Last Thursday, Kris Kirkeby came in and talked to us about her career as a scientific illustrator, and later did a butterfly drawing exercise with the class. As a drawer myself, I was immediately interested by her presentation, which was mainly images that she had drawn. She is so talented and some of her illustrations in her presentation were so realistic that I did a double take on it they were real or not. Kirkeby stressed how difficult it is to find a job in her field because many companies do not set aside a budget for drawings. Today, she is a freelance scientific illustrator. She is very lucky to have gotten the jobs she has held, and having the right connections when she was just a young artist/scientist in college were the key to taking the first step into the business. She has done work for children’s books, high school and college textbooks, art exhibits, and drawing journals to name a few. Some of her work:
I think her work is really amazing and full of life, talent, and beauty and I hope to be able to draw like this in the future. Relating her work to my project, I want my project to have great visuals such as the ones she draws. Although cliché, I believe that a picture is worth one thousand words, and I just want my project to be as interesting, visual, and interactive as possible.