Drawing Insects For Beginners: Step by Step Guide to Drawing Bugs
If you are going to draw a subject with a dark tone using pencils, such as most insects, the key is to use the right grade of pencils. You need something silvery to produce fine lines and a metallic gloss, as well as soft grade that can go really dark.
For a subject with a glossy black tone, the important thing is to properly portray the darkness along with the subtle highlights while describing its dimensional shape. Drawing a rhino beetle is a good example for this. to begin, find your subject’s angle and establish the primary figure.
Depict the main outline of the subject's precise silhouette appearance. A rhino beetle has an arc-shaped horns that protrude from the wide convex plane of its head.
The primary shading process of the rhino beetle would be more on smudged shades. Smearing the shading will easily produce a smooth texture and could easily portray a solid and shiny surface. Use a charcoal pencil to achieve a deep dark tone with an intermediate grade of 2B to 4B.
- Start conveying the light and dark values of the subject's head. apply a loose scribbled shades and smear them until they lose their linear form.
Continue applying the first layer of shading up to the body. The highlights establish the contour of the body's slightly rigid surface.
Enforce the light and dark depictions by applying a second layer. This will further establish the contour of the subject and make it more distinguishable.
Keep on blending the tones together to remove the obvious linear forms with each layer of shade you apply.
Darken the sharp edges and the areas of the body facing farther from your view, especially the undersides.
Add a final layer of shading and define the subtle details to finalize your drawing.
Because of their texture and form, drawing insects is basically a repetitive process of applying the tone,smearing or blending it, and adding another layer again. This idea is also applicable for colored illustrations. 
Detailed step by step instructions, tips and guides, along with several more examples are available in the book "Drawing Insects For Beginners: Step by Step Guide to Drawing Bugs"
