Stag beetles
Beetles come in a staggering variety of shapes, sizes and colours.
I chose to illustrate the beetles on vellum with coloured pencil. This gave the drawing a smooth texture, and I had a bit more flexibility in manipulating the colour than I would have on paper or illustration board.
For the background, I wanted a more muted bark-like texture. I used a textured coloured paper and shaded in the rough bark lines, then overlayed the vellum on top in Photoshop. Shadows were also added at this stage.