New GNSI Videos
In conjunction with the GNSI's 50th Anniversary, three videos of interest for the science illustration community have been added to our YouTube Channel.
Fossils, Lost Worlds, and the Hero's Journey - with Dr. Kirk Johnson (1:05:20 min.)
Scientific storytelling is presently undergoing a golden age as we realize how important narrative, imagery, objects, humor, and surprise are to the absorption of meaning. Fossils are exquisite objects but they are also fragments of very ancient stories, and paleontologists are time travelers on planet earth. Dr. Johnson became a paleontologist to explore these lost worlds. But “fossil” can also be a derogatory term and he found that many people were bored by rocks. He began to watch people to see how they responded to scientific information. Using their cues, he learned he could make fossils funny or describe geology in terms of food without losing the thread of insight. He began to write like he spoke. He realized you need to look at your audience, respect them, and look for what makes them smile. In 1998, he began to travel with artist Ray Troll in search of fossils, rock shops and museums, and to meet the people who found fossils and worked at those rock shops and museums. They spent ten years traveling together searching for the remains of the prehistoric Pacific. Dr. Johnson will share the story of their quest and the book which came out of it. Includes art by Ray Troll.
Maeve Doyle, of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI), has written a good article about the process of reconstruction of an invertebrate at the Burgess Shale and the importance of art and the artist in science.
Longtime GNSI member Alice Tangerini is featured in the July issue of the Smithsonian Magazine.
My artist origin story takes a form I think is fairly common for scientific illustrators. I grew up in Seattle with parents who didn’t study science, and knew little about art, but encouraged my interest in both. In our household, you could maintain a concentrated area of chaos in some corner by saying “don’t touch that, I’m in the middle of a project,” and my brothers and I usually each had several projects going at any given time, ranging from painting to rebuilding machines bought from the thrift store.
I’ve always been inquisitive and fascinated by nature. I would spend many hours drawing as a child but, despite my interest in nature, I never thought to draw it. Instead, I spent my time reading and drawing Marvel Comics superheroes. Being the son of immigrant parents, I was encouraged to pursue a career that was stable and with a steady income; they didn’t want their son to become a struggling artist. So I set my sights on science with the hopes of going to medical school.
Illustrators and their agents are invited to enter work to the World Illustration Awards into one of 
