Zenobia Escapes (2004)
Historical fiction
I quite like story illustration. Illustrating historical fiction is another matter entirely, though, as it requires additional reading and research, so the portrayals have at least the ring of authenticity. For children’s illustration, as this Cricket Magazine was for, it’s less critical but still worth doing.
I illustrated two portrayals of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra for this story, one a portrait and the other a moment in the story. Zenobia was a powerful queen in the 3rd century AD, and I wasn’t familiar with this part of the history of the eastern Roman Empire. So I found doing additional reading interesting on its own.
Spoiler alert: by the end of the story, Zenobia is on the run as the Roman army has handed her military defeats and has her on the run. That’s where we are here.
