Iridescent
Sandhra Sajeevan
Artwork part of ‘Insects’ (Issue 19)
Science
The focus of this piece is a female Hercules beetle (Dynastes hercules), that caught my eye due to its beautiful iridescent forewings. Species of birds, butterflies and beetles have wings or feathers that change colour when viewed from different angles, owing to the phenomenon of iridescence. There are no pigments involved here, only the magic of physics. These wings are made of tiny, layered, hard protein structures through which light enters and bounces off. As these different wavelengths bounce off the multiple layers, they interfere with each other - adding up, or subtracting - resulting in this shiny display.
https://www.theanimalfacts.com/insects-spiders/hercules-beetle/
Method
This artwork was created using acrylic paints. I worked from a photograph of a Hercules beetle and tried my best to copy the iridescent feel of the wings onto paper. The size of the original piece is approximately 10 cm X 5 cm, which is also approximately the same size as the actual insect.
Bio
Sandhra Sajeevan lives in Bengaluru, India, and works in Science Gallery Bengaluru as a mediator between the public and the exhibits. She has a background in research in materials science, but gets distracted by new interests quite frequently. She is currently into painting insects and reading about black holes.
Copyright statement. This work is published under the CC BY-NC-SA license