School is keeping me quite busy, but in my spare moments I'm working away at a new set: Creepy Crawlies! So far these two kids have come to life, soon to be followed by a ladybug and a potato bug. The ladybug sketch morphed into being quite easily, but the sketch for the potato bug turned out to be challenging. I turned to an image search for inspiration. I knew the cute little creatures had many nicknames and "potato bug" wasn't the most common, but I was surprised when my screen was flooded with this creepy guy:
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| Image by Franco Folini Wikipedia: Jerusalem Cricket |
I got distracted reading about this fascinating, alien-looking creature, but eventually a search for "pill bug" turned up the familiar little armadillo of the insect world and the sketching resumed. This image, in particular, has been a wonderful inspiration for his face!
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| Image by Peter J. Bryant UCI: Pill Bug (Wood Louse) |
Thanks to this experience, "potato bug" is definitely not in consideration for naming the image in the finished set!
I have always been mesmerized by (friendly) insects. As a kid, I loved finding them under rocks and letting them crawl around on my hands. Pill bugs were easily my favorite creepy crawly, and my love for them continued into adulthood. I didn't think they could get any more fascinating, but recently I learned that while roly polies play the role of insects, they are actually crustaceans! It's easy to see, now, thinking about their armor and that of a lobster, but at the time I was quite surprised. That discovery lead me on a path through Wikipedia, following breadcrumbs and links through more and more distantly related species, until I discovered the giant isopod:
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| Image by unknown photographer Wikipedia: Giant Isopod |
Well, that tangent aside, keep an eye out for more posts as the Creepy Crawlies slowly find their way out of my imagination and into the next set!
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