Did you know that I majored in scientific illustration at the University of Georgia?
Yes, that’s actually a major.
If you’re like 95% of the people I talk to, you very well have no clue what scientific illustration is (which is totally fine. The 5% that do know are probably scientific illustrators or else they knew me in college.)
The simplest way to explain scientific illustration is to say that I studied to draw bugs, bones, botanicals etc. to a 100% level of accuracy. Like, imagine Realism and then up the reality factor. I would then use that art to teach- whether that be concepts (like the metamorphosis process of a butterfly) or specifics (like the various parts of a canine muscular system.) Those final illustrations would then (ideally) be used in educational places like museums and textbooks. (If you can remember the illustration of a plant cell in your HS biology book, that was most likely drawn by a scientific illustrator.)
Long story short(ish) scientific illustrators are just storytellers who use visuals instead of words.
And when you look at it that way, it probably comes as no surprise that I now use my paintings to celebrate and share the complex stories of women. I’ve always been a storyteller!
It’s because of this background that all of my paintings combine intricate (almost scientific) line-work with vivid colors. I’m striving to balance the facts (the line work) with the emotional (the color) in order to most accurately portray the full story.