Butterflies and Watercolor Pencils

This was my entry for Arkansas in my quest to draw or paint something from each of the 50 states.

 The state insect is the Diana Fritillary Butterfly. Apparently it is semi rare and really only hangs out in the Arkansas River Valley and a few spots on the way to the coast.

The female is black and blue. The male is orange and brown.

 For this drawing I used ink and watercolor pencils. They are a lot easier then old school watercolor kits, but do water color pencils really work better?

During my last painting with watercolors I was frustrated that I couldn't seem to add any detail or texture with watercolor paints like I could with pencils. At the art store I saw some colored pencils that were used for watercoloring. Would it really get the detail I wanted and still look like a watercolored painting? Maybe. But it was by no means perfect on my first attempt.

 I guess there are no magic tools that do the work for you. It's going to take more practice.