cardiac surgery!

These past two weeks, our class has been observing and sketching in the O.R. @ TGH and TWH for our surgical illustration course. Initially, i was worried about things like getting in the surgeon's way, touching something blue (my greatest fear), or feeling queasy. However, this all changed when we got there! My colleague and i observed an incredible cardiovascular surgeon who made us feel welcome. i think his enthusiasm was contagious - i ended up falling in love with cardiac procedures and went back for more! :'D
(i also fell in love with scrubs... they are so comfy...)

We really appreciated his kindness, so i painted this card for him:


cardiac surgery love
watercolour + col-erase pencil on watercolour paper

(Unfortunately, i only had crappy student-grade watercolour paper, so it didn't absorb the colours well. It also got wrinkly and refused to scan properly. So i'm a little disappointed with the results. ;-; )

haze

We made a brush to mimic airbrushes today in Photoshop class. i'm not a fan of super smooth blends, but thought i'd mess around with the brush anyway! Really not sure how i feel about the results...


haze
Photoshop CS4 + texture from CGtextures.com

Actually, i plan on going back to PaintTool SAI for CGing instead of using Photoshop for personal work... b-but my hands are so used to Adobe shortcuts now. ;-;

life drawing, finally!

i haven't attended open life drawing sessions since the beginning of last term, so i was pretty damn rusty today. D: But it felt really good being back there! Geoff and i intend to make these a weekly thing (which was also the plan last term, and that obviously failed...)!




15 min each
charcoal on newsprint, 18x24"

i plan on working on my line sensitivity/quality and of course, anatomy (aka time to tighten up a tad, though charcoal is amazingly fun). Speaking of anatomy, i couldn't stop thinking of all the proper anatomical terms while i was drawing. "Wow, look at that prominent rectus femoris muscle!" AGH!!!

flash portrait

Here's a quick self-portrait, done in Adobe Flash as a class assignment using the Brush tool. i find the line weight a tad too sensitive in Flash...


self-portrait
Adobe Flash CS4

Also made some ugly things in Cinema4D this week - will upload some 3D stuff when i get decent at it (which will probably be a while...)!

We also started our Photoshop classes today - and found out that we will have to work with imported Illustrator vectors. Oh Illustrator, how you continue to haunt me...

gradient mesh: never again...

T cell migration and development in the thymus
Illustration based on research by Dr. Zuniga-Pflucker at the University of Toronto and Sunnybrook Research Institute
[Adobe Illustrator CS4]

i finally finished the Illustrator version of my immunology sketch from a while ago. i spent a good chunk of my winter holiday on it, but i wouldn't have been able to complete it if we didn't get an extension!

As painful as this project was, it really forced me to sit down and come to terms with Illustrator. i found that working on Illustrator requires a lot of thinking - there was more problem solving and trouble-shooting involved than any other drawing program i've used. i will probably never use gradient mesh like this ever again, considering it was really inefficient and colour changes were pretty much impossible once the mesh was down (besides redoing it). But i will admit there are aspects of this program i do like, and i can definitely see the value of vector vs. raster artwork.

Oh and here is my illustration in Outline Mode, as my colleagues seemed to get a kick out of it. :D



Now that first term is officially over...
Digital tools we'll be using this term: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash, Cinema4D
i am excited :)!