I made a short video of viewing the Red Harvester Ants in a natural soil environment.  While doing that, I also was deciding whether graphite or color is best to depict them. My video caption is:

"Although the gel ant farms and sand ant farms are excellent for viewing the red ants against a green or green-outlined environment, viewing them in a natural brown environment, soil, allows their natural hues to be more pronounced.  There is a subtlety to their color.  They are lighter in hue than the soil, so drawing in graphite, which is what I am doing, will capture the lightness of them against a darker soil.  I will add color if I am viewing them as red against a green environment"

I may also draw one ant design daily, instead of depicting the ant anatomy scientifically.  This would be similar to some ACEOs I have done, and also similar to the many pears I have drawn and painted over the years.  I want to draw daily, but do not always want to take the time for a truly scientific drawing.  Like Vincent van Gogh and his sunflowers, I am sure each ant design will be slightly different, even if the exact same design is used.  It is sometimes comforting to just draw and not try to place impressions of mind on the paper.  I will be using my young harvester ant design as shown in a previous post.

My videos about the ant farms can be found at my YouTube Playlist