The initial outline marked out on the paper, I chose not to include the whole of the feelers as these are about as long as the whole red claw.

The undercoat was finished with most of the lightest tones down first, as it’s much easier to keep building up to darker colours.

As you can see I started to paint from the tail and up the body. This was mainly greens with a blue tint, shaking the brush to create a rough pattern but also following the shape of the body.

I painted a light grey shadow and not the harsh black shadow the sun was actually casting.

More of the shell was painted working towards the large red claw, which identifies the males.

Here you can see that I have finished painting most of the red claw, copying the details off my iPad which is useful to zoom into areas and see the correct colour and fine details.

You can also see the small scale that I work in and all the fine detail.

This is one of the painting that I have completed while camping on my Australia road trip. It’s definitely a different experience painting out doors with the changes in the weather happening all the time.

Completed red claw with spots of white to give the impression of light reflections and water on the shell. It’s definitely been helpful painting all my smaller bug, stone and mushroom studies to see how light affects different textures.