This past April I completed a commission for amateur paleontologist W.C. (Cory) Brimblecombe, who asked me to create a painting of an Early Jurassic ammonoid fossil. (Ammonoids are extinct relatives of squid.) Cory envisioned a collage of four components: the fossil specimen in two views, a reconstruction of the living animal in color, and a map of the area where he collected the fossil. The first challenge was that I would not have access to…

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Last fall, I began an illustration commissioned by the wonderful people at Bird Ecology and Conservation Ontario (BECO), a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting wild bird conservation through research and education. I worked closely with BECO’s Executive Director and Wildlife Biologist Zoé Lebrun-Southcott and Research Scientist Andrew Campomizzi to develop their vision of a fairly complex illustration showing an agricultural landscape in two seasons, populated with some of Ontario’s songbirds and their hidden nests. Zoé’s…

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Last fall, I began an illustration commissioned by the wonderful people at Bird Ecology and Conservation Ontario (BECO), a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting wild bird conservation through research and education. I worked closely with BECO’s Executive Director and Wildlife Biologist Zoé Lebrun-Southcott and Research Scientist Andrew Campomizzi to develop their vision of a fairly complex illustration showing an agricultural landscape in two seasons, populated with some of Ontario’s songbirds and their hidden nests. Zoé’s…

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Coin World is a website and magazine that deals with all facets of numismatics. Coin World also has a podcast where hosts Jeff Starck and Chris Bulfinch discuss coins, delve into numismatic history, and interview people who are involved in numismatics. Sometimes the interviewees are coin designers; in Episode 52 I was invited to speak about about my experiences designing coins for the United States and for Canada. The interview can be heard here; it…

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Once in awhile, people seek my permission to use one of my illustrations as the basis for their tattoo. Most recently, Shumpei Maruyama asked about using my illustration of the ocean sunfish (Mola mola) for some skin art. Shumpei is a PhD candidate in Integrative Biology who is studying coral-algal symbiosis, but has long had an interest in the Mola mola because “the name is goofy as heck, they’re enormous, they classify as plankton in…

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As someone who enjoys any compelling story that’s well told, I’m a fan of Stephen B. Heard‘s new book Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider; How Scientific Names Celebrate Adventurers, Heroes, and Even a Few Scoundrels, published by Yale University Press March 17, 2020. It’s full of thoughtfully considered stories behind the names that scientists give to species, and I think people of all backgrounds will find it to be engrossing, accessible, and delightful. The author is an evolutionary ecologist…

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Back in 2014, I wrote about a commission by a local scientist to illustrate the life cycle of the Mottled Duskywing butterfly. At the time, the pupa stage (chrysalis) was unknown, so the scientist asked me to illustrate that stage based on her best guess, which was brown. Now we have more information—including photos of its pupa—thanks to this local scientist and her work on the recovery of the species in Ontario. She asked me…

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In 2018, the United States Mint began producing a new series of (uncirculating) dollar coins on the theme of American Innovation. There will be one design for each state and territory, and I’m pleased to report that the 2019 Georgia dollar bears my design, engraved by Michael Gaudioso. The innovation featured in my design is the Trustee’s Garden, a unique experimental garden established in Georgia in the 1730s. (Read more at the Mint’s website.) Nature-related subjects…

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I previously posted line art and a radio interview in which I spoke about the America the Beautiful quarter I designed for Idaho’s Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. I’m excited that this quarter has now been released into circulation. Keep an eye out for shiny quarters in your change, my friends! Here is an image of the quarter’s reverse (the side I designed), which was engraved by Renata Gordon: The U.S. Mint created this…

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Since last summer, I’ve been working on a series of 21 black and white line and stipple illustrations for a book about scientific names as tributes to people. This month, I finally wrapped up my work on the series, and I’m including a few of the illustrations in this post. I’ll add them all to my website when the book is published (likely in the first half of 2020). Gazella cuvieri illustration © Emily S.…

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