Process for
The Next Scientist
Written by Kate Messner
Pub. August 27, 2024
Purchase from Cover to Cover Books
This book is an informal follow-up to Kate Messner’s previous book, The Next President. Both books profile their famous subjects, presidents and scientists, with an emphasis on the kids they were before! I love that Kate includes people from a diverse array of backgrounds, including a Taiwanese-American scientist.
Since this book is chock full of real people, some of whom are alive today, I knew accuracy would be important. Chronicle was great in pairing me with a fact checker who preemptively dug up photos and notes about each subject in one big document. It was amazing to have this comprehensive resource going into the initial sketches and I think this front-end work really expedited my own process.
During the sketch rounds, the fact checker continued to keep an eye out for accuracy, whether it was about a haircut here or a likeness there. The author also weighed in, sometimes even bringing in clarifying details and childhood photos from the scientists themselves!
The two scientists above are David de Santana, an evolutionary ichthyologist, and Karletta Chief, an engineer, hydrologist, and environmental justice leader. We were lucky to get photos from David himself, both of his childhood as well as in the field as an adult. With Karletta, I relied on a couple photos (middle) to piece together the illustration; I wanted to show that exact motion of taking a water sample together with her defining Navajo hair bun and turquoise ornamented jewelry. You’ll see that the final illustration on the right is a composite of these three reference photos, combining the details from her pose to her accessories to the color of the sample cup.
Here’s another example of the sketch progressing to a finished spread with the use of photo reference. Once the sketch was approved, the rest was straightforward; I just had to show each element in more detail, like making sure I illustrated that specific impact crater accurately. In the middle panel, you can see the beginnings of my linework for the finish. There are a good amount of photos of Adriana Ocampo online but they tended to be in more professional settings (or were simply headshots), so I chose to base her image heavily off this one photo in the field. With Johannes Kepler, as with anyone born before cameras I was relying on painted portraits as reference, all of which were done at different ages and by different artists. My strategy with him was then similar to that of Adriana’s, to just pick one reference image and stick with it rather than making a composite.
All my book projects are the product of a team of people working together, rather than just working in isolation and calling all the shots myself. I am grateful for the process as it is in place to improve the final product!
This spread of young Johannes Kepler, Maria Mitchell, and Adriana Ocampo changed several times due to the following feedback from the editorial team:
- For the spread to be as much about the night sky and wonder as much as it is about the scientists
- To have an arc of silhouettes against the night sky
- To create more of a sense of foreground, middle ground and background
This was a fun cover to work on, as there were a lot of scientist props throughout the book to draw from. I initially favored the binoculars sketch but the interior ended up using not one, but two spreads with this point of view - so it would have been pretty redundant to see this same layout on the cover as well.
We went with this series of rows that each profiled different types of science - first 5 rows, then 4. My favorite was the scientist sea kayaking in an alpine setting!
Originally the title lettering was hot pink, to match the interior lettering on pages 2-3 and 44-45. I was delighted to learn when the publishing team was running proofs on metallic inks for the lettering - I challenge you to find an illustrator who wouldn’t like getting a shiny 5th ink on a book cover! I did try to see if we could get a metallic pink to preserve the original color scheme, but our time in post-production was cut short due to some printing issues and we fell back on a silver that had been sampled.