Portfolio
Here is a selection of artwork from the website (below each selection you’ll find links to the full pages), and pieces I have done over the years for scientific publications, presentations, commissions, and events. Some of them have been published elsewhere and I provide links. I hope to showcase the many styles I can work with. If you want to commission a piece contact me at diego@sci-flies.com or using the contact form, I am happy to work together to help you express your ideas.
Sampling of images from this website
I took advantage of an Inktober challenge to explore different techniques and visual approaches to telling facts about fly science and biology in general.
An advent calendar was an excuse to present the diversity of the Drosophila genus. Through cartoons I represented the salient characteristics of each chosen species.
In the Extra-Extra section, we wanted a different graphical identity. I chose to use a different graphics software and not do vector drawings. The software simulated ballpoint pens and colored pencils.
To talk about mutants and making mutations in flies I wanted a comic book style because I am a big fan of X-Men comics. I imitated the covers and style of dialogues of the old 60s-70s comics and some older horror comics. I also added some easter eggs, like trading cards inspired by real X-Men ones. In the Spanish version of the post, I did the text in the blocky font which was used in Latin American editions, together with the low-quality cover modifications they used to do. I also added some price stickers imitating the ones I would find buying used comic books when I was a teenager. I had so much fun doing these.
After the few first posts, I tried to give each subsequent one its own graphical identity. Here the first two images tell about behavioral paradigms in the first studies that analyzed the genetic bases of behavior. The lower two tell about Morgan’s and Mendel’s genetics experiments. In this latter case, I emphasize the historical link by using a similar graphic representation.
I tried to reference artists in some of the drawings, like in this Mendel drawing inspired by Van Gogh. Then I drew Morgan’s eye looking at the flies in a similar style, but in this case, the composition is inspired by the Aeon Flux MTV cartoon from the 90s.
I also like to try to give information through the drawings. In all these cases the illustrations also serve as figures to explain concepts or techniques.
Commissions
I did these for someone working on DNA structure, to illustrate relaxed and compacted forms. They wanted a style similar to the Mendel drawings on this site.
The one on the left is an illustration for a Science paper about the evolution of specific peptides present in flies that protect them from pathogenic microorganisms found in their feeding substrates. The one on the right was commissioned by Genesee Scientific, a company that makes many of the most used tools for fly work, for their annual artist commission in 2022, the task was to draw a Drosophila fly.
Graphical abstracts
These are two graphical abstracts I published. On the left for “Cell Reports 24, 3156-3166. 2018”. On the right for “Current Biology 33 (22), 4771-4785. e7. 2023”
figures in papers
These are two examples of figures I made for papers.
This was a fun figure I made for a paper. I was very happy the journal liked it and accepted to go with a cartoon, as they usually do not publish this style of figures.
Science Communication illustrations
These were made for my participation in the Long Night of the Sciences 2022 (Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften 2022), originally in German, I translated them to share online.
This was a promotional image for the Long Night of the Sciences 2022 (Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften 2022) published on the website of the event.
This piece was used as part of a press release from a paper in a video by the Max Planck Society.
This image was submitted as a proposed cover to Science Advances. It was not accepted, but the authors liked it very much and it was a lot of funt to work on it.
This is a banner made for a science communication and education website for Latin America.
For the Max Planck for Chemical Ecology’s 2021 Advent Calendar, I was asked to make a drawing showcasing the smells associated with Christmas and our Drosophila research.
Other Illustrations and Figures
This figure commissioned for a grant application shows the effects of ozone and nitric oxide on chemical communication in moths.
A card to say goodbye to a dear colleague leaving the lab.
I submitted this as a proposed logo for the ECRO 2022 meeting in Berlin. It was not picked up, but I really like it.
An illustration for a scientific presentation. It introduces the different habitats and feeding sources for different Drosophila species.
