mark belan | science illustrator + info designer Profile picture
A picture is worth a thousand words, and sometimes a million dollars. Telling science stories with the power of visuals✨ Founder @artscistudios | 🇨🇦🇭🇷🇪🇺
Aug 23, 2022 17 tweets 8 min read
Alright, gonna try sharing some of my visual strategies + tips for visually communicating science on a more regular basis.

🧵 Let's start off with figure labelling. And let's use this image from a paper I just read as an example:

#science #biology #scicomm #vizscicomm #datacomm Image First - I love the stippling illustrations. This is a nice technique that offers good contrast between structures.

The labelling, however, is a serious impediment to the eye. Subconsciously, our brains are trying to break this down + are taxed with making sense of this info🧠⚡️ Image
Apr 25, 2022 23 tweets 14 min read
After a successful weekend with Biomass again, I figured I'd share a bit about its inception 🧵⬇️

HOW I MADE THIS: Visualizing the Biomass of Life #biomass #wip #process #art #science #datavisualization #dataviz #infographic #biodiversity Visualizing the Biomass of Life infographic pinned onto a co The original paper that this graphic is based on was published by @yinonbaron @MiloLabWIS @WeizmannScience. It came across my desk working at Visual Capitalist and the crew wanted to see what I could do with it. pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…
Mar 28, 2022 16 tweets 20 min read
Good morning followers, new and not-new! After the flux of newcomers this weekend, I thought I’d introduce a little bit more about me + my journey so far to becoming a scientific/data illustrator. Read within! ⬇️🧵🪞🔬👨🏻‍🎓 #bio #aboutme #art #artist #scientificillustration #sciart Portrait of MarkIllustrated banner for Mark...Illustrated banner for Mark... My name's Mark and I am super passionate about telling science stories with the power of visual media🎨 I love illustration, I learn best with visuals, and I am constantly looking for (er, doodling?) ways to make pictures say MORE than just "a thousand words” 😉 Introductory portrait of Ma...Showcase of various example...5 icons in the center of th...Picture of Mark drawing on ...
Jan 20, 2022 20 tweets 10 min read
Dive-in for a peek at my #process and #designthinking on how I made my latest science infographic: "Comparing How COVID-19 Vaccines and Antiviral Pills Work" ⬇️🧵#COVID #Pfizer #Merck #DIY #infographic #vaccines #WIP #development #Covid_19 #paxlovid A poster showing "How I Made This", and a reproduc The original inspiration for this piece was the newly marketed antiviral pills by Pfizer and Merck for the treatment of COVID-19. I thought with hearing so much about vaccines this year, and with pills entering the arena, people might be curious about what each does in the body.
Nov 30, 2021 7 tweets 6 min read
And here we go...
PART TWO: Visualizing the Accumulation of Human-Made Mass ⚖️🏗️🛠️🧱🔩 (incl. 🧵) #anthropogenicmass #biomass #construction #mining #dataviz #infographics #sciart #datavisualization #visualjournalism #science #scicomm #scienceillustration #anthropocene Infographic/data visualization comparing the total dry weigh Since 1900, we've been making a LOT of stuff...and it's been piling up. In 2020, the material output of humans on Earth SURPASSED the total (dry) weight of all living things on Earth!
Oct 11, 2021 5 tweets 6 min read
NEW PIECE: A Visual Introduction to the Dwarf Planets of our Solar System🔭🌕🌑🪐 #dwarfplanets #space #dwarf #outerspace #planet #pluto #infographic #dataviz #orbit #scicomm #sciviz #nasa #spaceart #visual This one is a fun topic for me - I've always been fascinated with society's disdain for Pluto's downgrade, but the complete lack of interest for the other members of Pluto's family!!