Color media
Traditional
Many types of traditional color media are available to the paleontological illustrator. Each illustrator usually settles on a favorite that they perfect and use throughout their career. Some of the traditional color media include colored pencils, acrylic paint, water color paint, and pastels.

This illustration of Anomalocaris was prepared using acrylic paint on gessoed masonite Illustration by Mary Parrish.

Color media
Computer
Computer software is increasingly the medium of choice for many scientific illustrators and a wide selection of software is now available for the illustrator. Computer art is especially useful during the design phase of illustration because modifications and corrections are easily made in a digital file that would be much more difficult using traditional materials.

This illustration by Mary Parrish was used on the book cover, Deep Time: Paleobiology's Perspective, edited by Doug Erwin and Scott Wing. Its medium is a combination of acrylic paintings and computer generated art.