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Courtney Christie

@randomplanet_art

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Invertebrate & Reptile Artist
Sonoran Desert | Tucson, AZ 🌵
Mojave Desert | Las Vegas, NV 🐢
Sharing my love for the world beneath our feet 🌱

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2 months ago

Have you ever seen a giant weevil? This is one of my favorites to see out here in the Sonoran Desert— The Cactus weevil, Cactophagus spinolae. These guys are often found on or around cacti, especially prickly pear, one of their preferred foods of choice!

All black insects are challenging to draw, and this was completely in watercolor!— as are most of my newer drawings! Capturing dimension without over-saturating is a delicate balancing act. I might darken the elytra on the next round of prints and stickers but for now I’m pretty happy with this one. 🖤 by @randomplanet_art

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2 months ago

This butterfly first caught my eye on the cover of a laminated fold-out field guide for Arizona butterflies. The moment I bought that field guide, I made it my goal to find one that same year! I went on several hikes during the spring and early summer with no luck, until one day while volunteering for a bioblitz near the AZ-MX border south of the Huachucas, I saw a tiny butterfly land near a stream, wings down, making it hard to tell which hairstreak I was looking at. There are several other hairstreaks that are much more common and I saw many that day, so I accepted that it was likely another one of those, but—it was worth the look, and I decided to be patient and wait for the wings to go up. When they did, I got a brief glimpse of a tattered and faded light blue underside, confirming it was my target species— the Arizona Hairstreak, Erora quaderna! I was able to shoot one crappy video before it flew off, but I was overjoyed nonetheless. A month later, I found myself on Mt Lemmon on another Arizona Hairstreak mission, searching among a dense patch of flowering Ceonothus sp. (Buckbrush) where I found half a dozen of my target species fluttering from bush to bush among many other pollinators, which can be seen in the last video Ive included here. I’m happy to have finally drawn this Hairstreak and have a sticker that can travel with me everywhere I go! Such a beautiful little butterfly! 🩵🧡 by @randomplanet_art

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2 months ago

What better name for this beauty than the Painted Tiger moth, Arachnis picta— it’s like this black and white moth flew into some paint and got a pop of color! I was happy to see this moth land on the sheet, because I’ve only ever seen a few others in the ~7 years I’ve been blacklighting.

This moth belongs to the family Erebidae—one of the larger families of Lepidopterans (moths and butterflies) which has roughly 25,000 described species worldwide! Tiger moths and underwings often have some sort of surprise coloration found on their hindwings which makes for a nice contrast with the forewings, which are both stunning on this moth. This individual was found at a recent blacklight with some awesome entomo friends in the Chiricahuas in southern AZ, somewhere around 8500ft elevation. by @randomplanet_art

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2 months ago

IT’S NATIONAL MOTH WEEEEEEEK!!!!!

Did you know moths outnumber butterflies roughly 10:1?! There are about 15-20k species of butterflies, and about 160k—**ONE HUNDRED SIXTY THOUSAND** species of moths worldwide!!! So why do we tend to see butterflies more often than moths? Well, while most butterflies are active during the day, most moths are active exclusively at night! Here are some of my favorite moths that were seen during Blacklights in Southern Arizona the last couple summers! by @randomplanet_art

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3 months ago

How old were you when you last climbed a tree? I honestly couldn’t remember my age, but I remembered that this was my favorite thing to do when I was a kid. I wanted to be one with the trees—I wished I could be a spider monkey, or maybe even Tarzan. Until this weekend, I had never made the connection that this is where my love for painting trees might’ve originated. I love the sound a tree makes in the gentle breeze as its leaves dance with excitement while beams of sunlight illuminate little sparkles of dust floating in the air. I love taking a deep breath and inhaling the smell of a tree and its rich soil, I love examining the many textures of their bark, the colors of their leaves and how they change through the seasons, and the shape of their trunk and branches that makes each one as unique as you or I. Not to mention all of the things trees provide for us, wildlife, and our ecosystems…trees are pretty incredible. @mmadi4 and I enjoyed some time with this beautiful tree over the weekend, and it brought back a flood of childhood memories as well as some reflections on what it means to be inspired by everyday things around us. I love making connections and learning about ourselves through the things we portray in our creative hobbies. 🌳💚🎨 by @randomplanet_art

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4 months ago

COVERED IN ANTS!!! Today I was honored to be part of a nuptial flight of Harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex sp) after clouds of them seemingly appeared out of nowhere and gathered in masse on the rooftop of my car. As I got closer to take photos, they took a liking to my high-vis vest and reflective hard hat.

