BIOLOGICAL ILLUSTRATION & DESIGN

Uniquely Qualified to Fulfill Your Needs

I am uniquely qualified to fulfill a client’s design and illustration needs, holding both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in biology as well as a graduate certificate in scientific illustration, all of which help to ensure that my work is both accurate as well as pleasing to the eye. Clients include federal and state agencies, research scientists, environmental & educational groups, consulting biologists and small businesses throughout the nation.

 

Selected Design & Illustration Projects

( Click on links to see examples of each project)

  • Habitats of the World Book Series (2023); I illustrated the front covers of a series of books published by Princeton University Press (as seen above).
  • Wild Hope magazine; wrote and illustrated article Searching for the Willow Flycatcher; A day in the life of a field biologist. Volume 9
  • Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky: interpretive panel for a grouse management area.
  • BirdsCaribbean: Created 50+ illustrations for the book, Endemic Birds of the West Indies (Read all about the book HERE).
  • Lambert Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory: Design & development of a website for award-winning neuroscientist & author, Dr. Kelly Lambert.
  • Joshua Tree National Park: Designed and illustrated a 32-page full-color Junior Ranger book.
  • Western Shasta Resource Conservation District: Designed, illustrated, wrote copy and oversaw production and installation of 9 outdoor interpretive panels on the topic of river restoration and salmonid recovery.
  • Sierra Streams Institute: Created over 100 illustrations of freshwater invertebrates for The Bug Book; A Guide to the Identification of Common Aquatic Benthic Macroinvertebrate Families of California and Western North America.
  • Organic Chemistry: An Acid-Base Approach textbook: Created 30 digital illustrations of organic chemical compounds.
  • Underwater Eden: Created coral reef Illustrations for the book by Gregory Stone and David Obura.
  • Tierra Data–Design and illustration of interpretive panels on vernal pool ecology.
  • Butano State Park: Designed and created natural history interpretive panels and exhibit structures for a new nature center.
  • Peterson Reference Guide to Woodpeckers of North America: anatomical illustrations of woodpeckers.
  • Botanical Society of America: produced digital illustrations for their youth ‘Planting Science’ program.

Portfolio Pages

GRAPHIC DESIGN | ILLUSTRATION | WEBSITE DESIGN | PRAISE

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Education

  • Graduate Certificate in Scientific Illustration, University of California.
  • Master’s degree in Biology, Humboldt State University. Focus on ecology and natural history.
  • Bachelor’s degree in Biology, Sonoma State University. Focus on marine biology.
  • Graduate coursework over 3 summers, Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. Focus on pollination biology, botany, terrestrial & aquatic invertebrates.
  • Internships at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and The Nature Conservancy.

Exhibitions

  • Winter Wings Birding Festival – a one-woman show of rare and endangered neotropical bird species paintings.
  • National Juried Exhibition, Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. Kenosha, WI.
  • Natural Visions group show – Patagonia’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival, Nevada City CA.
  • Figurative Works group show –Artist’s Studio in the Foothills, Grass Valley CA.
  • Recent Works Shows, Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, Northern California chapter, San Francisco CA.
  • Illustrating Nature, Annual show of the University of California scientific illustration program, Santa Cruz CA.

Partial List of Clients

Links are shown if my work for a client is available to view online (artwork), or if I designed the website that it links to (website).

  • U.S. Forest Service, Daniel Boone National Forest (artwork & graphic design)
  • BirdsCaribbean (artwork)
  • Natural Areas Association
  • Paradise Birding (website and business collateral)
  • Mendocino-Tahoe Conservancy (website and business collateral)
  • Sequoia Natural History Association (artwork)
  • California Department of Fish and Game (artwork)
  • New England Aquarium’s Phoenix Islands Project (artwork)
  • Dr. Andrew Kneier, psychologist (website)
  • Bay Nature Magazine (artwork)
  • Western Shasta Resource Conservation District
  • National Park Service, Joshua Tree National Park ( Junior Ranger Book)
  • North American Benthological Society (artwork)
  • California Academy of Sciences (artwork)
  • California Native Plant Society (artwork)
  • Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (artwork)
  • Santa Cruz Natural History Museum (artwork)
  • California State Parks, Butano State Park (artwork)
  • Susan McCormick, aquatic taxonomist (website)
  • South Yuba River Citizens League (artwork)
  • BioAssessment Services (website and business collateral)
  • Tierra Data, Inc. (artwork)
  • Living Wild Sierra Flora Project (artwork)
  • Sierra Streams Institute (artwork)
  • Science Notes, University of California, Santa Cruz (artwork)
  • Traverse Creek Stewardship (artwork)
  • Personal Touch Painting (website and business collateral)
  • Baiocchi’s Troutfitters Flyfishing Guide Service (website and business collateral)
  • Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, California Chapter (website)
  • Nevada County Earth Day (artwork)
  • Strange Aquatic Resources (logo artwork)
  • Lambert Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory (website)
  • Cavity Conservation Initiative (artwork)
  • Twin Soles Ashiatsu Massage (website and business collateral)
  • Iowa State University -The Bug Guide (artwork)
  • Botanical Society of America-Planting Science (artwork)

