Learn a New Skill, Make New Connections, Renew Your Passion! 

Core Conference: July 17–18, 2021; Workshops: July 24–25, 2021 

Celebrate California native plants, especially the plants of the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument Region! Join professional botanical illustrator Marjorie Leggitt for a three-day workshop that will increase your observational skills, your drawing techniques, and your ability to develop and complete an illustrated “field guide” composition in a medium of choice.

Begin the workshop with a guided field trip introducing native plant communities. After Marjorie demonstrates her field sketching technique for recording botanical data, spend time observing and sketching before collecting a favorite specimen. In the classroom learn step-by-step techniques for developing your sketches into more accurate renderings. Discover the magic of turning these drawings into an artistic and well-designed composition. Introduction to a few simple tools offers you the option to add scales and labels to your illustration.

Ever tried to teach an old dog a new trick? How about teaching two-dimensional traditional artists how to create a three-dimensional sculpture digitally? But everyone who attended the 2016 GNSI Education Series Workshop, Leveling Up In ZBrush®, was up for the challenge. The class was taught by David Killpack, Principal & Creative Director at Illumination Studios who uses ZBrush for science and medical illustration. We gathered at Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne (IPFW) University in the Walb Union Building on October 29 and 30, 2016, for an immersion experience. The workshop was an intense, challenging, and inspiring two days of solid work, and under Killpack’s tutelage, it did not disappoint.

ZBrush, the brainchild of parent company Pixologic™, is a computer program that allows the user to build 3D and 2D models. Unlike many other programs, ZBrush gives the user the ability to manipulate the form with a mouse or stylus much like a sculptor would work in clay. The high-resolution models created in ZBrush are used by artists primarily in the gaming, movie and animation industry. “ZBrush is even compatible with 3D printers, so you can print your models and bring them to life,” explains a Top Ten Reviews staff writer (12-9-16).

Sign up now for a special 3-D digital illustration workshop with instructor Chuck Carter at the Innovative Media Research and Commercialization Center, the University of Maine, Orono, October 23 through 25, 2015. The workshop "Visualizing Dinosaurs: Introduction to Science Illustration in 3-D" is sponsored by the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators as part of its continuing education series.

Participants will create a dinosaur scene in the 3-D program MODO®, learning how to render, add lighting, and make a series of images. The images will then be imported into Adobe®After Effects™ to explore basic animation, to create organic animation using the puppet tool, and how to use the 3D workspace to create a final animation.

The “Illustrating Birds” workshop, held April 2-4, 2011, in Kearney, Nebraska, combined all the best elements of a typical GNSI education experience: intensive content that provides a great foundation for illustrative work, wonderful mentoring that promotes accurate and exceptional art, and artistic camaraderie that inspires all who participate.

Workshop participant and Susan W. Frank Scholarship recipient Nancy Gehrig summarized it well: “The Bird Illustration Workshop was a wonderful immersion into the world of birds. I really enjoyed the three days and feel I have a good sense of how to improve my work. The lecture on bird anatomy was a perfect start for me, and I found the sketching of the live birds very challenging. I am pleased to say that I am looking and thinking of birds a bit differently, checking out the anatomy and structure and thinking of the shapes and landmarks—thinking about which feathers I am seeing and that structure lies underneath. Linda Feltner is a marvelous teacher, and I really appreciate her passing on her vast knowledge and experience. It was a great class and a fun group of people. We even practiced figure 8 flapping!”

The Smithsonian Natural History Museum was once again the setting for the 2010 GNSI Educational Series workshop, which took place March 18-21, 2010. Here, at an institution “dedicated to inspiring curiosity, discovery, and learning,” a wide diversity of participants from traditional media illustrators to scientists to comic book illustrators, gathered to engage themselves in new techniques that will help them succeed in an increasingly digital world. Many previous students returned this year to further refine their skills and take advantage of the diverse learning community.

Lessons were organized and led by Marie Metz, GNSI educational director and former Smithsonian Illustrator, Jennifer Fairman, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, and David Clarke, president of the Washington D.C. chapter of GNSI. The workshop began with a talk about the synergistic relationship between science/technology and illustration, by guest lecturer Dr. James Giordano, University of Oxford. Beginning with a discussion of prehistoric cave drawings and our innate human ability to communicate visually, Dr. Giordano explained the role illustration plays in the communication of scientific knowledge. He also gave examples of how illustration furthers science and vice versa. Participants left the lecture inspired and ready to begin learning.