The Challenges of Illustrating Science

Science is a meticulous process, requiring experiment after experiment to arrive at a new truth. So it may come as a surprise to learn that the specific results of science can be illustrated with metaphors, which leave room for interpretation. That’s what we learned from two of Nautilus’ artists, John Hendrix and Tomasz Walenta, whose illustrations have captured the scientific essence of our articles, and whose interpretations have a poetic quality all their own. This week, as we celebrate the launch of the Summer 2014 Nautilus Quarterly, and the opportunity to buy limited-edition prints of Nautilus art, we asked John and Tomasz to talk about the challenges of illustrating science, and about the inspiration behind the illustrations, now prints, for our articles, “Artificial Emotions” and “T.Rex Might be the Thing with Feathers.”

John Hendrix

John grew up in St. Louis, earned an MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he taught at the Parsons School of Design, and worked as an assistant art director at