Visualizing the Biological

I thought I’d show my working process in photoshop, starting with drawing and going toward finished illustration!

This portrays the pulling/dissecting up of the gallbaldder from the liver bed.  It’s actually kind of a bloody mess; it’s not like the gallbladder just sits and hangs out by the liver, it becomes tightly invested in it via connective tissue and small vessels.

The checked background is the default background in photoshop, letting you know what’s transparent and what’s not.  I’d probably leave that out next time.

The original drawing, scanned and masked

Initial masking and tonal development

More finessing of tonal base and vignetting

even more tonal finessing

Rough color study - see the blood?

Refined color choices and flat masking

The final - more vignetting, adjustment of tone, and more color variation, and highlights.

It needed to be clear that it’s not the prettiest thing to happen in the body, but didn’t want to get gory.  The final looks rather watercolorish in some respects.

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Otherwise known as removing the gallbladder, this surgery is often performed in a particular demographic remembered by the 4 F’s: fat, fertile, fair, female.  Often there are stones that have complicated the health of the patient, and this cute little organ has to go!  Fortunately, like a lot of surgeries, this one can be done laparoscopically, with the patient in and out of the hospital (although not fully recovered) in a single day.

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Recently finished is a small study of the internal heart wall – specifically the trabeculae carneae formations that run rampid in both ventricles.  Their function?  Opinions seem to vary, but they probably aid in contraction and the prevention of too much suction, besides offering a lovely visual surprise when you first dissect a real heart.

For anyone interested in other unique views of the heart, a priceless collection of videos is available via a University of Minnesota project: http://www.vhlab.umn.edu/atlas/index.shtml Not only can you look at internal structures from a myriad of angles, but you can also choose from a range of different hearts, which really underscores how common variations in structrues can be.

Available for purchase on etsy.

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I rendered out the vestibulocochlear model and threw it into VRWorx, a simple little program that doesn’t offer the best interactive features, but is great for simply displaying a model or virtual scene.

InnerEar_bony (Object)

InnerEar_endo (Object)

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Happy thanksgiving all! Below is a poster about body tissues you probably weren’t using much today – skeletal muscle!

There was a final crit earlier this week on histology posters – I delved into the sarcomere and myofibril, the fun little network of contractile proteins within the muscle cell responsible for movement.  There are still adjustments to be done (color balance, too many warms), but all in all, is nearly done.

Projects like this always serve as a good lesson for everything that is not yet known about the human body. Actin and Myosin? Their stories have been told very well, but the Z disk and M line? not nearly as easy to research. There are always more proteins and elements than you originally assume, which if nothing else, certainly keep things interesting.

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Here are more finished renders of the lovely vestibulocochlear apparatus, and it’s internal endolymph (paralymph not shown) fluid system.  Those black shadows c4d loves are harder to change than you’d think, even after messing with shadow and ambient occlusion colors.

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Below is an editorial project for a selected journal cover – the article this image relates to was about Still’s heart murmer, fairly common in school age children.  It’s a fascinating benign murmer that was likened to the sound of an Aeolian harp – this if this harmless murmer is heard in children, they can be told they have a musical heart.  This author’s theory was that the blood flowing through the chordae tendinae of the right ventricle produced the characteristic pitch and humming sound.

And for all you curious ones out there, here’s an actual recording of one:http://www2.umdnj.edu/~shindler/still.html

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This has been done for awhile, but I’ve only recently scanned it and comped it together in Photoshop.  Occasionally I feel like breaking away from the whole medical subject area, or anything representational.  I’m really interested in relationships between music and visual arts and love the concept of Kandinsky’s art and the series of nocturnes by Whistler.  This painting ranks among my favorites: Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket.  There are more and less successful ways to do abstract paintings, and Whistler nails it in this one.

Moving on, below is a painting I’m calling “Aria”.  Fun with colors, composition, shapes, and movement!

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Below is a render of an in progress model.

I love really abstract pieces of anatomy like the vestibulocochlear apparatus!  They’re so fun to sculpt.  The end output will be a rotatable qtvr that shows labels, nerves, and the endolymph within the bony apparatus.

Next those black shadows need dampening…

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I’m working on a poster about sarcomere and myofibril architecture and function.  To that end, I’ve been finding out all sorts of fun facts about specific lengths and compositions of different myofibers.

With a significant amount of pdb data, here’s round 1, more revisions and updates coming. Click for a larger view, lots of proteins that can’t be seen in the small version below.

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