Illustration Internship at Beaty Biodiversity Museum

I finished my classroom studies at California State University Monterey Bay in summer 2015, and in fall I returned home to Vancouver to begin my capstone internship in the exhibits and design department at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

Beaty Biodiversity Museum Entrance

My main project was to illustrate a representative of each of the six collections at the museum: Tetrapods (vertebrates excluding fish), Insects/Arthropods, Marine Invertebrates, Fish, Herbarium (plants), and Fossils. I was to illustrate each representative in a variety of ways for the education department, to make handouts for their school programs.

My first day was a Monday, and the museum was closed. I set out into the empty museum to survey the contents of the cabinets, and come up with a short list of subjects that my supervisors would help me to narrow down. In the end, we chose the hawksbill turtle, tarantula, chambered nautilus, white’s seahorse, salmonberry, and ammonite.

Over the next ten weeks, I worked at a spare desk in the design lab on my illustrations. For each specimen I made a colouring page, a how-to-draw page, a labelled scientific diagram, and in some cases a more fully rendered illustration. I drew some using ink, some graphite, and some I digitally rendered. Each was then formatted using a program called InDesign to add the museum’s logo and accompanying text.

I was also able to receive training in specimen handling, to participate in the opening of a major art exhibit, and to attend several events, such as a book launch for author Briony Penn, and a lecture by NatGeo photographer Paul Nicklen. It was such a privilege to work alongside the professionals who work at the Beaty. Now that my internship is finished, I am officially a graduate. I look forward to my upcoming freelance projects in 2016.

Here are a couple of my internship’s works in progress. The finished versions can be found on my B&W portfolio page.