Fiona Martin
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vizscience.bsky.social
Fiona Martin
@vizscience.bsky.social
380 followers 160 following 12 posts
Distilling complex concepts into beautiful visuals 😍

📰 Graphic Artist at Seattle Times
🎨 Sci Artist at Visualizing Science

https://www.visualizingscience.com
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vizscience.bsky.social
Recently I created a #cutaway diagram of a glacier in retreat, and what causes/accelerates melting. Also, #illustrations of animals and plants that may disappear as alpine meadows are lost 🏔️ Drawn digitally in pen-and-ink style. Read more at www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news... #sciart #climate
August 29, 2025 at 7:32 PM
vizscience.bsky.social
So happy this illustration was accepted into GNSI's annual exhibit! Learn about how trees lock away carbon for centuries—and competing economic interests—in these @seattletimes.com stories: bit.ly/4mwCOqV, bit.ly/4lUk9Fq

Exhibit:
www.gnsi.org/2025-gnsi-ju...

#evergreen #photosynthesis #sciart
Print version of graphic. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into sugars, using the food to grow. This process, called photosynthesis, allows plants to make their own food, storing the carbon in their tissues as they grow roots, branches and leaves. In this way, trees help fight climate change by absorbing and storing carbon pollution that is heating the planet. Big trees store the most carbon because of their mass, and long-lived species such as Douglas fir and red cedar can lock carbon away for centuries. Trees absorb carbon dioxide gas through openings in leaves or needles called stomata. Chloroplasts within leaves and needles use the energy of the sun to split water molecules drawn up through tree roots into hydrogen and oxygen, released through their stomata. Trees and other green plants create the air we breathe, and shelter and nourish life as we know it. Mobile version of graphic. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into sugars, using the food to grow. This process, called photosynthesis, allows plants to make their own food, storing the carbon in their tissues as they grow roots, branches and leaves. In this way, trees help fight climate change by absorbing and storing carbon pollution that is heating the planet. Big trees store the most carbon because of their mass, and long-lived species such as Douglas fir and red cedar can lock carbon away for centuries. Trees absorb carbon dioxide gas through openings in leaves or needles called stomata. Chloroplasts within leaves and needles use the energy of the sun to split water molecules drawn up through tree roots into hydrogen and oxygen, released through their stomata. Trees and other green plants create the air we breathe, and shelter and nourish life as we know it.
August 4, 2025 at 8:17 PM
vizscience.bsky.social
Sometimes I get lucky with the mobile office view

#ferry #ferrycommute #WSDOT #Seattle #WashingtonState
View of the water from second car deck on the Walla Walla
May 22, 2025 at 3:51 PM
vizscience.bsky.social
Happy #WIP Wednesday. Here's some sketches behind an illo I created about bull #kelp. Research included a survey by boat off Burrows Island with Samish Dept. of Natural Resources. Full story: www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news.... Writing by @conradswanson.bsky.social; photos by Nick Wagner. #sciart
Refined sketch with attention given to proportions and details, as well as the overall composition. Rough thumbnail illustrations (business card–sized) help me to narrow the scope and decide what I want to show. The final illustration shows a close-up of bull kelp in the foreground, with part of the bulb cut away to show that it's hollow and filled with air. Another inset shows the holdfast that anchors the kelp to rocks. The background illustration shows a sample bull kelp forest from sea floor to surface, where the fronds sprawl out to create a floating canopy. The underwater forest provides both shelter and food to a rich array of life, from shellfish to salmon.
January 9, 2025 at 4:35 AM
vizscience.bsky.social
Show me your pet and what they are named after:
November 23, 2024 at 8:49 AM
vizscience.bsky.social
When left alone, nature will regulate itself… log-jammed, braided rivers that once covered the PNW naturally slowed, spread, and filtered water as it made its way to the sea, providing varied habitats for salmon, beavers, and more 🪵Read more at www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
November 20, 2024 at 6:07 AM
vizscience.bsky.social
Post a picture you took (no description) to bring some zen to the timeline
Bull kelp off Burrows Island, WA Bull kelp
November 20, 2024 at 5:45 AM
vizscience.bsky.social
Hello Blue! I’m a science illustrator/designer, and enjoy interpreting info visually. When done well, art is like a universal language. Combined with text, it becomes a rich storytelling experience. Honored to work with talented authors and scientists, learning more w/each project. #sciart #scicomm
Infographic explaining how chocolate products can get contaminated with cadmium (mostly from soils) and lead (mostly dust polluted from lead gasoline or lead paint). This happens more often in poorer countries where farmers are not paid a living wage 🙁 That said there are safer brands out there. Originally published in Seattle Times February 2023.
August 9, 2023 at 8:35 PM