 Praise from Clients

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“Christine is informed, passionate and professional– a total package when it comes to generating engaging websites! She is extremely knowledgeable about the most recent developments on the web design scene and, more importantly, can educate novices like myself about design elements leading to the most effective websites. Christine designed a rather complex website for my laboratory—in the early phases of the project, she listened patiently to my rather odd ideas about “rat features” I thought would be great for the site. Once we had a plan, she quickly went to work, not only designing the website but even contributing original artwork. The final product exceeded my expectations and now I am finally excited for everyone to visit my website”
-Kelly Lambert, PhD
Lambert Behavioral Neuroscience Laboratory, Randolph-Macon College

“Christine is uniquely qualified to advise small business owners and/or entrepreneurs around navigating online marketing and engaging new clients. While in the process of starting up my own woman-owned and operated business, Christine was instrumental in guiding me on effective website design, online content, and email marketing. She also advised me on social media tools and best practices which are critical if you want to succeed in business. She was patient and knowledgeable, which I especially appreciated as a ‘mature’ business owner who didn’t possess an inherent understanding of these vital business tools.”

– Deb Kraus, Principal, FreedUp, LLC

 

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“Christine Elder is a wonderful, hard-working and creative designer and illustrator. She recently coordinated our non-profit’s fundraiser as well as designing our website, and has been consistently well-organized, enthusiastic and detail-oriented. She has great ideas and the energy to follow through on them”
-Stephen Hein Executive Director,
Mendocino-Tahoe Conservancy

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“Christine created all my business marketing materials including my website, logo, business cards, car door magnets and my brochure. She also walked me through the process of promoting my business through a blog so I could update it on my own, anytime. Her attention to detail and savvy advice was priceless. My clients always mention the great quality of my website and want to know who did it.”
-Jon Baiocchi, Baiocchis Troutfitters

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“Christine worked with our watershed protection organization for over a year, creating nearly one hundred entomological illustrations for our aquatic invertebrate identification manual. We feel so lucky to have found a person with her unique set of biology and art skills. Her talents have greatly enriched our programs.”
-Sandy Williamson, Sierra Streams Institute

 

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“Christine took a very funky old web site that I had designed with a poor content management system and turned it into a communications masterpiece for my business. I am finally proud to share the site with the virtual world!”
-Steve Shunk, owner & lead guide of Paradise Birding

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“Christine is brilliant! She’s very professional and has been a joy to work with on the many projects in which we’ve collaborated.”
-Kristen Hein Strohm, Wildlife Biologist

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“Christine has the ability to create a design that is both very attractive and uniquely reflects her client’s needs. She has created educational graphics for us that are both beautiful and useful. She listens to what we want and works with us to make our materials as affordable as possible. I would highly recommend her to anyone needing illustrated materials at any level. She has lots of ideas, is professional, and finishes projects quickly.  ”
– Susan McCormick, Aquatic Taxonomist and Director of Traverse Creek Stewardship

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“Christine illustrated a custom map of the Yuba River Watershed. In this day of Google Earth and GIS, her map is a refreshingly beautiful cartography, which I use in both technical and educational presentations”
– Gary Reedy, South Yuba River Citizens League

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“Christine had the patience and skill to transform my vague ideas into concentrated and thoughtfully crafted graphic designs and layouts, which were incorporated into business cards, a logo, brochure and a website. Christine’s background in the biological sciences coupled with her creative and insightful consultation style made the process efficient, satisfying, and product-oriented.”
-Tom King, Bioassessment Services

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“Christine designed a very creative website and rack cards for my painting business. She took the time to sit down with me and brainstorm about how to best design and then market my site to my preferred clientele. Christine’s design ideas matched my favorite color palette and personality exactly, and tied the theme into my existing business card.”
– Carolyn Kubecka, Personal Touch Painting

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“Christine designed my website for my new book. Her artistic talent and technological know-how resulted in a website for me that far exceeded my wildest expectations. She made the whole process easy and even fun. She was consistently understanding and responsive to my requests and concerns and was a joy to work with. Her skill speaks for itself, just take a look at her work and you’ll see what I mean.”
-Dr. Andrew Kneier, author of Finding Your Way Through Cancer

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“Christine created an entire design package for me including my logo, business cards, brochures, gift certificates and a lovely website. She really understood the essence of my business philosophy and was able to translate that to the web.”
– Leia Farrell, Twin Soles Ashiatsu Massage

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“Christine has the personality, knowledge, and experience to do a fantastic job”
– Ann Caudle, Director, Science Illustration Program, CSUMB

 Professional Affiliations

Guild of Natural Science Illustrators

Guild of Natural Science Illustrators

 

Now, tell me about you. How can I help you?

Contact me to get started.

 

Portfolio Pages

GRAPHIC DESIGN | ILLUSTRATION | WEBSITE DESIGN | PRAISE