Sketching biodiversity through space and time
Abby McBride is a freelance sketch biologist, science writer, and National Geographic Explorer. She uses field sketching as a tool for studying life on earth, a medium for communicating about ecology and evolution, and a teachable way of interacting with nature (that doesn’t require fancy equipment or artistic skill). Beyond sketching, she works on a wide range of collaborative projects that bring together diverse disciplines and perspectives to protect global ecosystems. Feel free to get in touch about expeditions, exhibitions, or sketching workshops. See original art and prints for sale. Sign up to receive occasional newsletters.
BIOGRAPHY
After studying biology at Williams College, Abby took the obvious next steps and worked on three farms in Spain, drew nature illustrations in New York City, manned the helm of a Maine lobster boat, bird-blogged across the western United States, researched siblicidal boobies on an uninhabited Galapagos island, coached swimming, taught piano lessons, helped revise an invasion ecology textbook, and worked as a pastry chef, in roughly that order.
Next she went to MIT for a graduate degree in science writing, wrote stories for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bowdoin College, developed a communications program for the American Ornithological Society, sketched icebergs in Iceland, babblers in Borneo, and giraffes in Kenya, and somehow ended up traveling from Pisa to Budapest on a three-speed bicycle with a basket in front.
As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow she spent the better part of a year living out of an old station wagon in New Zealand, sketching and writing stories about seabirds for the National Geographic Society newsroom (as shown in the video at left, courtesy of the Fulbright Program). Subsequent exploits included drawing book illustrations, skating on Swedish ponds, and teaching sketching to geology and archaeology students.
Abby is based in downeast Maine, where her recent work focuses on making connections between Wabanaki community members and coastal conservation organizations. See more projects.
