I will be teaching a class on introductory Scientific Illustration in the coming year. This has been a long time coming, and I’ve gotten back into the habit of working on various subjects. If I’m going to teach it, I wanted to shake the rust off so to speak.

One of my practice illustrations is a classic bone study, a scapula (shoulder blade) of a domestic cow, Bos taurus. This was drawn in graphite. I got to put my new calipers to the test for measurements.

My next group of entomological illustrations will be parasitic species. Whether blood suckers or parasitoids, it’s all good.

Starting it off with the Deer Ked, Lipoptena cervi. This little beast is a blood eating fly that lives on deer and similar animals. An individual with fly to a host, remove its own wings, and live the life of a parasite on the single host its whole life. Their bodies are flattened and adapted for moving through fur and clinging to their host, in the same fashion as ticks.

Turns out I have illustrated examples of all the groups within the Chelicerata subphylum, which includes spiders, scorpions, mites, ticks, and horseshoe crabs.

Drawing crabs, simple as.

Another year, another group of entomological drawings, themed around Arachnids and assorted Chelicerta. Check in the Scientific Illustration menu.

The latest round of entomological illustrations are insects and spiders utilizing mimicry and camouflage. See the new images in the Scientific Illustrations page.

I’ve been working on a new side project. This one is a Tarot deck, using spiders to represent the Tarot characters. The illustrations are pen and ink. They can be found in the Assorted Illustration gallery.

In past years, I would do illustrations of Hemiptera, for the HumBugs of the Holidays. This year I am doing the Holiday Celebr-Ants of the Hymenoptera. They go in the Scientific Illustration page as normal.

I’ll be adding the usual round of spiders, scorpions and assorted gribblies for this October, then leading into the Humbugs for December. Check the Scientific Illustration page.

The next batch of Entomological Illustrations are a very narrow type- Spider Mimics. The drawings will be spiders that mimic other arthropod types. I’ll also be uploading the models for the spiders (the species that the spiders are mimicking). Check the Scientific Illustrations page.