetle; the giant stag beetle. These incredible insects spend the majority of their lives as larvae, hidden from sight in old trees and rotting wood. The grubs spend up to six years bulking up on a strict diet of dead wood, until they are big and strong enough for metamorphosis. They then build themselves a cocoon, from which they emerge several months later as the beautiful chestnut-black adults we know and love.

Seeing a stag beetle used to be a fairly common (but always exciting) summertime occurrence, but these days it’s becoming more and more of a rare event. This is because the population of these excellent beetles is in decline, mainly because of habitat loss. Urbanisation and the “tidying up” of forests mean that there is less and less rotting wood available for them to live in. Thankfully there are dedicated people who are doing their best to turn around the fate of the species, like our friends over at People’s Trust for Endangered Species. For this class we are delighted to be joined by Laura Bower, a conservation officer at the charity who specialises in invertebrates. While we sketch, Laura will teach us all about about stag beetles and give us some simple actions- like building a log pile- that we can all do to do to help in the fight to save them. 

The session will be led by artist and illustrator Jennie Webber, who will guide you through the process of drawing these spectacular creatures. We will be working from some high-quality reference images provided by PTES. The class is open to all abilities. Whether you’re a dab hand or an absolute beginner, with Jennie’s top beetle drawing tips you'll be sketching away in no time! The basic materials you need to take part are some paper, a pencil an eraser and a pencil sharpener, free to get creative with your choice of materials. The reference images will be emailed to you along with instructions and the Zoom link 48 hours before the event is due to start, or in good time if you book your ticket closer to the session. 

50% of profits will be donated to People’s Trust for Endangered Species.