This page shows creation process of illustrations for a scientific article describing a new species of pit viper from Alay in Kyrgyzstan.
Gloydius rickmersi: The head, side view.
These photographs were used as reference for the side view drawing of the head.
Gloydius rickmersi: Top view of the head.
Reference photographs for the top view illustration.
Initial contours drawn in Adobe Illustrator to be filled with dots and dashes.
The side view image alone consists of 102448 paths, as the Adobe Illustrator Document Info indicates. This picture shows a fragment of the image (around the eye) when all paths were selected.
Gloydius rickmersi: Side view of the skull. This vector image is based on x-ray photograph. Note: The drawing shows only the right side of the skull while both sides are visible in the x-ray image
X-ray image that served as a reference for the side view of the skull.
For comparison, a side view drawing of the skull of Gloydius blomhoffi and of Gloydius halys caraganus (below) from other publications were used. Both species are close relatives of the species illustrated.
The next images demonstrate how the top view of the skull was created.
Gloydius rickmersi: The final image of the skull top view.
This x-ray photograph served as reference for the skull drawing. As usually with x-ray photographs, it shows both, top and bottom side, along with some internals of the skull. There was also the mandible which was ommitted in the drawing. The skull was a little twisted when x-rayed. This needed to be corrected during drawing process to achieve symmetrical look.
As with the side view, the top view drawing was compared with existing images of the skulls of similar species - G. blomhoffi (above) and G. halys caraganus (below).
