The Craft of Steve Jenkins: Illustrations

Steve Jenkins not only authors his books, he illustrates them as well.  On his website he explains, “There is a popular conception of the scientist as coldly logical, unmoved by beauty, lost in reams of data and numbers.  From this perspective, science is the opposite of art or poetry.”  When you look at a Steve Jenkins book, you will quickly notice that he sees science and the natural world as art and he strives to portray this view through his illustrations.  Every topic he presents is illustrated in detailed beauty – even topics you would not describe as “beautiful”.  One such example is his book Never Smile at a Monkey.  The book talks about surprising dangerous animals.  Each page presents an animal that can be dangerous and even deadly to a human being.  Did you know that the platypus is the only poisonous mammal? The information presented in the book is all about how humans can be harmed by nature, not necessarily a “pretty picture”.  Jenkins however presents each animal in a realistic and beautiful manner, which helps the reader to see the beauty in the animal but be aware of the possible danger.

The illustration medium used by Jenkins is collage.  He takes great care to create every illustration.  He spends a large amount of time researching images to use for his illustrations.  He uses illustrations from the Internet and books, and sketches and observations he makes in zoos, aquariums and museums.  He also takes great care in selecting the paper he will use to make his collages.  He searches and collects many different kinds of paper from all over the world.  He looks for paper that may have special qualities, such as hand made paper from Japan or paper that is directly from a piece of wood.  He may also selected papers based on the texture such as recycled newspaper and magazine paper.  The result of his attention to detail and creativity are illustrations that help to show young readers the beauty of nature.

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science.” ~Albert Einstein