Random Thoughts

I just realized that the author of Visualizing Evolution Heidi Reichter is also blogging live from the AMI meeting. I have yet to meet her but maybe I’ll randomly run into her and say hi. I did see a couple other bloggers today. More on that later…

It’s such an unusual feeling to see so many medical illustrators at one place. No one thinks we’re morbid, and it’s normal to see a talk where the presenter shows severed human parts or unattractive positions on the slide shows. I randomly ran into a former medical illustrator at a nearby bookstore and he had no idea the conference was going on right here. He was pretty excited to meet us until we told him there’s about 300 more medical illustrators a block away. Upon hearing the information he packed up everything and headed over right away.

Another full day tomorrow. More about day 2 tomorrow, hoping I can find more time during the day.

AMI Day 1

Day 1
It’s Wednesday morning and a day full of workshops. Since it’s my first meeting, I attended the four hour morning “First Timer’s” session. This session was presented by two Hopkins graduates Emily Shaw and Megan Bluhm Foldenauer and focused on “networking.” To start, everyone introduced themselves and said something quirky about themselves–and there were some pretty unusual answers

The bulk of the talk was by the keynote speaker Jim Perkins, Associate Professor of the Medical Illustration Program at Rochester Institute of Technology. Jim talked about his evolution into a medical illustrator as well as how his style evolved. I was amazed at how much we had in common in terms of motivation, I even found myself relating to the ups and downs of being in this field he experienced. In all it gave me confidence of being able to succeed in this field in the long run.

Since I didn’t sign up for any other workshops, I was free until the evening salon opening reception. The artworks were posted along the hallway, with professional works on the first floor and student works on the second.

Above: The salon exhibit, “Professional Instructional Color” category.

Above: The opening reception. You can see reflections of the exhibit out the window.

(By the way if you show up in any of my photos and don’t want to be seen, let me know and I’ll either replace the photo or Photoshop you out)

The salon is on display throughout the week. One of the more unusual ones was an anatomically correct tattoo design of a window into the forearm. The tattoo was designed for a belly dancer who was fascinated by anatomy. I was amazed by the quality of student works on the second floor–many of them would fit right into the professional section.

One thing to note is that the interactive and 3D categories of the salon is in a separate room and very easy to miss. I walked past the room 5 times today and had no idea I was supposed to walk in. I hear it’s in the same area as rooms 132 and 137 where some of the sessions take place.

On the Road

I left for the AMI conference this morning. I was completely exhausted because I had a class yesterday from 9-5, and after that I came home to finish the Pinewood Derby Car for the conference auction. It was midnight by the time I started packing so I slept through most of the bus ride. Everything on the road went well and we even got here an hour early (that was before I remembered the time difference between Illinois and Indiana). The conference center/hotel is really nice, and the best thing about it is this professional-looking comfortable office chair in the room and free internet access.

I was surprised that we just couldn’t find any places to eat. My roommate and I ordered room service and spent the next few hours ironing and mending clothes. I just looked at the schedule for tomorrow and realized it’s all workshops tomorrow. I’m only signed up for the “first timer’s” workshop from 8am-noon since this is my first time going to the AMI, so tomorrow will be a very relaxing day. The salon opening reception is in the evening and hopefully I can go even though I didn’t submit a piece to the salon.

I think it’s time for me to get some rest. I look forward to the rest of the week.

Skin Tone Swatches

Most artists I know would agree that it is so difficult to mix the right skin tone when drawing people. Here are two techniques I came up with that may make it easier for painting skin tone digitally.

1. Grab a bunch of photos of people of different colors from the internet and use the eyedropper tool in Photoshop to take colors from their skin tone, including highlight and shadow areas. Make a swatch library and save it. Next time you need skin tones, you just have to pull up this swatch library and you’re ready to go.

Pros:
-Quick and easy.

Cons:
-Colors may look flat when you start painting large areas.

2. Dab your finger in some power foundation and rub it on medium toothed bristol board. Then do the same thing with blush and bronzers as shown below. Makeup works well because they are made to imitate and blend into skin tone.

Do this with as many shades as you like and scan it. Take it into Photoshop and adjust the colors if necessary. Using the eyedropper tool, take various colors from each swatch. Click on a few places in each swatch and you’ll get a nice range of similar colors. Save the colors in a swatch library for future use.

