By Daphne Crum, Genetics & Genomics ’23

This piece is a watercolor painting depicting a Yosemite Toad. When I first arrived in Davis I knew I wanted to find clubs and organizations that would provide opportunities for me to do a bit of scientific illustration. When I became a member of the Society for Conservation Biology Chapter at UC Davis, I was ecstatic to learn that their Education and Outreach Committee was already looking for artists in the community to provide visuals for their video about Dr. Leslie Roche and her research on the Yosemite Toad (Anaxyrus canorus). I was more than happy to spend a weekend during the 2019 Fall Quarter to paint and submit a piece for their project! Watercolors are a great medium to use for painting animals because you can layer with varying color intensities to illustrate different textures in their skin. Being able to artistically interpret the significance of scientific research is something I have always wanted to dive into, and it would be such an honor to continue working with other lab groups and researchers on campus who are in need of hand-drawn or hand-painted visuals to pair with their publications.