Skipper on Verbena

I have never had a favorite butterfly. Until recently I could only name the monarch. No one ever asked me to pick a favorite anyway, so I never gave it much thought. Then we planted verbena and everything changed, and our backyard became filled with skipper butterflies.

These small purple flowers pull in skippers like a magnet. I do not have a wide frame that shows them all off, but in this view alone I am pretty sure there are three.

Several purple verbena blooms with a brown skipper in profile and additional blurred skippers in the background.

The flurry is hard to hold in one frame, so I stayed close. One bloom. One skipper.

Close-up of a skipper feeding on verbena.

The reference is not perfect, but it is what I had, and I had grown to love these skippers and wanted to share them.

As usual, it took several tries to get where I wanted to be with the image.

Early attempt, saturated and stormy.

This version was interesting, but not quite right. However, it taught me how a darker field can carry that brief, smothering moment when dozens of tiny wings rise together.

An attempt with softer strokes and a lighter field.

Similarly this one showed me how I preferred less bold looking brush strokes. 

Ultimately, with those lessons combined, I landed the final.

Final attempt. A delicate little skipper held in cool light with deeper background tones that carry the breathless lift-off.

A delicate little skipper, the sparkle of verbena, and an air about it that holds the weight of that tiny storm.