Dragonflies have amazing colors

Today's task for my 30 days of art experiments was to find some dragonfly reference photos on the web.  Research is one of my favorite things and a great way to procrastinate when I'm getting tired of decluttering the studio.  Not to mention Sunday is my day off.  But I digress...

Tyson ecology research

I particularly wanted to get some variations in the wing colors but wasn't sure if that actually happened in real life.  Well, I was very surprised to find the amazing variety of patterning on both the wings and the bodies of dragonflies.  The one above was the best of the variegated wing ones.

This one is the variegated body patterning that caught my eye.

And this one caught my eye for the multiple colors and the body patterns.

Tomorrow, assuming I get a clear surface to work on, I start playing with the paints.