Illustrations for “Rethinking the Internet of Things”

By on March 19, 2014 in Illustration

I’m so jazzed that Francis daCosta and Byron Henderson hired yours truly to create 5 watercolor illustrations for Francis’ just published book “Rethinking the Internet of Things“.

The illustrations needed to be done in watercolor, have editable layers, and several rounds of revision. There just wasn’t the budget for ‘paint on paper’ illustrations, so I needed a way to reproduce the watercolor process digitally*, with editable layers.  (Shout out to Zoe Piel: her video tutorials filled in some gaps for me).

I loved helping Francis and Byron with their project! It was such an interesting challenge to convey the requested information – in particular, for the “cat/birds” illustration, we tried portraying this many different ways.  If you need help with a project, I’d love to talk to you about it – maybe it’s illustration for a book, or signage for parks or museums, or presentation materials, or…?

Although many different species of birds may be singing in a field, only members of the same species listen.

Although many different species of birds may be singing in a field, only members of the same species listen.

Figure 1.6. In nature, only the “correct” receivers act on “messages” received, such as pollen. All others discard or ignore the message.

In nature, only the “correct” receivers act on “messages” received, such as pollen. All others discard or ignore the message.

Figure 3.3. Each fish in a school participates in group movements and behaviors when in contact with others, yet can also exist independently, if less efficiently.

Each fish in a school participates in group movements and behaviors when in contact with others, yet can also exist independently, if less efficiently.

Figure 4.2. Trees are inherently structured: no leaf connects directly to another. Instead, flows are organized through trunks, limbs, and branches.

Trees are inherently structured: no leaf connects directly to another. Instead, flows are organized through trunks, limbs, and branches.

Figure 5.5. The movement of the neighborhood cat sets off "alarms" in a number of "sensor devices" (birds). A human observer may correlate information from multiple senses and understand what is taking place.

The movement of the neighborhood cat sets off “alarms” in a number of “sensor devices” (birds). A human observer may correlate information from multiple senses and understand what is taking place.

* Tip: One thing to watch out for with this method is that your Total Ink Coverage (TIC) doesn’t exceed the substrate limits. With multiple layers, you can easily go way over what it should be: from 240 – 340% depending on the substrate (newsprint, coated magazine stock, etc.). Here’s more about total ink coverage. Talk to your printer before you start designing a print job so you can get these types of job parameters defined before you do any work.

Note -  copyright symbol and credit/source are placed on images so that when sharing photos, there a link back to the originator. It’s easy to do this in Preview or Photoshop.

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