Scientific Illustration

Scientific illustration is a major component of natural history illustration. Where natural history illustration can arguably cover any form of art that incorporates plants or animals, be it fine art, concept art, children's book illustration, etc, scientific illustration is done for a specific scientific purpose or paper, and needs to be extremely accurate. Scientific illustrations are commonly used in the study of taxonomy, anatomy, movement, behaviour and ecology.

Scientific illustration was a core subject for my Natural History Illustration course. In it, we completed three scientific illustrations, spending approximately four weeks on each. For these, because so much was involved with each illustration, and because there's so much to say about each, I decided to dedicate a page to each, so I can give them the time and space they deserve. Click on the links to read more.

Entomological Illustration:

The first was an entomological illustration, entomology being the study of insects and allied forms, which include things like arachnids, snails, earthworms, etc. For this, I completed a scraperboard illustration of a golden orb weaver spider:

Entomological Illustration

Golden Orb Weaver

Nephila edulis

Botanical Illustration:

The second was a botanical illustration, botany being the scientific study of plants. For this, I completed a stippled illustration of a bottlebrush cultivar:

Botanical Illustration

Bottlebrush cultivar

Callistemon 'Mauve Mist'

Medical Illustration:

The last was a medical illustration, on an area of the human body of our choosing. For this, I completed a carbon dusting combined with a digital illustration of the muscular anatomy of the human neck:

Medical Illustration

Muscular Anatomy of

the Human Neck

Read on for some examples of the uses for scientific illustration...

Taxonomy is the science of classification and involves categorising organisms into the correct kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. This is most commonly done by studying the organism's genitals, as genitals are understandably the most distinguishing factor used to determine whether two specimens are the same species or not. For example, two snails of the same gender may look identical, but if their genitals are dissimilar and function in different ways, they are obviously not of the same species. Conversely, two snails may look quite different, but if their genitals are identical, they may actually be of the same species and merely exhibiting different characteristics of that species.

Anatomical illustration covers a variety of disciplines including basic anatomy, medicine and even evolution. Medical illustration is favourable to photography as the illustrator has complete control over the visual information of the subject matter. Not only do illustrators have the ability to exclude superfluous information or add in information that may be damaged or missing, but they able to make sense of the information and illustrate it accordingly which allows them to depict details much clearer than a photo could. Similarly to medicine, anatomical illustration can also be used to study evolution through comparative anatomy and comparative embryology. Even the humans and fish show striking resemblances in the early stages of embryonic development, showing that evolved from a common ancestor.

Other types of illustration:

        

Studio Illustration                                        Field Illustration