From diagrams of feudal hierarchy found in supermarket parking lots, the mind moves easily to bees.
I made bee cutouts for reference, then drew the line art in pen and added flat colour in Photoshop. It’s the usual model.
At one stage I considered myself a world authority on bees. Diagrams of the larval stages of bees still give me strong flashbacks to grade 3.
I’ll put up the final images of the Cloud & Ashes cover art soon – the thumbnails are up now: Anything as much fun as simply messing about in Photoshop?
Kathleen Jennings 
Nice! Cool process for crowns, but I love the drawings.
Great work!
Poor bees … colony collapse disorder.
T. Martin – thanks!
Red-handed – :)