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The 16th-Century Artist Who Created the First Compendium of Insect Drawings

by Aurelia Butler 11 July 2025, 20:31

All images courtesy of the National Gallery of Art

The 16th-Century Artist Who Created the First Compendium of Insect Drawings

July 11, 2025

ArtHistoryIllustrationNature

Grace Ebert

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Nearly a century before the invention of the microscope and even longer before entomology became a field of research, Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600) devoted himself to studying the natural world. The 16th-century polymath created an enormous multi-volume collection called The Four Elements, which contained more than 300 watercolor renderings, each depicted with exceptional detail.

As Evan Puschak of the YouTube channel Nerdwriter1 (previously) explains, Hoefnagel showed unparalleled talent in his field. Compared to one of his predecessors, Albrecht Dürer, Hoefnagel draws with a painstaking commitment to precision and accuracy, even depicting specimens’ shadows with impeccable fidelity. As Kottke writes, “his paintings were so accurate that if he’d lived 200 years later, you would have called him a naturalist.”

While drawings in three of the books appear to mimic other scientific renderings of the period, Hoefnagel seems to have created his works by studying the insects themselves and sometimes even included parts of their bodies in his compositions. His Fire volume, full of beetles, butterflies, and other arthropods, is thought to be the first of its kind.

Some of Hoefnagel’s works are on view at the National Gallery of Art in Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World, which ventures back to the 16th and 17th centuries to explore how artists and naturalists have historically been aligned. It’s also worth looking at the museum’s interactive archive that lets viewers zoom in on several of Hoefnagel’s drawings.

