Three-Dimensional Design: How to Prepare Models
- By Mieke Roth
< Figure 1. 3D Printed Snail. All images © 2023 Mieke Roth
- By Mieke Roth
< Figure 1. 3D Printed Snail. All images © 2023 Mieke Roth
Journal of Natural Science Illustration Volume 55, No. 1: Abstracts
Welcome to the first Journal edition of 2023!
Sara can often be found drawing in her studio with some tea, lazy cats dozing nearby, with a view of the Alaska Range out her window.
< All images © 2023 Sara Lynn Cramb unless otherwise noted. 50 States map art from Smithsonian Young Explorers Fact Book & Floor Puzzle: 50 States, published by Silver Dolphin Books. Illustration © Silver Dolphin Books.I like to say that I draw things for a living. It’s what I’ve wanted to do for as long as I can remember. I grew up in rural Ohio and had abundant time to explore outside when the weather was agreeable, and a wonderful library of beautifully illustrated children's books to pore over when it was not. I illustrated stories on loose sheets of paper that my mom helped me staple together into makeshift books. I wanted to be like my idols: children's illustrators Jan Brett, Eric Carle, and Charley Harper.
Reviewed by Linda M. Feltner
Robin Lee Carlson’s book is an up–close–and–very– personal study of fire’s relationship with Stebbins Cold Canyon ecosystems. Her familiarity with this canyon grew through many years of walking, observing, and sketching in the Reserve. She watched with sadness and grief as her familiar trails and forested canyons succumbed to wildfire. Her journey begins armed with her scientific background, creative and curious mind, while she devotedly recorded its recovery.
Book review by Diogo Guerra, medical illustrator
Building Science Graphics is a new practical guide written and designed by science communicator Jen Christiansen, Senior Graphics Editor at Scientific American, and published by CRC Press.
Creating a Fine Art Painting: From Research to Exhibit
by Erin E. Hunter
Erin E. Hunter’s most ambitious piece yet is “Look Closer,” a large painting of California native bees and wildflowers that anchored a 2022 solo show at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. She tells the story of its creation – inspiration to process – from the sketching, designing and painting, to presenting the piece in multiple formats to various audiences.
Journal of Natural Science Illustration Volume 54, No. 3: Abstracts
Welcome to the third Journal edition of 2022!
To inspire you, we offer you excellent and innovative stories in this issue. The journal begins with a recap of our third online Visual SciComm Conference, an introduction to 19th century author and illustrator William Hamilton Gibson, Erin E. Hunter’s process for creating a large pollinator piece of artwork, a book review about the Cold Canyon Fires, an article about modern Medical Illustrators’ challenges, some photoshop tips for your traditional illustrations, an overview of Kathleen Garness’ grant project identifying orchids, and a Memoriam to the late illustrator Peg Estey. Thank you to all our contributors!
- Elizabeth Morales, Marla Coppolino, Carla DeMello, Lucy Gagliardo, and Annie Zygarowicz
Journal of Natural Science Illustration Volume 54, No. 2: Abstracts
Welcome to the second Journal edition of 2022!
To inspire you, we offer you excellent and innovative stories in this issue, ranging from affordable 2D and 3D renderers, an overview of the 2022 Visual SciComm Conference, a decal project at Cayuga Lake, selected artworks from the graduating class of CSUMB program, and watercolor paper tests by Kathryn Killackey. Thank you to all of our contributors!
Journal Of Natural Science Illustration / Volume 54, No. 1: Abstracts
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Review by C.Olivia Carlisle
Edward Lear (1812–1888) is best known for his witty limericks and nonsense verse. But the celebrated author of The Owl and the Pussy-Cat also created some of the most stunning paintings of birds and mammals during an age when many species were just being discovered and brought to private menageries and zoos throughout Europe. In the Natural History of Edward Lear, New Edition, author Robert McCracken Peck, an authority on ornithological illustration in the United States, sheds light on Lear’s creativity, productivity, attention to natural science detail, and success as an artist. Through Peck’s extensive 20-year research in the Houghton Library at Harvard University, this book contains more than 200 of Lear’s beautiful and detailed illustrations of animals, plants, and landscapes.
- Anthony James Gustafson
Our ancient ancestors told stories of great prehistoric beasts in the form of drawings on the walls of caves. These animals played a significant role in their daily lives, and they clearly felt their stories were worth telling. And whether they realized it or not, the stories themselves would long outlive those who wrote them. So, in effect, they’ve been able to tell those stories to us thousands of years later.
Written by Donald B. Sayner and Gladys Bennett Menhennet. Edited by Lana Koepke Johnson and Jeanette R. O’Hare, foreword by Paul Mirocha.
— Reviewed by Joel Floyd
- Reviewed by Camille Werther
GNSI Past President, Dr. Dick Rauh, has written an invaluable reference book for those who love flowers, those who teach scientific and botanical illustration, and artists who want to deepen their knowledge of how plants work. The author is both an artist and a scientist, having earned a PhD in Plant Sciences at CUNY, and brings his knowledge of both disciplines to the format of the book.
Review by Theophilus Britt Griswold
Product Review: Stonehenge Aqua Black
by Gail Guth and Camille Werther
Casting our minds back 51 years, we find two young natural science illustrators at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Carolyn Bartlett Gast and Elaine R. S. Hodges had noticed the lack of connection among staff illustrators and had become the prime movers to bridge the gap. In order to do that, Carolyn planned illustrators’ luncheons with programs related to the media that would be helpful to these previously isolated artists. This served as a means to introduce illustrators to one another and for them to recognize the benefits of coming together. Carolyn found Elaine to be a willing ally and, as Carolyn saw it, Elaine had enthusiasm for the project as well as access to a typewriter—and could type. With that skill they produced elegant invitations and descriptions of the programs. Their success in this endeavor led to the founding of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators on December 2, 1968, and the connection among natural science illustrators that we’ve all enjoyed for 51 years. Thus began a lifelong effort by Elaine to bring together people who specialized in the art of seeing—the art of perceiving an object, not just looking at it. All of this in the service of science. (Above: Elaine in her office, 1987.)
My parents were always very supportive of everything I wanted to do, always encouraging my interests in art and science. Mom would often buy drawing paper and pencils for me; Dad built a great drawing table board that I still use. When I was a little kid, I would often make drawings of different types of animals and staple the sheets together to make simple books. I would create a book about spiders and one about snakes and so on. I never guessed that I would be doing the same type of work as a career.
(Left: In my studio working on a new drawing)