Scientific illustrators work closely with scientists and the objects that they are researching. Scientific illustrators do not just illustrate organisms. They can illustrate geology, astronomy, textbook diagrams, etc.
Illustrators use their knowledge and skills to help scientists interpret their studies.
There is a large amount of teamwork involved to help make their project a success, both scientifically and visually. They are used to help people visualize a situation in time, like an erupting volcano, new animals or plants, or even things that we may already know something about, like the California sea otter. The females are smaller, with an approximate length of four feet long, and weight of 60 pounds. Southern sea otters can dive for about four minutes to depths of around 300 feet, but most commonly they dive to around 60 feet. Because they spend most of their time in the water, feeding, playing, giving birth, or resting wrapped up in the kelp.