Honey Bee Drawing

One of the most popular images on Reusable Art is this great, inverted image – carpenter bee that can be found in the free vintage bee images category. I’m not sure if it’s the cool way it is a white drawing on a black background or the drawing itself or the fact that it’s a bee that makes it so popular. It’s one of my favorites too and I hope that everyone likes this honey bee drawing even half as much.

This drawing is from a publication by the Bureau of Entomology within the United States Department of Agriculture. It was written by a Zoology professor from the University of Texas – D.B. Casteel, Ph. D. Unfortunately, this 1912 publication did not identify who made the wonderful drawings including this amazing honey bee drawing.

The caption which accompanied the drawing mentions that it shows how the bee uses its forelegs and middle legs to manipulate pollen. The bee is using its forelegs to remove wet pollen from its face and mouth. Meanwhile, the middle leg on the right side is in the process of transferring pollen from its ‘brush’ to the ‘pollen combs’ on the left hind leg. Cool stuff, indeed. Nature is so amazing how it works.

I think this honey bee drawing would be a great addition to a number of projects just the way it is but I suspect with a slight color wash, it could be made truly amazing.

I’ve resized this image to fit on a 4×6 ATC card or to use as a postcard. The quality is fairly good and you might be able to make it a bit larger but it will definitely go smaller and retain much of the details.

Have fun, and do drop me a line if you’ve used this honey bee drawing for one or more of your projects.