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From Vietnam to Nepal, Lee Me Kyeoung Expands the Geographic Bounds of Her Corner Store Drawings
by Aurelia Butler 11 July 2025, 18:47
Mirissa, Sriranka. All images courtesy of Lee Me Kyeoung, shared with permission
From Vietnam to Nepal, Lee Me Kyeoung Expands the Geographic Bounds of Her Corner Store Drawings
July 11, 2025
ArtIllustration
Grace Ebert
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Tucked into mountainsides and among bustling streets, small corner stores are often a central point in a community. For Lee Me Kyeoung (previously), these local shops provide endless inspiration for an ongoing series of drawings. The Korean artist documents the tiny markets she encounters around the world, utilizing pen and acrylic to create exquisite visual odes from Australia to Turkey.
Me Kyeoung’s drawings were recently collected into a book, and you can follow her work on Instagram.
Göreme Cappadocia, Türkiye
Husei, Japan
Dhampus, Nepal
Chefchaouen, Morocco
Hoian, Vietnam
Arhangai, Mongolia
Ubud Bali, Indonesia
Ross on Wye, U.K.
Sydney, Australia
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‘Inside Information’ Cutaway Diagrams by Dorothy Dig Into the Makings of Pop Culture Icons
by Aurelia Butler 16 June 2025, 13:39
“Inside Information: Boombox.” All images © Dorothy, shared with permission
‘Inside Information’ Cutaway Diagrams by Dorothy Dig Into the Makings of Pop Culture Icons
June 16, 2025
ArtDesignHistoryIllustration
Kate Mothes
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Taking diagrams to a new level, U.K.-based studio collective Dorothy creates prints that celebrate information—charts, maps, alphabets, color wheels, and blueprints. The team has also plunged into the world of cutaway drawings, which are popular for visualizing otherwise opaque, multilayered objects in the manufacturing world.
Cutaway diagrams have actually been around for centuries, with the form originating in the 15th-century notebooks of Italian Renaissance engineer Mariano “Taccola” de Jacopo. Dorothy’s twist on the 3D graphic form, a series titled Inside Information, is a celebration of pop culture and modern technology, from Apple computers and sneakers to boomboxes and theremins.
Detail of “Inside Information: Boombox”
Each object teems with figures and motifs that have been instrumental in the item’s history and culture, like trailblazing rappers and hip-hop artists who wander stereo box innards in “Inside Information: Boombox” as if it’s a building. The same goes for the Moog, which highlights flashpoints in its development and musical icons like David Byrne and Led Zeppelin who have contributed to its popularity—along with its namesake, of course, Robert Moog.
Prints are available for purchase on Dorothy’s website, and you can follow updates and releases on Instagram.
Detail of “Inside Information: Boombox”
Detail of “Inside Information: Boombox”
“Inside Information: Claravox – Special Edition for Moog Music”
Detail of “Inside Information: Claravox – Special Edition for Moog Music”
Detail of “Inside Information: Claravox – Special Edition for Moog Music”
Detail of “Inside Information: Claravox – Special Edition for Moog Music”
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Dr. Ella Hawkins Reimagines Ancient Artifacts and Prized Objects as Edible Replicas
by Aurelia Butler 31 May 2025, 18:28
William Morris Biscuit Set. All images courtesy of Ella Hawkins, shared with permission
Dr. Ella Hawkins Reimagines Ancient Artifacts and Prized Objects as Edible Replicas
May 31, 2025
ArtDesignFoodIllustration
Grace Ebert
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Academic research is notoriously niche and often opaque, but Dr. Ella Hawkins has found a crowd-pleasing way to share her studies. The Birmingham-based artist and design historian translates her interests in Shakespeare performance, costume, and matieral culture into edible replicas.
Hawkins bakes batches of cookies that she tops with royal icing. Decorating takes a scholarly turn, as she uses tiny paintbrushes and a mini projector to help trace imagery of William Morris’ ornate floral motifs or coastal scenes from English delftware. Rendering a design on a single cookie can take anywhere between two and four hours, depending on the complexity. Unsurprisingly, minuscule calligraphy and portraits are most demanding.
Ancient Greek Pottery Sherds
Hawkins first merged baking and her research about a decade ago while studying undergraduate costume design at the University of Warwick. She decided to bake cupcakes based on Shakespeare productions that her class examined. “It felt like a fun way to look back at all the different design styles we’d covered through the year,” she tells Colossal, adding:
I carried on decorating cakes and cookies based on costume design through my PhD (mainly as goodies to give out during talks, or as gifts for designers that I interviewed), then branched out and spent lots of time doing cookie versions of other artefacts to keep busy during the pandemic.
She has since published an academic book on the topic and is a senior lecturer at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. But she also continues to translate artifacts and prized objects held within museum collections into delicious canvases.
There’s a set made in collaboration with Milton’s Cottage, a museum in the country house where John Milton finished his epic Paradise Lost. Anchored by a delicately crosshatched portrait evoking that of the frontispiece, the collection contains typographic titles and signs that appear straight from a 17th-century book.
Delftware Tiles
Hawkins ventures farther back in history to ancient Greece with a collection of pottery sherds inspired by objects within the Ashmolean Museum. With a bowed surface to mimic a vessel’s curvature, the irregular shapes feature fragments of various motifs and figures to which she applied a sgraffito technique, a Renaissance method of scratching a surface to reveal the layer below.
