Instant Insect Intricacy

While making more Quick Bug puppets and organizing the workroom, I came across an unused giant fly puppet I'd built for a book illustration and thought it might make a better cicada peeking at everyone from behind a hill. I didn't, or actually couldn't, hand draw the flexion lines of a cicada's wing venation pattern. My finest pen wouldn't be fine enough, my hand wouldn't be steady enough, and it would take days that needed to go toward other work.

I let my hands work without me, and they came up with the easiest, quickest, and best solution I could never have come up with myself.

I cut small squares of a clear presentation folder, creased each piece in half, and then reopened it flat. I applied a small amount of Tulip Slick Dimensional Fabric Paint in black to the general size and shape of whatever type of wing I was going for. Folded the plastic over the wet paint and pressed both halves tightly closed for a second. I could actually get control of how the vein domains would look by choosing which angles and speed I used to pull the paired wings apart. After some practice, I started to get what I needed, and the results were highly gratifying.

They looked like artful wings, and getting two to match was no sweat, as they are already made in symmetrical pairs!

The Bug Party bug puppets are not meant to look natural. They're meant to be ideas of bugs, like sketches, rather than realistic. I glued one set of wings onto another square of plastic so it could have clear-bordered edges and put him in the repaired bug box, now ready to install on the set.