It's April, and I'm about to leave for NESCBWI 18... SO much has happened since I last posted here...
A few months ago, I teamed up with UK-based software engineer, animator, and science communicator Kevin Pluck to form Pixel Movers & Makers. We visualize science concepts about our changing planet and make animations to illuminate viewers and inspire action.
We're currently creating an animation about Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier, an accelerating, melting glacier up to 3 km (~1.8 miles) tall and about 400 km (250 miles) long with the potential to catastrophically raise sea levels. Watch us in action on our blog.
In February, we were invited to present a poster and sample animation at the APECS workshop on Antarctic Hydrology and Future Ice Shelf Stability. We have been thrilled by the response from the polar science community and continue to build our connections with glaciologists and other scientists.
Since then, I've also presented a workshop at Boston University on Effective Online Science Communication for scientists with Dr. Laura Schifman. We'd love to take our show on the road and are seeking speaking opprunities.
Meanwhile, I've been blogging (as time permits) at Polar Bird and working on the Polar Ice Sketch Project—an ongoing project designed to increase public awareness about our vital polar ice, in which I paint and tweet as I finish each one.
I've also been preparing for NESCBWI 18. I’ve been readying my postcards and illustration portfolio for this Friday night’s Portfolio Showcase, in which art directors, editors, and agents, followed by conference attendees, will have a chance to peruse each illustrator’s portfolio.
My big goal over the last two weeks has been to create a new Antarctica-inspired piece.
I’m particularly interested in the relationship between polar ice and the ecology of the surrounding environment (as well as how that ecology acts upon the ice itself), and primarily, how it affects the success of phytoplankton. Among other things, I’ve been wanting to make a piece that explores the role of icebergs in ocean fertilization.
I decided to make something showing a simplified food chain around the iceberg, with an informational shape poem about the “life” of an iceberg, from the formation of the glacier from which an iceberg calves to its eventual melting out at sea.
Last week, on Pixel Makers and Movers, I showed the early stages of that process.
After a detailed pencil drawing of each element, which I scan, I am using digital oil paint.
Since then, it’s been a race against the clock to complete the illustration in time for my printer to do their thing. (Shout-out to fantastic Iolabs who patiently put up with my last-minute rush every April; thanks Emma!)
And now for the reveal of the final piece:
Text and image Copyright © Marlo Garnsworthy 2018
Note: part of this post also appears on my Polar Bird and Pixel Movers & Makers sites.