Ebony Jewelwings are common damselflies of eastern North America that have dark wings and iridescent blue or green bodies. They’re easy to spot as they flutter amid the vegetation near tranquil streams and ponds. If you approach them closely, they follow your movements with their huge black eyes. Males are easily distinguished by the lack of a white spot, called a stigma, at the tip of each wing.

This painting was done using mostly M Graham transparent watercolors on Daler-Rowney Langton Prestige 140 lb cold press watercolor (an excellent, reasonably priced paper). I used phthalo blue (PB15:3) and phthalo green (PG7) for the iridescent body color. I mixed the black from phthalo green and maroon perylene (PR179).