Killackey Illustration
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kjkillackey.bsky.social
Killackey Illustration
@kjkillackey.bsky.social
Natural science 🐡 & archaeological illustration 🏺 by Kathryn Killackey. NEH-Mellon Foundation Fellow ('23 - '24). Available for freelance #sciart. Lover of #books, #textiles, and absurdities. She/her
www.killackeyillustration.com
Taking a moment to recognize how lucky I am, someone is paying me to paint sloths.
October 28, 2025 at 2:00 PM
A major perk of being a science illustrator is constantly learning new things. I recently got to delve into the world of North American mastodons while creating this editorial illo to accompany new research from @mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social Ancient DNA Centre.
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#SciArt #paleoart #illustration
September 18, 2025 at 3:42 PM
The goldenrod and one of the pollinators in question. I think it’s a brown belted bumblebee?
September 15, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Me reading another headline saying “Spending as little as 5 minutes outside with nature improves quality of life”: “yeah, yeah, yeah”

Me tearing myself away from my computer to walk the dog around the neighborhood and spotting a large clump of goldenrod with pollinators buzzing:
September 15, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Some tickets make use of both sides, the Madison et Jardins Claude Monet ticket suggests other cultural and historic places to visit nearby and the DC Tourmobile has its route mapped with all the attractions. The beautiful Predjama Castle ticket becomes a postcard after use.
August 11, 2025 at 2:58 PM
My life-long compulsion to save every scrap of paper that crosses my path is finally paying off, I’ve just found a stash of other paper objects w/ outreach potential!

Such as entrytickets w/ imagery that can serve as souvenirs (places & approx. date visited in alt text)
🏺 #archaeology 🐡 #SciArt
August 11, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Here's one of my old graphite drawings of outdoor spaces at Çatalhöyük showing a stamp seal being used on bread. If I remember correctly, the idea was to show them as more of a maker's mark but I love the idea of a decorative border instead.

#archaeology 🏺 #SciArt 🐡
July 29, 2025 at 3:05 PM
This is may sound weird/morbid, but I encourage my brother to send me photos of dead animals, roadkill or sometimes dead of unknown causes that he spots mountain biking. They make good #SciArt drawing references!

Anyway, he sent me this one yesterday.
July 17, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Part of the interior with more, very tiny, handaxes…I think I purchased this at the BM during my MA.
July 16, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Adding isometric coloring books to my collection of simple paper outreach products and ideas, such as these trading cards (made by the Science Museum of Minnesota for Çatalhöyük), paper model postcards, and foldout timelines. Also thinking about pop up books & paper dolls.
#SciArt 🐡 #archaeology 🏺
July 16, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Finding a view point that showed what we needed took some time. Looking over the river towards site did this best. I'd love to fully develop an image of people washing up & primping before making a big entrance. There's hints here, this guy has pulled out his best tunic & is tying his shoes.
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July 15, 2025 at 4:59 PM
We’ve also included other details such as a necklace made from boar’s teeth collected during a previous hunt and a red deer antler, another type of faunal material found along with the boar crania deposit (the source of the long distance transport data).
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July 15, 2025 at 4:59 PM
We looked at other sites for inspo & settled on a flat roof for the communal building and more impermanent materials for the domestic structures. These are only seen in the background & could easily have been the subject of their own illos showing all the possibilities & #uncertainty.
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July 15, 2025 at 4:59 PM
This meant peppering the researchers w/ questions about seasonality, vegetation, material culture, etc, etc. Asiab’s structures were one sticking point as most of the Neolithic surface has deflated & only the floors and pisé foundations of the semi-subterranean communal building remained.
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July 15, 2025 at 4:59 PM
This was A LOT of archaeological research to synthesize into one #visualization. The focus of the research and the image was the long distance transport and its implications for communal gatherings but I also needed to create a complete scene.
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July 15, 2025 at 4:59 PM
A new piece, my recent illo depicting long distance transport of wild boars to Asiab in the early Iranian #Neolithic. I’ve reposted a couple articles featuring the illustration but here’s the whole image and some detail crops.
#archaeology 🏺 #SciArt 🐡
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July 15, 2025 at 4:59 PM
The dog figured out we were leaving about 24 hours before our exit and subjected us to this look for the rest of the time. Oh the shame. How could we be so cruel?
June 28, 2025 at 4:13 PM
You can find more information about the edited volume here:

www.berghahnbooks.com/title/Collin...

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June 24, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Drawing on Upper Paleolithic research in Germany's Swabian Jura, I’ve depicted two women in the middle of getting dressed up for an important event, with details taken from bead, pigment, and figurine evidence, as well as our current understanding of their textile technologies.

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June 24, 2025 at 3:07 PM
“Culturing the Body: Past Perspectives on Identity and Sociality” came out last year and I had the honor of painting the cover image. The volume is edited by Benjamin Collins and April Nowell, with a forward by
@rajoyce.bsky.social

#SciArt 🐡 #Archaeology 🏺 #textiles 🧶 #FashionHistory 🪡

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June 24, 2025 at 3:07 PM
A blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata) from 2012, painted in gouache. I need to get back into the gouache game, I haven't used it for a while.

#SciArt 🐡 #birds #birdsky 🪶 #illustration
June 19, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Like 50% of Nevada would be for sale! Most of the land around Flagstaff, AZ, for sale! Including portions of the San Francisco Peaks and surrounding area, which are sacred to several Native American tribes!
June 17, 2025 at 2:25 AM
In the areas I know well in Southern California, this includes a large chunk of the San Gabriel Mountains and all the area around Big Bear…
June 17, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Just in case you need a sign for tomorrow! Feel free to download and print (for non-commercial use). High-res version here:

www.killackeyillustration.com/s/no_kings_p...

#NoKings
June 13, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Here’s my parents’ mix on the right. She was wonderfully sweet and smart, came with a stump of a tail. Ideal dog. Their full Aussie is on the left.
June 13, 2025 at 1:30 PM