Xavier Macpherson Monegal, 1976
My training as an illustrator was at the Escola Superior de Disseny i Art Llotja (Llotja; Art and Design School) in Barcelona and since then I’ve been working as a scientific illustrator. I’ve collaborated with the Nat magazine and the Lynx publishing company (both at Barcelona) as well as with the publishing department of the CEAB (Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Blanes, CSIC). My interest in animals allowed me to collaborate in several museum projects as «Hominids» or «S’albufera d’es Grau», both organized and promoted by La Caixa Fundation.
For five years I was part of the technical and scientific illustrators’ team at the Marcel Socias’ Studio. On 2005 some of my fellow team members and me created our own illustration studio, called «alademosca il·lustració». There, we illustrated textbooks and atlas as well as magazines and other scientific papers.
Since I began my career as an illustrator I’ve taken part in different collective expositions. I was part of the «Non-fiction» illustrators selected for the Bologna Book Fair on 2003. I was also selected in 2006 as one of the participating illustrators at the Focus of Nature IX Natural Science Illustration and in 2012 at the Focus of Nature XII Natural Science Illustration, both expositions promoted by the New York State Museum. In 2011 I was part of the Wildlife Art Exposition at Cáceres (Spain).
As for the prices, thanks to my fascination for dinosaurs, I won the International Contest of Dinosaur Illustration, prize given by the Lourinha Museum (Portugal, 2005). The APIC (Professional Illustrator Association of Catalonia) gave the Junceda Prize on scientific illustrator to our studio «alademosca» in 2008 and in 2011 the prize on the non-fiction adult and children’s illustration books.
As a teacher I’ve offered a course of naturalistic illustration for Biology students at the Spanish Cultural Center at Malabo (Equatorial Guinea, 2009) as well as at the Escola d´Arts i Oficis (Arts and Craft School) Llotja of Barcelona.