Here be (Dark Matter) Monsters!

Editorial Science Illustration • Scientific American • 2024
Painting: Inspired by antique nautical maps depicting monsters in unknown waters, a worn celestial map shows dark matter styled as a draconic serpent wrapping around galaxies. (Dark matter is like a gravitational glue that binds galaxy clusters together, while dark energy pushes them apart.) Imagery and labels on objects around the map (books, papers, photos) suggest dark matter candidates like axions, WIMPs and black holes. Art by Olena Shmahalo for Scientific American.

FOR
Scientific American, 2024
Thanks to CD Michael Mrak

WORK
Concepts, illustration

TOOLS
CSP, Procreate

INFO
Inspired by antique nautical maps depicting monsters in unknown waters (here be dragons), this celestial map shows dark matter styled as a draconic serpent wrapping around galaxies. (Dark matter is like a gravitational glue that binds galaxy clusters together, while dark energy pushes them apart.) Imagery and labels on the objects around the map suggest dark matter candidates like axions, WIMPs and black holes.

For a Scientific American article by Tracy R. Slatyer & Tim M. P. Tait: What If We Never Find Dark Matter?

Sketches of different concepts symbolizing a search for dark matter: a creature hiding in a gravitational space-scape, a celestial map featuring a dark matter dragon, and a search boat revealing dark matter under the water. Art and concepts by Olena Shmahalo.

Rough concept thumbnails

WIP screenshots of a painting: Inspired by antique nautical maps depicting monsters in unknown waters, a worn celestial map shows dark matter styled as a draconic serpent wrapping around galaxies. (Dark matter is like a gravitational glue that binds galaxy clusters together, while dark energy pushes them apart.) Imagery and labels on objects around the map (books, papers, photos) suggest dark matter candidates like axions, WIMPs and black holes. Art by Olena Shmahalo for Scientific American.

WIP Screenshots

Note that the composition here differs drastically from the thumbnail sketches, which just serve to show concepts and get approval as quickly as possible. I typically include moodboards alongside those thumbs to give clients a better idea of the artwork's intended direction. (Likewise when art-directing, I often give artists references for scientific accuracy, specs, or style.)

Once a concept is chosen, everything thereafter is done with careful consideration of the final layout and other goals the image must meet.

Screenshot: painting of a celestial map featuring a dark matter dragon wrapping around galaxies. Art by Olena Shmahalo for Scientific American. Title text below the illustration reads 'What If We Never Find Dark Matter?', subhead: 'Dark matter has turned out to be more elusive than physicists had hoped' August 20, 2024, By Tracy R. Slatyer & Tim M. P. Tait
Screenshot: Article on QuantaMagazine.org featuring a photo of Tracy Slatyer. Title text: 'A Seeker of Dark Matter’s Hidden Light', subhead: 'The physicist Tracy Slatyer is searching for faint wisps of dark matter annihilating in the early universe — and perhaps in hiding places closer to home.' September 1, 2016, By Joshua Sokol. Photograph by Katherine Taylor.

© Olena Shmahalo