Drawing my favorite insect: The grass hopper

Insects are small animals belonging to a group called arthropods often characterized by Six legs and a pair of wings. This group mostly have an exoskeleton. While some insects are creepy looking, some of the animals actually looks good.

Grasshoppers are examples of good looking insects and it happens to be my favorite insect. Grasshoppers come in Brown, Yellow or Green colour with a few species having a mixture of colours and doted pattern and are among the few insects with an incomplete metamorphosis.

Description

Grasshoppers are plant eating insects with a head, thorax, and an abdomen. Characterized by large compound eyes and two huge mandible for chewing and a pair of antennae that serve as it's organs of smell and touch. The ordinary grasshopper have long and soft antennas while the locust have short antennas.
Defense mechanism
Besides using it's colour as camouflage, it's wings to fly off or it's hind legs to jump away from danger, the grasshopper's last pair of legs are powerful, and equipped with spines and spurs ready to deliver a strong kick.
Some grasshoppers do eat poisonous plants so as to absurd the poison from the plant into themselves to make then repulsive to predictors.

Are grasshoppers dangerous?

I single grasshoppers is relatively harmless but under the right condition, they can grow into swarms made up of billions of individuals which makes them a really formidable pest.
While the grasshopper is not directly dangerous to humans, a swarm of locusts can trigger serious famine. So even though they can't bite or sting, they can eat up all your food or serve as a vector for cholera.

Why Grasshopper

I vividly remember sinking slowly with my right-hand not too stretched and my knees slightly bent, fully concentrated with eyes focused on the grasshopper. That was many decades ago in the schools playgrounds, hunting for grasshoppers to play with.
That was my favorite pastime during break time, they were more friendly when compared to the bombo bee that stung me not minding the fact that I was just a kid and wanted to make it a friend. I grew up drawing grasshoppers in my biology class and have been seeing then each time I go to the farm.

Grasshopper as food

Some cultures in Africa has grasshoppers as part of it's menu. When well prepared, mostly roasted, it gives off an attractive aroma. Grasshoppers are a popular snack in some parts of Cameroon, Mexico and Central America.
Known as Chapulines or Mungwin

Nutritional Info

Protein	36 - 49%
Fat	41–43%
carbohydrate	2.5–3.2%
Ash	2.6–3.9%
Dietary fiber	11.0–14.5%
Carotenoids	900–2300 μg/100 g

My Grasshopper and I

How I draw My Grasshopper

To draw the grasshopper, I made use of a piece of plain paper (A4) as my canvas.

• A4 plain paper
• A Pencil
• A Shpner
• An Eraser
• Nokia C30 (Camera)

Material and tools

Step 1

I got the A4 paper ready and endorsed with my Steemit username.

Step 2

I started with the grasshopper's head, it's antennas, eyes and part of it's thorax.

Step 3

Next was it's wings, abdomen and hind legs.

Step 4

Some additional pair of limbs and abdominal segments

Step 5

My grasshopper is ready for shading,

Step 6

I have finally added the shading to the grasshopper and this is what it looks like.

#recreative-art #craft #creativity #club100 #art #steemexclusive #nigeria