Just spent three exhausting days (4 to 6 November 2014) at Cambridge Botanic Gardens under the tutelage of Ian Loe (insect artist extraordinaire). I had a wonderful time, albeit now seeing not a lot after total concentration on miniscule paint strokes. My effort at portraying a male and female emperor moth is reasonable, but I could do better! This reinforced my need to learn to paint quicker. As you can see, I only managed to complete half of each insect (knowing how slowly I paint I thought this would enable me to complete the picture at a later date!)
My life-size emperor Moths (half-done). Top is the large female; bottom is the more colourful and much smaller male.