Hi, I'm Hannah from Planet Tuna and I'm here to tell you a bit about what it takes to be a scientific illustrator. In our previous video, I took you on a tour of the field and in this one, I'm going to give you a bit of an insider's view of the profession in case you think that scientific illustration might be for you. I'll start with my own journey. As a little kid, I love to draw and I love nature. And then at the end of high school, I just couldn't decide whether to study biology or to study art. And in the end, I studied studio art. I got a bachelor's degree and the truth is that at the time I had no idea that there was such a thing as scientific illustration. And had I known, I probably would have double-majored in biology and art. Later on, I found out that this was pretty typical. Let's look at the field as a field with an open gate to get in. This site is the art side and this is the science side. You can come from either one. I started over here and took some botany and zoology classes after college, but mostly I've learned a tremendous amount of science from the work itself. Or you might be someone with a science degree and a passion for visualization. In that case, if you need more illustration skills, there are many courses and workshops that you can take. Luckily, things have changed a lot since I was in college. Now there's programs that specifically teach scientific illustration. If you go to the website of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and go under education, they have a really good list of schools that teach scientific illustration worldwide. There's a link in the comments. Now, it doesn't matter how you get into the field. There are some very basic requirements. Okay? The first is excellent artistic skills, obviously. Whether they're digital or on paper doesn't matter. The issue is whether you've trained your eye and you can render something accurately and with a good sense of design, composition, balance, color, and so on. Second is communication skills. You have to be able to communicate well, either with a scientist who's explaining some tricky concept or with a client, an art director to journal, for example, or the education specialist at a hospital. And your art is also all about communication. Can you put yourself in the shoes of the person looking at your illustration? Will that person understand what you're trying to convey? The third requirement is a good toolbox of technical skills to give you flexibility. I personally stick to traditional media, but if I were starting out today, I'd want to be very comfortable creating work digitally. Besides the basics like Photoshop and Illustrator, if you're attracted to 3D modeling programs or animation, they can expand the range of what you can offer. And having basic graphic design skills is also important. There's a lot to be said for knowing the traditional media as well. There's nothing like paper for field sketching and I love watercolor for plants. This is a drawing of mine of some creatures from the Cambrian done in India ink and fine point marker. Here you see a researcher I know who studies tiny cave dwelling crustaceans and draws them using an attachment to the microscope that's called a camera lucida. Fourth and last, you have to enjoy researching a topic. Curiosity is a must. In my case, I'd say that half or two thirds of my illustration time is spent doing background research for an image and emailing back and forth with scientists. In this example from a book I did, I read some papers, I sent preliminary sketches, they sent their corrections, I read the sketch, more comments, then the final artwork, one last check with them, and finally it was ready for publication. Also know that science advances, which is wonderful, and a bit frustrating when you just drew something and then you have to change it. Here's an example. I drew this cartoon about giant bugs and included the huge spider mega-rackney. I even saw a replica of the fossil of the museum in Denver and it sure looked spider-like. Well guess what? No sooner had the book been published than the scientist said, oops we blew it, it's actually a euriptorid. Their language was a bit more academic. Anyway luckily I was able to change it in a later edition of the book. I'm very careful not to copy somebody else's artwork obviously, but I also always try to come up with my own interpretation of a subject because what if another illustrator has made a mistake and then I perpetuate it? And what does the business end of things look like? I highly recommend taking a course in the business of illustration if it's something that's new to you and you'll learn about negotiating contracts, about copyright law, about what fees to charge, what's fair and what isn't, what rights to sell to clients, and a lot more. And who are our clients? Well one of my clients is Planet Tuna obviously, which is a project of the Spanish Oceanographic Institute. And I'm also doing images for an exhibit about evolution at UC Berkeley in California. But there's a huge range, researchers, parks, zoos, hospitals, universities, museums, publishers of books, textbooks, and online resources, and private clients and companies of various sorts, and even the entertainment business. I know of several paleoartists who were hired to do preliminary sketches for Jurassic Park. And how to reach the clients and how to get work? Well if you're just starting out as a good idea to try to get an internship or to do some volunteering in some area that you like, for me that would be a natural history museum. It's a way to get some experience and also to meet scientists and to expand your network, because you know word of mouth is still one of the best ways to get work. And if you have an idea for a personal project then go for it. When I was doing paleo books for kids, I asked a whole bunch of paleontologists to be my advisors and they were extremely helpful. And then since then some of them have also become clients of mine. You might need to have a day job or some kind of financial backup, especially at the beginning. I actually started out as a general purpose illustrator and illustrated all sorts of different things and then gradually worked towards getting more and more natural science illustration. I've always been a full-time freelancer, but some illustrators freelance part-time and also have a day job. Some diversify their income by teaching, selling original work or prints or selling reproduction rights online. And some have full-time staff positions at research institutions or universities or in private companies. As for self-promotion, it's a big topic. I can't really get into it here. Basically people normally have a website with samples of their work and it's also important to be active on social media and on LinkedIn. There are also online illustration directories out there that showcase people's work and printed directories that get sent around to potential clients. Finally, I think it's really helpful to be part of a community and for me that community has been the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. They have yearly conference, they teach courses and they're a group of people who are just really generous with their collective knowledge. They're based in the US but have members in many countries. There are others like the AMI for medical illustration, for example. And perhaps you can find a group of like-minded illustrators right where you live. I hope this was useful and I hope to see you again soon on Planet Tuna. Stay creative.