Ant alates are focused on one thing and one thing only— MATING. These winged ants emerge from the ground ready to take part in a massive gathering of their counterparts, after which the males will die, and the females will drop their wings and wander off to find a nest site and hopefully successfully start a new colony of their own. During these nuptial flight the ants are so focused on reproducing that they rarely exhibit defensive behaviors like stinging and biting. Though jt IS possible, the many males are stingless and possess no venom despite the ability to pseudo-sting with a special appendage, and females are often too busy to bother. I didn’t get a single sting or bite during the hour I was around these heavy swarms, nor afterwards as I continued finding them in my hair, clothes, and car for the rest of the day 😅

Nye County, NV. by @randomplanet_art

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4 months ago

A glimpse behind the scenes of my creative journey while moving. My goal this year is to transition from marker art to spending more quality time painting large canvases. Same subject matter, different style. I have plans to paint rattlesnakes, horned lizards, Gila monsters, a blacklight sheet covered in moths, among other non invert and herp related wildlife. I’m currently struggling to find the quality time I feel I need to dive into painting while my full time job takes up such a large chunk of time, but it’s all about baby steps! Just a little everyday. 🎨 by @randomplanet_art

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5 months ago

Wasp or bee? 🧐

This is likely Coelioxys sp, which are a genus of leaf-cutting cuckoo bees or sharp-tailed bees. These guys are solitary kleptoparasitic bees from the family Megachilidae. Kleptoparasitic means they are non-pollinating bees that lay eggs in the nest of other bees and steal nectar and pollen from their hosts for their offspring! When the offspring are born, they generally kill the host and consume their resources. Not ideal neighbors to have. This is the only Sharp-tail bee I’ve ever seen!
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#sharptailbees #solitarybees #nativebees #savethebees #beeart by @randomplanet_art

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5 months ago

The Fiery Searcher, Calosoma scrutator, is a predatory ground beetle that specializes in hunting caterpillars, though they are largely opportunistic and will eat anything they can get their tarsi on. They are one of the largest ground beetles in North America reaching lengths of 1.5”, and can be found throughout the US and as far south as Venezuela. As a defense mechanism these beetles excrete a foul smelling oil, much like a Stink bug (Eleodes sp). This is a relatively long lived beetle and can live 3-4 years as an adult! by @randomplanet_art

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6 months ago

Female counterpart to my last shared post, this is the beautifully contrasted Io (eye-oh) moth, Automeris io. I’ve never seen one in real life so had to use several reference photos to combine features I liked best to depict this insanely gorgeous silk moth. The io moth can be found from southern Canada across the eastern and midwestern states in the US (as far West as NM), and further south into Mexico and Costa Rica.

This is my second drawing done with watercolor rather than markers and though I’m not completely straying from markers, I’m exploring a new medium and having fun learning the ins and outs of watercolor. by @randomplanet_art

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6 months ago

Meet my first sticker drawing done in watercolor! I’ve been wanting to redo this design for a while…Automeris io, the io (eye-oh) moth was one of my OGs when I first started drawing bugs for stickers many years ago! At that time I was going for a very 2-D look, with bold outlines and simplified patterns. I sold out of stock a couple years ago and decided not to restock until I redid the design.

I’ve been experimenting with watercolors lately so I thought, why not? This is the first decently detailed invert I’ve done in watercolor, and I love how it turned out. I was able to get more detail and tone variation than I ever could with markers. I’m excited to do more and already working on a second with plans to do a silkmoth collage. I’ve included the OG design in the last photo for comparison. Honestly, it was pretty decent, but I’ve really strayed away from bold lines or even outlining at all. Super cool to see the similarities and differences. by @randomplanet_art

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7 months ago