Brightening up the classroom

Engaging pupils with history is no easy feat, but freelance illustrator Gavin Rutherford thinks he might have a colourful solution

When I was offered the chance to work on a colouring book with Literary Dundee and The D’Arcy Thompson Zoological Museum, I leapt at the opportunity with slightly more enthusiasm and child-like glee than a 29-year-old should comfortably justify.

To give the project some context, both Literary Dundee and The D’Arcy Thompson Museum are looking to reach out to the community and increase awareness of Scottish-born scientist, D’Arcy Thompson.

He was a man whose academic career and teachings revealed many of the hidden workings of the natural world, it’s various patterns and the profound role mathematics plays in biology.

To achieve this the museum was looking to produce a colouring book that could be distributed among pupils at Dundee High School, in an effort to capture their imagination and provide a little insight into the fascinating world of D’Arcy Thompson.

Having read the brief for the project, I immediately sent an application.

Since graduating in Illustration from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, I’ve worked on a number of colouring books, with many of my designs revolving around intricate patterns, local wildlife and detailed floral forms.

The repressed scientist in me was thrilled at the idea of working on a project that would allow me to marry my love of creating with my life-long fascination with scientific discoveries.

Fortunately my application was accepted amid stiff competition from some very talented artists and I immediately got stuck in.

Myself, museum curator Matthew Jarron, and Peggy Hughes from Literary Dundee met within the museum to discuss the project in more detail.

The main challenge we faced was establishing a format for the book to take. Luckily, I had brought along a sketchbook of some drawings and notes I’d made while at the museum many years before. After flicking through its pages for inspiration, it soon became apparent that the sketchbook itself held the key to overcoming this hurdle.

The layout resembled the kind of work you might expect to see in a scientist’s field journal. This immediately struck a chord and so we decided that the book itself should follow a similar format as it seemed in keeping with the subject matter.

Once this idea had been established, the next step was agreeing on the book’s content.

Visual inspiration is something that is definitely not lacking when exploring museums. And so we settled on a number of the museum’s subjects on which to focus. Camera in hand, I snapped the reference images I needed to get underway.

I took the images and turned them into colourless illustrations, while Matthew put together the text that would provide the educational aspect of the books.

It was important that the text and images struck the right balance so that the book was not too heavy on either. I was cautious not to allow one element to detract from the other.

With this in mind I created a layout that was reminiscent of the old scientific journals we were hoping to emulate.

The result is an intricate book of anatomical illustrations, detailed biological structures and insightful passages that we hope will inspire a new generation of students to explore the curious world of D’Arcy Thompson.

Clockwise from main picture: A penguin artefact from the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum; more artefacts; the cover of Gavin’s colouring book; and penguin illustrations.