Pros:
-You have better control of which color you are making a swatch of, and making swatches of blush and bronzer colors will allow you to give your digital painting more depth when you layer the colors transparently on top of one another.
-You can use the same ingredients in traditional drawings to get quick skin tone effects. I’ve used it occasionally in color pencil and pastel drawings when I just don’t have the right colors. I haven’t experimented with the longevity of the materials, but they definitely work fine for small areas or if the drawing is meant to be short-lived.

Cons:
-Most people don’t have all the shades for a complete spectrum and it’s not worth buying new shades to make a swatch.

AMI Week Coming Up

Next week is AMI week. I’ll be blogging a lot next week about what’s happening at the conference. Each medical illustration program will auction off a decorated Pinewood Derby Car at the Versalius Trust Auction on Saturday July 19. I’m such a big fan of model making that I volunteered myself to work on my program’s car–I hope my classmates don’t mind that I’m taking over. Pictures of the process and the finished item will be posted after July 19. Now I have to start packing and finish the car. Have a good weekend everyone.

Chicago Summer Events

Hope everyone’s having a happy July 4th weekend. I’ve been doing some sightseeing in the Chicago area the last couple days and coincidentally ran into lots of anatomy-inspired art.

First, the Chicago Cultural Center is showcasing artworks on the theme of orthopedic surgery in an exhibit called “eMotion Pictures: An Exhibition of Orthopaedics in Art” through July 20. The Chicago Cultural Center is located on 78 E. Washington Street within a block from Millennium Park.

Above: The exhibit via camera phone
Below: One of my favorite pieces from the exhibit–two bodies sculpted from a wire frame mesh.

Another place to check out is the Museum of Contemporary Art. To be honest, I was not a big fan of most exhibits at the museum, but “History of the Main Complaint” by William Kentridge caught my attention. This is a short film that takes the audience into the world of a man in a coma. Sometimes you are merely an outsider observing this man’s condition, and other times you take journeys into his anatomy and his subconscious. The artist created the film by drawing a scene, and then erasing and redrawing the scene to animate it. Both the film and the scene drawings are on display on the third floor. (By the way, you can get into the museum for free with three other people if you check out a museum pass from any Chicago public library. Even though it’s called “Kraft Great Kids Museum Pass,” you don’t even need to bring kids.)

Finally, I just wanted to point out that Kooza–Cirque du Soleil is in Chicago until August 24. I went to see it today and it was awesome. Look out for the skeleton costumes after intermission!

The Jackalope

Just wondering, what’s all the fascination with this Durer Jacklaope I Photoshopped for April Fool’s Day? Lately it’s been getting more attention than the posts with actual content. It makes me think I should keep Photoshopping old masters’ works on a regular basis to bring new audience to my site…

Student Works: Cindy Schroeder

Here is the work of Cindy Schroeder showing DNA unwinding proteins at the replication fork:

Cindy is going into her second year at UIC’s Biomedical Visualization program. This digital piece combines 3D Studio Max and Photoshop and is currently her favorite piece.

To view her website, go to www.cynthiaschroeder.com. Cindy can be contacted through cynthiaschroeder246@yahoo.com.

Drafting Table Update

Remember the drafting table I wrote about two weeks ago? I just went to the website again and saw an update–price: 399US dollars. I really hope that’s $3.99 and not $399 because designed or not, you’re getting cardboard. I bet in a couple years you’ll see a similar designed item at IKEA for about $3.99.

Student Works: Jen Wong

Jen Wong is a junior (starting this fall) illustration student at the Rhode Island School of Design. I enjoy her unique style very much. She is meticulous with details but still captures motion in her drawings–something not easily done together.

“I’ve always been very interested in art, and have also been into extremely detail-oriented illustrations, so for many years I thought that scientific/medical illustration would be perfect for me. Now I’m thinking about getting into book work, and especially children’s books, but I still enjoy drawing from nature.”

Here are a few examples of Jen’s drawings:

When asked about how she creates such drawings, she says:
“I like to draw from life as much as possible (as opposed to drawing from a photo) so I frequent RISD’s wonderful nature lab. I usually start by sitting down with a specimen and begin drawing from one obvious part (usually the eyes) and just go from there. I like to just work from what I see, using a thin ball-point pen or pencil, or sometimes a rapidograph. All these pieces were just done on my own time, with the exception of the 50 series sample [below].”

“The set of nine one-inch-by-one-inch insect drawings are only a part of a larger 50 series done for a freshman drawing class. I got to explore ten different insect specimens that I obtained from the nature lab by doing five close studies of each. The drawings are to scale, and very small (my drawing teacher had me bring him a magnifying glass).”