Jane Richardson, a structural biologist and professor at Duke University, began using colored pencils and pastels in the late 1970s to address a challenge in her field. She and her husband had determined two of the first 20 known protein structures but struggled to convey this information due to a lack of standardized illustrations. Richardson took on the task of creating a new type of scientific illustration for proteins, studying how to represent 3D shapes in 2D, inspired by artists like M.C. Escher.