Nick Jainschigg was born in New York City and grew up near the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. The two influences of art and natural science have been with him ever since. After graduating with a BFA in illustration, he pursued a career in science fiction and fantasy illustration, producing hundreds of covers and interiors for most of the major (and many minor) publishers. He discovered the computer as a means of expression in the late 1990s and hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep since. In addition to teaching at RISD, Jainschigg continues to work on animations, interactive illustration and painting in oils.

Jainschigg’s work has been featured in or written about in publications from Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Ballantine Books, PBS Interactive, The New York Times, Wizards of the Coast, Tor Books, Scholastic Inc., MacMillan Publishing, Domino Magazine, Paramount and Viacom. His digital paleontological reconstructions have been featured on the Discovery Channel and at the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Maastricht Natural History Museum and the University of California Museum of Paleontology.