Bumblebee Art Projects

Bumblebees can be attractive and fuzzy.

Bumblebees, which are related to honeybees, are both beautiful, with a lush fuzzy coat, and behaviorally interesting. If you are inspired by bumblebees, try using them as the muse for your next art project. Whether you want your art to educate others about bumblebees or you simply think they make a good visual subject, bumblebee art can be made with a wide range of materials and skill levels.

Flower Chart

Bumblebees are attracted to honeysuckle.

Make a chart of the types of flowers bumblebees like to pollinate, including the blooms of honeysuckle, comfrey, knapweed, red clover, flowering currant, strawberries, blueberries, melons and squash. Draw the flowers in colored pencil from life or from a photograph onto a sheet of poster paper, labeling each one. Decorate the border of the poster with flying bumblebees. Hang this decorative floral chart in your garden room or anywhere else in your house for a quick reference of bumblebees' favorite hangouts.

Bumblebee Sculpture

Use old newspapers for a papier mache bumblebee structure.

Create an oversize, touchable bumblebee sculpture that makes it easy to see the anatomy of the bumblebee. Make the base of the sculpture out of papier mache, and use fake fur, metal, glass and other scrap materials to form the details of the body. Apply paint where needed and weatherproof the giant bumblebee if you plan to display it outside, in your garden or on your lawn. The sculpture will not only be an educational tool for learning about insects, but also a startling and exciting tactile artwork.

Bumblebee Facts Postcards

Try typing out the facts for a rustic-looking postcard.

Create bumblebee postcards with facts about bumblebees and a homemade stencil of a bumblebee. Make the stencil by cutting a bumblebee design out of a piece of manila folder and tracing or painting through the stencil onto the postcard. If you can fit all the facts and the graphic onto one side of the postcard, the other will be available for a note and the addressee's information. To maintain a homemade look, duplicate the fact portion of the postcards with a photocopier or home printer, but give each postcard an individually traced or painted bumblebee stencil design.

Bumblebee Art Parody

Try a bumblebee parody version of famous artwork.

Choose one of your favorite famous artworks and make a bumblebee parody version of the artwork. For example, if you like Andy Warhol's 1962 "Turquoise Marilyn," duplicate his pop photo style but with a close-up of a bumblebee instead. If you like Pablo Picasso, try imitating "Girl Before a Mirror," from 1932, but with a geometrically represented bumblebee gazing into the mirror at its own reflection.

References

• Science Daily: Scientists Map The Flight of the Bumblebee
• Buglogical: Bumblebees
• Bumblebee: Body

Resources

• Bumblebee: Bumblebee Pages