About the Cottonmouth Drawing
Cottonmouths, also known as Water Moccasins, have been among my favorite snakes for many years. I have encountered and handled numerous individuals during fieldwork and have always been fascinated by their heavy build, variable patterning, and distinctive defensive behavior.
Cottonmouths have an enduring but largely undeserved reputation for aggression. Whit Gibbons and I tested the responses of free-ranging Cottonmouths to encounters with people and found that most attempted to escape or relied on warning displays and other defensive tactics. Even when severely provoked, many did not bite. The widely recognized open-mouth display reveals the pale lining that gives the snake its common name, but it is best understood as a warning from an animal that feels threatened rather than an attempt to attack.
Although many Cottonmouths become darker with age, some retain striking crossbands and markings. In Fair Warning, the boldly patterned coils surround the raised head and brilliant interior of the mouth, creating a dramatic contrast against the dark background. I developed the composition from two reference photographs by W. W. Lamar.
Fair Warning is a graphite wildlife drawing of a Cottonmouth, or Water Moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus), by Michael E. Dorcas for Tantilla Art. Reference photographs by W. W. Lamar.