The weathered appearance is the result of blotting a base of pale brown-grey before using a scribe tool to scratch and crack the royal icing coating the surface. She then lined these etchings with a mix of vodka and black food coloring to mimic dirt and wear. (It’s worth taking a look at this process video.)
Other than a select few preserved for talks and events, Hawkins assures us that the rest of her cookies are eaten. Find more of her work on her website and Instagram.
Medieval Tiles, inspired by The Tristram Tiles, Chertsey, Surrey, England (c. 1260s-70s)
Milton’s Cottage Biscuit Set developed in collaboration with Milton’s Cottage
Outlander Biscuit Set
Elizabethan Gauntlet Biscuit Set
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In ‘The Junior Classic,’ Michael Ezzell Builds an Uncanny World from Vintage Books
by Aurelia Butler 27 May 2025, 16:00
“Decoy Boy.” All images © Michael Ezzell, shared with permission
In ‘The Junior Classic,’ Michael Ezzell Builds an Uncanny World from Vintage Books
May 27, 2025
ArtIllustration
Kate Mothes
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It’s not too often that a high school art project morphs into a through-line in an artist’s professional practice, but for illustrator and printmaker Michael Ezzell, that’s exactly how his ongoing series The Junior Classic was born. Tearing pages from vintage books, he experiments with a range of media, compositional elements, and narratives that then inspire further paintings and prints.
“When I was starting out, I would just paint over the text of the page and create something brand new from some mundane book I had,” Ezzell tells Colossal. “Eventually, it evolved into using the page’s illustration or ornate chapter headings as a jumping-off point for what I would create on the page.”
“Cloudmaker”
Among many others, Ezzell especially graviates toward illustrations in the Alice in Wonderland series, originally drawn by Sir John Tenniel and reimagined during subsequent decades by more than half a dozen other artists like Mabel Lucie Attwell, Gwynedd M. Hudson, Maria L. Kirk, and even Salvador Dalí.
“I’ve gotten my book-hunting more down to a science now,” the artist says. “I look for weird and obscure manuals or children’s books with lots of pictures or funky text formatting. Anything that could have strange connotations when taken out of context is what I’m drawn to.” He approaches each page’s inherent qualities—a printed phrase or a small drawing—like a prompt or a call-and-response, which taps into a refreshingly different kind of problem-solving than working on a large, blank canvas.
Ezzell is particularly interested in world-building and immersive stories, and his motifs and characters take cues from tarot, Surrealism, playing cards, and early-20th-century fashion. The title of the series nods to a set of 10 books titled The Junior Classics, first published in 1912, which were intended for young readers as a counterpart to the Harvard Classics series.
The Junior Classic consists of more than 400 pieces (and growing), and Ezzell is currently working on his own tarot deck, which in turn is inspiring more narrative possibilities. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Two Rivers”
“Now Here”
“Three Phases of Mitsy Diller”
“Mind Over Matter”
“Love Makes the World Go Down”
“The Escapist”
“The Great Cassino”
“The Duchess”
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Wondrous and Mischievous Misfits Populate Rhea Mack’s Bubblegum Daydreams
by Aurelia Butler 4 April 2025, 20:40
All images courtesy of Rhea Mack, shared with permission
Wondrous and Mischievous Misfits Populate Rhea Mack’s Bubblegum Daydreams
April 4, 2025
ArtIllustration
Grace Ebert
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On candy-colored paper, Rhea Mack draws a world in which all misfits are welcome. The Massachusetts-based artist lovingly renders curious characters with three heads, flowers growing from their palms, or a penchant for plump, strawberry hats.
Mack has a soft spot for these strange oddballs who develop organically, often springing from her Sunday morning sessions seemingly on their own accord. “I usually start drawing, and they just kind of develop over a few hours. I sometimes have a certain feeling or pose in mind, but mostly I am just making it up as I go,” she says.
This intuitive, accommodating attitude influences much of her process, including the decision to draw on pink paper simply “because it made sense,” she says. Mack chooses other materials similarly. “The colored pencil pinks I use in my drawings are very buttery and just feel nice to draw with,” she adds.
As if emerging from a favorite fairytale—creating a children’s book is on Mack’s mind—the drawings twist common plants and animals like dogs and daisies into surreal fantasies. Each is packed with small moments of intrigue and playful patterns like stripes and dots.
In one work, for example, a full human skeleton and dozens of single eyes float from a figure’s gaze, while a pink pup leaps overhead. Another features a quintet bound by a rainbow dress, their bulbous, beige coifs fused together like the clouds above.
Mack’s solo exhibition Massachusetts Dreaming opens next week at Kyst Gallery in Dragor, Denmark, and is on view through May 8. Find prints in her shop, and follow her work on Instagram. (via WePresent)
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Daniel Martin Diaz Encodes Cosmic Questions into Geometric Paintings and Prints
by Aurelia Butler 2 April 2025, 17:00
“Celestial Harmonics.” All images courtesy of Daniel Martin Diaz, shared with permission
Daniel Martin Diaz Encodes Cosmic Questions into Geometric Paintings and Prints
April 2, 2025
ArtIllustration
Kate Mothes
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In his ongoing “quest to articulate the ineffable,” Arizona-based artist Daniel Martin Diaz (previously) creates large-scale works that merge metaphysical, scientific, and technological phenomena into vibrant geometric compositions.
