On the left, all your tools: oil and watercolour brushes, inking pens, pencils, erasers and host of other tools from technical to goofy. Screenshot showing the interface, from my original test of some of ArtRage Studio Pro's tools. Instead of drop-down menus, ArtRage includes all the important tools right on the screen in two quarter-circles in the corners: The main attraction for me with this program has always been the interface.

Each one is relatively affordable (under $100 for the PC version, compared to several hundred for Photoshop). If you're not familiar, it's a digital painting program with versions available for PC, Mac, iPad and the iPhone. I've tried a number of digital painting programs, and by far my favourite is ArtRage. Adjustments and corrections to ensure scientific accuracy are much easier with digital media than with traditional paints. Since then, I sometimes find it more useful to paint digitally, especially for a project like these beetles.

In my undergraduate degree, I worked mainly in oil paint. After that though, I have decisions to make. When tackling a new illustration subject for the first time, I like to begin with mechanical pencil and bristol paper. Today: Painting Bugs with ArtRage Studio Pro The result? My first series of scientific illustrations, instead of the off-kilter, surreal science paintings I'm known for. Earlier this year I was commissioned by entomologist and insect photographer Morgan Jackson of Biodiversity in Focus to contribute to a soon-to-be-published, honest-to-gosh dead-tree book about jewel beetles in Ontario.

Artrage pro