Illustrations for a book about human-insect relationships
Nature Underfoot: Living with Beetles, Crabgrass, Fruit Flies, and Other Tiny Life Around Us
By entomologist Dr. John Hainze.
Published by Yale University Press, 2020.
Like it or not, we share our daily lives with a menagerie of tiny, wild animals and plants.
Dr. John Hainze invited me to make ink chapter headings for his book about people’s relationships with the species we sometimes call pests.
My favorite moment of the illustration process happened while compiling reference images of house centipedes so I could draw one attacking a cockroach. During a water break, the cat and I both noticed a real house centipede slinking down the stairs. Cat and insect frolicked just enough for the numerous legs to fall limp. I faced my fears head-on as I delicately re-positioned the centipede and drew from observation.
An ant harvests sweet sap from an aphid's behind.
Chapter heading illustrating humans' fear and fascination with certain organisms.
Fire ants taking over the world.
A roly-poly, just opening.
Endangered American burying beetle specimen.
House centipede attacking a cockroach.
