Crab Spider Transparent Watercolor Step-by-step

posted in: Finished Paintings, Photos, Step-by-Step | 0

This summer I gave myself a goal of getting some good macro photos for drawing and painting reference. Last year I concentrated on dragonflies and damselflies. This time around I was especially interested in spiders.

I spent a few days focused on crab spiders. They are similar to the jumping spiders in a few ways. They don’t rely on webs as their main method of hunting. Instead, crab spiders rely on stealth, hiding as still as possible, camouflaged in a flower’s petals. When an unwary insect comes in for a little nectar or pollen, they are pounced upon and eaten. Although they don’t have the massive median eyes of the jumping spiders, crab spiders are still excellent visual hunters.

Once I got into a proper search mode, I was able to find plenty of them to photograph. They were particularly fond of some small rudbeckia flowers. I was able to find many on one plant alone and got plenty of macro shots. I temporarily brought a few of them into the basement where I have a macro set up with several slaved flashes and a large softbox for lighting. Afterwards they were released back into the garden.

Crab Spider Transparent Watercolor 5x7 inches
Crab Spider Transparent Watercolor 5×7 inches
Crab Spider Transparent Watercolor 3x4 inch detail
Crab Spider Transparent Watercolor 3×4 inch detail
Crab Spider on Rudbeckia (Canon 30D  100mm f2.8 Macro)
Crab Spider on Rudbeckia (Canon 30D 100mm f2.8 Macro)
Crab Spider on Rudbeckia
Crab Spider on Rudbeckia (Canon 30D 100mm f2.8 Macro)

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