Dear Zooarchers....I tried posting this a couple of days ago, so my
apologies if you've already seen it, but it seems it didn't go through to
the whole list and there were no replies, so I'm posting it again because
I think this must surely be a topic of general interest.
The question is -- How do you get the illustrations for
papers which you intend to publish? I ask because I was once the official
"Scientific Illustrator" for the K.U. Museum of Nat. Hist., but also
because in the years since, I've sometimes seen people struggle with this
as a problem.
This for several reasons: for example, graduate students as a category
tend to be short on funds, either private funds or grant funding. But
staff/faculty may also not have grant funds, or if they have a grant, no
line item for that particular category. And even where grant funds are
available, the illustrator may not be available, i.e. a person able to
produce the sort of illustration desired or required may be hard to
locate.
Another point relates to Oyvind Hammer's wonderful PAST software. That
program produces the BEST computer output I've ever seen, but when I use
it to produce a graph or chart, I look at it and know that even so it does
not quite meet journal standards for quality drafting. So what do you-all
do with this? Do you run the PAST output through some other program that
can "automatically" convert/upgrade it? Do you re-draft it by hand?
Overall -- Are you doing your illustrations yourselves? Does your
institution provide in-house services? Do you try to contract it out?
Would you use illustration services from an outside contractor if you knew
where to find them?
As an idea, I'd like to see an clearinghouse for scientific illustration,
so that we can better connect illustrators with scientists needing
illustrations. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this common topic!
-- Deb Bennett
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