Saturday, January 1, 2011

An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles

Ah, yes, I know it's New Year's Day. The world is filled with blog posts about resolutions and fresh starts and all that. As worthy as they are, my nonconformist nature won't let me post one of those. Not today--maybe on another day that has nothing to do with New Year's.

Nope, today it's all about beetles.

Oh, but wait--I said I'd be posting this time about my artwork. Well, yes, that's quite what I meant.

Remember that key on the cover of Caprice Hokstad's book, The Duke's Handmaid?


Part of my agreement with Grace from Splashdown Books was that I could retain partial rights to my drawing. In other words, in its singular form I would not resell it to anyone else, but I'm allowed to use it in my own artwork. So, I let the drawing sit for a while as I waited for inspiration.

That's where beetles come in. I love them. They are amazing examples of God's creativeness and love for variety. I have this book called An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles:


The prologue begins with:

Asked what could be inferred about the work of the Creator from a study of His works, the British scientist J.B.S. Haldane is reported to have replied, "an inordinate fondness for beetles."

To make a long story short, key becomes beetle.

And what goes with a key? A lock. Then take that lock-beetle and submit it to Digital Dragon Magazine....


And we've made the rounds back to published drawing! All because of my inordinate fondness for beetles.

Next time, more detail on the process of doing cover and interior art for books.


6 comments:

Robynn Tolbert said...

Love the quote. Love the art. Love the circularity.
I'm good with beetles. Except cockroaches. Them I take personally, but the feeling seems to be mutual.

Kat Heckenbach said...

OK, cockroaches are NOT beetles. They are in a whole different family. So rest assured, you are free to hate them and it does not besmirch beetles in the least :).

PS--I'm so with ya. Roaches are nasty. And here in FL, they get BIG. Ugh.

Anonymous said...

I like the lock beetle. Nice touch going on the diagonal there--I see that the principles of composition have stuck with you. :)

I'm intrigued by the beetle book. Will you review it for me?

Unknown said...

Excellent post...love the artwork, amazing. I've too have always had a fascination with beetles, they tickle when they crawl on you.

Amy Deardon said...

Kat, I'm mightily impressed with your talent!

As far as beetles, I guess I can see where they're beautiful, but practically speaking we've had an infestation in our area of these beetles that people say are Asian. They're about half an inch long, and don't do anything except fly around, but I'm SO TIRED of finding them in our house even now. I'm worried about the spring.

Happy New Year!

Kat Heckenbach said...

Thanks for the comments, everyone!

Anonymous, the book is mainly a "coffee table" book filled with pictures of museum specimens. Beautiful, close-up photography of these amazing beetles with the most incredible coloring.