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A Handbook of Biological Illustration

Second Edition

2d edition
This book is designed to help biologists who must create their own illustrations and artists who are confronted with unfamiliar biological subjects. The author, an experienced biological illustrator, gives practical instructions and advice on the consideration of size and of printing processes, choice of materials, methods for saving time and labor, drawing techniques, lettering methods, and mounting and packing the finished illustrations. She explains how to produce clear and attractive charts, graphs, and maps, so essential to science publications. Though this primer does not cover photographic techniques, it does include advice on retouching, cropping, and mounting photographs and on using photographs of biological subjects as aids in drawing. This second edition is updated to reflect the many technological changes in art materials and printing processes that have occurred since the book’s first publication, and it includes an entirely new chapter on planning, designing, and mounting the poster presentations that have become an essential part of conferences held by scientific societies. Also included are the requirements and conventions peculiar to biological illustration and a bibliography of useful reference works.

"Every biology student who intends to write a thesis deserves to own this book, as does the biologist who intends to publish or work up some visual aids for his own use. There is no reason to limit the concepts of this handbook to the field of biology; it should be useful to other specific areas of science."—Evan Lindquist, American Biology Teacher (from a review of the first edition)

152 pages | ll halftones, 57 line drawings | 5.5 x 8.5 | © 1988

Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing

Library Science and Publishing: Publishing

Reference and Bibliography

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
1. Printing Processes
Reproduction in Small Quantities
Reproduction in Large Quantities
2. Size and Reduction of Illustrations for Publication
Advisability of Reduction
Planning the Copy Size
3. Materials
Preliminary Drawings (Rough Drafts)
Ink Drawings
Scratchboard Drawings
Special Black-and-White Techniques
Pencil Drawings
Wash Drawings
Carbon-Dust Drawings
Maps and Graphs
Lettering
Retouching Photography
Mounting Illustrations
Miscellaneous Materials and Equipment
4. The Preliminary Drawing
Introductory Remarks
Making the Preliminary Drawing
Measuring the Subject, Using Common and Special Drawing Aids
Drawing Live Animals
Enlarging or Reducing the Sketch
5. The Finished Drawing
Transferring the Drawing
Black-and-White Illustrations
Continuous-Tone Illustrations
Methods of Correcting Mistakes
6. Preparing Graphs and Maps
Materials and Special Techniques
Graphs
Maps
Computer-Generated Graphics
7. Lettering
Introductory Remarks
Hand Lettering
Lettering Guides
Mechanical (Scriber) Lettering Systems
Preprinted Lettering
8. Poster Sessions
Preliminary Planning
Designing the Presentation
Lettering
Mounting the Presentation
9. Photographs, Plates, and Projection Slides
Photographs
Arranging Figures into Plates
10. Mounting and Packing Illustrations
Mounting Illustrations
Protecting Illustrations
Documenting Illustrations
Packing and Mailing
Afterword
Selected References
Index

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