Move over platypus, a recently discovered dinosaur may have bested you for the strangest combination of physical features. Two hundred million years ago, a two-foot- long, beaked biped covered in quills scampered about an area that is now part of South Africa. The dinosaur’s discoverer is paleontologist Paul Sereno, of the University of Chicago. Sereno [...]

[It's with great pleasure the Symbiartic team is featuring this Guest Post by illustrator Nathaniel Gold. Gold is the artist behind the wonderful illustrations found on The Primate Diaries by Eric Michael Johnson, and has twice been featured as Image of the Week (once, twice) here on the Scientific American Blog Network. I was excited [...]

Sometimes we feature artwork on Symbiartic because it’s astounding and thought-provoking. You may have seen Kaitlin Beckett’s work on Symbiartic before (when we showed off her Katana Sharks and Fan Fish), or on her site, A Curious Bestiary. Today, Blood Goats. Something about these seemes sad and powerful to  me. There’s something elderly here, from [...]

What does ambition look like in a scientific illustrator? Ultimate Croc Anatomy!   If you are following the #sciart hashtag on Twitter or belong to the GNSI sciart listserv you already know Mieke Roth is an accomplished scientific illustrator. Recently,she was featured in MAKE Magazine for her 3D render of the anatomy of an octopus, [...]

The Southern Ontario Nature & Science Illustrators’ (SONSI) exhibit is on right now in Toronto. I used to be webmaster-blogger for this amazing group – and I would be hard-pressed to find a more professional, fun, and above all talented group of illustrators anywhere. These are the people you want illustrating your ebooks on biodiversity [...]

Sometimes the easiest way to spark discussion about science is to bring it into everyday situations – like by wearing it as jewellery. This week polymer clay sculptor Noadi a.k.a. Sheryl Westleigh aims to increase the conversation about cephalopods – and it’s Cephalopod Awareness Days! Cephalopod Awareness Days are organized around the number of limbs [...]

Last month, we posted a wide variety of science-art here at Symbiartic. We thought it’d be nice to post an overview in case you missed or wanted to revisit any. Enjoy!

  In a world most of see through an Instagram filter and Photoshopped tweaks, a dynamic illustration of an animal can entice the eye in a way no filter can. Illustrator Derek Mah‘s cover art for The Dragon Turn caught my eye and wouldn’t let go. The  wonderfully foreshortened view of the Komodo dragon marches [...]

A well done science comic is one of the most effective ways to convey science communication. The visual hook of a narrative with lively (or in this case, sleepy) characters peppered with the facts creates a flow that a wall of text can’t match. This comic by Maki Naro of Sci-ənce is a perfect example. [...]

Each image a scientific illustrator takes on is a chance to learn new things – about the scientific subject, about the limits of artistic materials, and of course, to push the artists’ own vision and skill further. Mieke Roth is a scientific illustrator who relishes the challenges in exploring new media and subjects. Beginning with [...]

  A quick, 1 hour 30 minute watercolor sketch, SF/Fantasy Illustrator Jeremy McHugh‘s Fiddlehead is both an exercise in speculation about evolutionary adaptation and a wonderful example of how a daily warm-up sketch can open up an imagination for the day. – - Fiddlehead by Jeremy McHugh 2011, watercolor. See Jeremy’s blog post about it [...]