The wraparound cover for the book was flipped for the printing.
One of the first handful of books I’d illustrated was for Charlesbridge Publishing’s Creepy Creatures: Do they Scare You? 1992; author, Sneed B. Collard. The art director was pleased that I agreed to take it; apparently the previous person tapped had a distinct horror of creepy crawlies and turned it down.
What was so enjoyable about this book is that I got to do a ton of research on animals I’d only heard of or had scant knowledge about. Pangolins? Never heard of ‘em. Star-nosed moles.. what? And I knew scorpions were cool but it was a nightmare tracking down good photo reference from the local libraries so I decided to buy one from a pet store instead.
There were many more scorplings on her back but the illustration would have been less educational…
I got not only amazing first hand reference for my illustration but got a front row seat to the live birth of her young, which I promptly returned to the scorpion store. She lived only about 2 years after which I put her in a jar of preservative. I still have her if you’re curious about that.
If you’re interested in purchasing any of the original paintings, contact me to let me know and I’ll send you a gallery link.