Scientific Illustration Using a Computer

Habitus Drawings

Highly detailed dorsal view of a specimen. On the computer, start by doing the drawing in color. Later it can be easily converted to black-and-white, and even a half-tone if needed. At right is a detail of the drawing used for the tutorial.

Photo Illustration

Now that we have the technology to take beautifully clear images of our small specimens (about 1mm average) I don’t do many actual drawings anymore. I do photo illustrations — clean up and straighten out raw photos of specimens to create a handsome and clear final image. Detail of a before/after shown at right

Structural Drawing

The majority of images needed for scientific journals are simple line drawings — “pen & ink,” in traditional terms. This type of illustration is best for photocopying or for publishing in journals that do not use color or grayscale.