Dean Biechler, adjunct instructor of art and design, has found a way to make a good living out of being an artist.

Biechler teaches two science illustration courses, as well as working on some special studies and helping students find internships.

However, Biechler makes his primary living from the science and medical illustrations he draws in his home studio.

“It’s allowed me to do artwork for a living,” Biechler said. “It’s only made me better because I draw all the time.”

Biechler said scientific and medical illustrators make annual salaries anywhere between $20,000 and $100,000 or more.

Biechler said his wife deserves the credit for giving him the idea of starting an art studio at home.

He said he is glad he started his home studio because it allows him to stay at home with his children and saves on day care. Biechler has four children ranging in age from four to 10.

He teaches at the university Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and spends the rest of his time at home.

His students are enthusiastic about his work.

David Blum, a senior in pre-biological/pre-medical illustration, said Biechler’s portfolio is “amazing in every way.”

He is continuously editing his portfolio, generally keeping it to about 20 slides and half a dozen pieces, he said.

Biechler gets art orders from publishing companies describing what each illustration is going to be about. Then he makes rough drafts and gives them to the editors, who review them. If they are approved, he inks or paints the final illustrations, and if not he alters them.

Biechler said he also likes to contract illustrations for publications out to students unless the publishing company specifies that he has to do all the illustrations himself. He pays students who do illustrations for him.

Biechler has done illustrations for an array of textbooks including The Doctor’s Book of Home Remedies for Dogs and Cats and the fourth edition of Biology Laboratory Manual by Iowa State Professor Warren Dolphin, zoology and genetics.

He illustrated three books last year and is finishing another book now about veterinary histology. The book he is working on now was originally contracted to have 104 illustrations.

Biechler said they usually increase the number as the book progresses.

He said books generally consist of between 60 and 100 illustrations each.

Biechler said sometimes he bids on books and other times people come to him asking him specifically to illustrate books. Once, he said, he was asked to illustrate bears and bob cats because of the way he draws fur.

Biechler said he became interested in a career in scientific and medical illustration because of a zoology professor he had who illustrated scientific charts.

The field allows him to combine his interest in drawing and his interest in science.

He said his mom and sister saved pictures he drew when he was three. “I guess all kids draw,” he said. “The question is, why didn’t I stop drawing?”

Biechler graduated from Iowa State with a B.A. in applied art, which is what the program for biological and medical illustration was then called.

The semester before he graduated, some people from the College of Veterinary Medicine saw his work and offered him a job.

Biechler worked for the College of Veterinary Medicine for 16 years doing illustrations. He said he started teaching while working there.

“Iowa State is the last place I ever dreamed I’d be working,” he said.

Biechler also helps advise a pre-biological/pre-medical illustration club.

With his students, Biechler is painting a mural with a four-foot diorama for Fontana Interpretive Nature Center in Hazelton, Iowa.

The mural had three design requirements. It had to represent tall grass prairies, and it had to include a buffalo head and a badger.

The mural includes a painting of the body of a buffalo with the head mounted on it, and the diorama when finished will look like water flowing out.

He said about a dozen students are working with him on the mural. The students are receiving one internship credit for every full day they spend working on it.

Biechler is also working on a cow landscape series. He grew up on a dairy farm and even his early drawings had cows for subjects, he said.

Biechler said he tries to have at least one exhibition of his work each year. Last year he had four.

He will be having an exhibit in August at The First Edition, 330 Main St. He also has made proposals for exhibitions in Madison, Wis., and Dubuque.