Illustration in Materials Science
While creating an illustration two years ago, a graduate student told me, "You understand this better than most grad students!". My reply, "I have to...I do this for a living." That graduate student's advisor asked me to create an illustration for inclusion in a journal. When I asked for some direction, he sent me the graduate student. To illustrate difficult scientific concepts, one must have a near intimate understanding of the concept in order to correctly illustrate it. This has become one of my favorite parts of my job, because I am constantly learning something new.
Published on:
2011
Drawing, Illustration, Multimedia
- Illustration in Materials Science
Illustrating what we can't see - While creating an illustration two years ago, a graduate student told me, "You understand this better than most grad students!". My reply, "I have to...I do this for a living." That graduate student's advisor asked me to create an illustration for inclusion in a journal. When I asked for some direction, he sent me the graduate student. To illustrate difficult scientific concepts, one must have a near intimate understanding of the concept in order to correctly illustrate it.
This has become one of my favorite parts of my job, because I am constantly learning something new. 
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These illustrations were created for display at the grand opening of the new Museum of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences when it opened in 2004. A theme of materials was chosen as a symposium to open the museum, and featured these medical materials as well as other materials with very particular properties, such as aerogel and automotive ceramics. These illustrations were then re-purposed for semi-permanent display in our department.Design, Illustration, Photo Illustration2011 -
These drawings were created for a materials science textbook. The author wanted original drawings for the book, so I was asked to create the drawings. Each drawing is approximately 24"x30", rendered in graphite, and required from 15 to 35 hours each.Drawing, Illustration2011 -
One of my art school professors has vehemently stated, "If you can't draw with your hands, you can't draw with a computer." Throughout my creative career, truer words haven't been spoken. These sketches of prominent scientists were created for biographies for an online course. Pulling images from the Internet to display in an original online project was not an option, so I used the images as reference to draw my own portraits. Over fifty of these sketches were created, so they had to be quick, taking from two minutes to five minutes each.Drawing, Illustration, Multimedia2011