Diaz’s current solo exhibition, UNIVERSAL CODES at the Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science, and Art, presents recent work drawing on a wide range of influences, from Mexican religious iconography and arcane religious sigils to Early Netherlandish painters and Gothic decorative motifs.
“Cross Species Interface”
Diaz’s work often investigates concepts of death and religion “as he seeks to pose questions but not answer them,” says an exhibition statement. Juxtaposing esoteric symbols and messages with scientific diagrams and spiritual iconography, the artist explores the surreality of cosmic forces.
UNIVERSAL CODES continues through April 27 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Find more on Diaz’s Instagram, and peruse a range of prints, apparel, and home accessories in his shop.
“Temporal Soul”
“Chrono”
“Beyond the Self”
“Astral Projection”
“Conscious Universe”
“Codex”
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Tropical Flowers and Prickly Cacti Leap from Lili Arnold’s Vibrant Block Prints
by Aurelia Butler 26 March 2025, 14:22
“Strelitzia Reginae, a.k.a. Bird of Paradise III.” All images courtesy of Lili Arnold, shared with permission
Tropical Flowers and Prickly Cacti Leap from Lili Arnold’s Vibrant Block Prints
March 26, 2025
ArtIllustrationNature
Kate Mothes
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Every year, Lili Arnold’s mother would block-print holiday cards to send to family and friends. When she was old enough to wield a carving tool, Arnold began to make her own, too. But it wasn’t until college, when she took an Intro to Printmaking class, that she became enthralled with the practice’s myriad methods.
Block printing specifically captured Arnold’s attention because of its relatively simple components and technique—no giant presses required. The block can expand in scale, incorporate different colors, or be layered with numerous pressings.
“Strelitzia Reginae, a.k.a. Bird of Paradise”
“I think what I love most about the process is seeing my first print after so many hours of sketching, planning, carving, and troubleshooting,” Arnold tells Colossal. “There’s a lot of thought and time invested in the steps before the actual print becomes real, so when I see that first reveal, it’s both terrifying and thrilling.”
Arnold’s compositions often revolve around natural subjects, especially botanicals like cacti and tropical flowers. She is fascinated by the environment’s infinite interaction of colors, textures, patterns, and symmetry.
“There’s such vast diversity of plant life out there, each ecosystem encapsulating unique details and wonders,” she says. “We as artists and botanical patrons have the pleasure of translating and expressing our appreciation of this beauty through our artwork, writing, gardening, exploring, and beyond.”
Follow updates on Arnold’s Instagram, and browse prints available for purchase in her shop.
“Zantedeschia Albomaculata, a.k.a. Spotted Calla Lily III”
“Palm Study III”
“Emergence of Spring”
“Opuntia Ficus-Indica, a.k.a. Prickly Pear”
Blocks ready for printing
Pulling “Opuntia Ficus-Indica, a.k.a. Prickly Pear”
Block for “Banksia Prolata”
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Intricate Postage Stamp Tattoos by Ash Aurich Are an Ode to Art History
by Aurelia Butler 10 March 2025, 13:11
All images courtesy of Ash Aurich, shared with permission
Intricate Postage Stamp Tattoos by Ash Aurich Are an Ode to Art History
March 10, 2025
ArtIllustration
Kate Mothes
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As the saying goes, if one knows very little about something, their knowledge could fit on the back of a postage stamp. But for tattoo artist Ash Aurich, the minuscule format provides a readymade canvas and frame ripe for experimentation, intrigue, and beauty.
Using a fine line technique with delicate shading, Aurich outlines the unmistakable scalloped edges of the ubiquitous, tiny adhesives, filling rectangular compositions with Renaissance-inspired romantic and religious figures.
A deep appreciation for iconic artworks inspired Aurich to create tiny odes to art history. “I wanted to be able to capture the essence of these masterpieces in a unique and engaging way,” she tells Colossal. “Having the opportunity to tattoo these designs on others who appreciate art is a rewarding experience.”
Aurich’s preferred subject matter is people, especially the dramatic and often symbolic figures in art historical masterworks by the likes of Johannes Vermeer or Caravaggio. “The attention to detail, use of light and shadow, and mastery of human anatomy create stunning, lifelike representations that translate beautifully into tattoos,” the artist says. She shares that it’s important for the emotions and narratives of each portrait to resonate with the wearer, especially at their small scale.
Currently in residency at Atelier Eva, Aurich has opened her books for March and April in New York City. The tattoos seen here are all flash designs, but she creates custom compositions, too. See more on Instagram.
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illustration

Latest story

The 16th-Century Artist Who Created the First Compendium of Insect Drawings

More stories

From Vietnam to Nepal, Lee Me Kyeoung Expands the Geographic Bounds of Her Corner Store Drawings

‘Inside Information’ Cutaway Diagrams by Dorothy Dig Into the Makings of Pop Culture Icons

Dr. Ella Hawkins Reimagines Ancient Artifacts and Prized Objects as Edible Replicas

In ‘The Junior Classic,’ Michael Ezzell Builds an Uncanny World from Vintage Books

Wondrous and Mischievous Misfits Populate Rhea Mack’s Bubblegum Daydreams

Daniel Martin Diaz Encodes Cosmic Questions into Geometric Paintings and Prints

Tropical Flowers and Prickly Cacti Leap from Lili Arnold’s Vibrant Block Prints

Intricate Postage Stamp Tattoos by Ash Aurich Are an Ode to Art History

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