Wool Carder Sketches 2

The next stage of the wool carder is getting the pose worked out a little more. I know what I want to achieve. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Sometimes things changes quite a bit when I start to paint.

I am looking at my little model and noticing things like the quite short tarsus, the darkish wings and the slight haze of short ginger hairs on the thorax and the silky longer hairs under the thorax, on the legs and the stiff pollen collecting hairs under the abdomen, the scopa.  
I watched them last year both at Heligan and at Twigworth. I do hope my newly planted Lambs Ears and Motherwort  (…the happiest thing in my garden !) will coax some of these lovely bees here.

It is quite noticeable that the female carries her head lower than the male. Bees have a limited possible head movement because of the broadness of the rigid exoskeleton where the head and thorax meet.  
The head shape and size relative to the body can vary quite a bit between species. Some remind me a bit of the old fashioned nodding dog models :).  A nodding bee might be rather nice to have on the back shelf of the car.

Colour note sketch. Sketchbook, watercolour and pencil