For the Love of Creepy Crawlies

I love Creepy Crawlie Critters. All that skitters, crawls or flitters. They're fascinating. With their strange forms and often quite vivid colours, some of them look quite unreal. Here are a few I have recently created:

A pretty scorpion for a sweet wee lass in Hong Kong. Her father was actually a customer of mine, purchasing a copy of the "Insects" partworks ("contains real insects, incased in genuine plastic") for her. I believe it was in fact a scorpion, and I guess it left a lasting impression because that's what she named when asked her favourite animal. Her favourite colours are blue and green, so I've included both with the inclusion of this prickly pear cactus. A scorpion is not of course an insect, but related to the spider (count the legs!).

And now:


This chap is the Psychadelic Grasshopper, found in Madagascar. He looks almost sculptured. I cannot do him justice, but here is my vague attempt. When he takes off, it is with a vivid flash of red beneath his wings. He was photoreferenced from one of my own pictures.