Author and illustrator David Macaulay discusses his sketchbook methods and how he uses mammoths to explain scientific and mechanical concepts.
Uploaded by Montshire Museum of Science, 2021 · Watch on YouTube ·
Macaulay explains that he felt intimidated by the prospect of illustrating 400 pages of machines for The Way Things Work. To keep himself and readers entertained, he added cave people and mammoths interacting with simple mechanisms like levers.
Macaulay recalls that publishers in 1988 worried a 400-page full-color book would be financially risky for an unproven topic. As a compromise, they alternated between two-color and four-color spreads throughout the book.
Macaulay recounts winning an award at age ten that allowed him to choose a book, picking The Golden Book of Science. Its illustrated spreads inspired him to look for rocks on his walk to school and sparked his fascination with explaining the world.
Macaulay preserves the spontaneity of his thumbnail sketches by blowing them up 200 percent on a copier to trace onto final paper. He colors digitally in Photoshop because it allows him to quickly undo mistakes.
Macaulay realized during his junior year studying architecture that he did not want to practice it professionally. While trying freelance illustration, he pitched an editor a fictional gargoyle beauty pageant, but the editor advised him to explain how cathedrals were actually built instead.
27 books; 1 reviewed on LuvemBooks. Dates and covers from Amazon.
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Randall Munroe
National Geographic
National Geographic is a globally recognized media and publishing entity operating under the National Geographic Society, founded in 1888. It publishes books spanning a wide range of topics — including science, exploration, and culture — such as *The Science Book: Everything You Need to Know About the World and How It Works*, which encapsulates centuries of scientific thought across subjects from the universe to mathematics.
1 book reviewed
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