Praying Mantis (Stagmomantis limbata) study

A couple weeks ago I went to Descanso Gardens here in LA to take some macro shots. I ran across a praying mantis and took some photos which inspired me to finally finish this mantis model I've been playing with in ZBrush for the past few years. I ended up re-sculpitng much of my older model to make it more accurate for this species. S limbata is the only mantis with the bright blue on its face. I believe this is a juvenile because of the tiny wing size. I'll be using this model in the next episode of Entomology Animated. I also modeled the flowers in the foreground (Cinquefoil). The scene was sculpted and painted in ZBrush, textures created in Substance Painter, I rigged and posed it in Maya and rendered using Redshift for Maya. I finished it in Photoshop. The Pseudo-pupils were painted on in Photoshop. I think its great to go out and photograph your own reference as it creates more of a connection between you and the subject.