Illustrator finds true calling in drawing animals

Lexington, Ill. -- If he never sold another one of his pieces, Ben Mehl would live life happy. That's how much the 29-year-old Lexington native loves his true calling.\nBy day, Mehl works as a security guard for Loomis, Fargo & Co. in Bloomington, Ill. At night, he's a scientific illustrator with a penchant for black-and-white creations featuring insects and tigers.\n"I would like not to have to get up and go to a job and just do this," said Mehl as he darkened the bill of a chestnut-eared aracari with a black ink marker. "I'm trying to build my portfolio. I would love to work at the Field Museum again."\nMehl's mother, Linda Tallon of Lexington, had an inkling what her son might become when he grew up. From the time he could hold a crayon, young Mehl drew.\nHis art teacher at Lexington High School, Jennifer Roseman, further encouraged him by providing private art instruction beyond school time.\nIllinois State University beckoned after high school. Mehl decided to pursue graphic design for future job security. After five semesters, Mehl reassessed his situation and left college to work.\nDuring that time, Mehl set his sights on the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He sent 80 slides of his work and got called for an interview. He was accepted.\n"It didn't seem like school at all. I took art classes for eight hours a day," said Mehl, who graduated from the institute with a fine arts degree in 2001. "You could take classes over again. I took figure drawing every semester. I took scientific illustration at least three times. One of my instructors said I was probably the only graduate to never have taken a painting class."\nThe institute experience led Mehl to his true calling in scientific illustration. Although the instruction proved invaluable, Mehl found a year-long internship at Chicago's Field Museum priceless.\n"One of the scientific illustration classes was taught at the museum. During the internship, I drew whales. The drawings were posted on a Web site used by scientists. I sometimes drew from photos or actual bones on the third floor of the museum," said Mehl.\nHe would love to repeat the experience on a permanent basis, but the museum only employs one illustrator, who works part time.\nMehl specializes in stipple technique, creating thousands of tiny black dots that form an image.\nHe likes the challenge of the medium as well as the black-and-white format, and he finds his work meditative. He can easily get lost in his art, so he made a three-hour music tape to play when he works. When the tape ends, he has to stop and do something else.\n"Otherwise, I would only do my art," said Mehl, whose work is displayed in Lexington's Heartland Bank, where his mother works as a teller.\nMany of his insects, tigers and birds sell for about $80. But he sold an original tiger drawing for $250. It took him 30 hours to complete.\n"I like tigers because they're difficult. And I like the shape of birds. But people like bugs," said Mehl, who sold several insect drawings at Lexington's Taste of Country Fair in September.\nHe hasn't yet decided whether to part with an original drawing of Chalcasoma caucasus, a Java horned beetle. Mehl found one encased in glass in Florida recently. He loved the detail, so he bought it, brought it home and drew it.