Nephron forests...in colour!

For pathology illustration class, we were asked to come up with a couple of different colour palettes for our midterm sketches in preparation for our final illustrations. I actually really enjoy colour studies, but this was during a period of tight deadlines and stress. Feeling pressed for time and rather uninspired, I turned to some of my favourite artists for inspiration (aka raided DeviantArt, a site I no longer frequent, but remains chock full of eye-candy!)

My first attempt was based on OeffeO's beautiful piece Dream State


My second study resulted from a sad attempt to colourize my grayscale midterm sketch...


My last study was based on loish's whimsical illustration, glow

Pathology colour studies
Graphite + Adobe Photoshop CS4

I'm not sure which colour palette I'm going to go with for my final. I'm leaning towards either the first or third option!

Making babies! (Final chapter)

Here are my final illustration boards on medical malpractice case (part II for case background):

Maternal-fetal relationships during labour
Graphite + Adobe Photoshop CS4 + Illustrator CS4

In my (limited) experience, getting through the drafting stage where you're working out all the nitty-gritty scientific details (especially important in medical legal visualization) usually presents the greatest challenges. After all of the research, critiques, and verification of scientific accuracy, rendering is usually where I can relax a bit. But surprisingly, I ran into a lot of difficulty with this project.

As a friend pointed out, I tend to use flatter colours with low-moderate contrast (reminiscent of the anime drawing habits I'll never escape!). So I had many issues with capturing the depth of the birth canal and pelvis. Anyway, I tried my best to remedy that with darker shadows and greater contrast. It's something I need to work on!

For those who are interested, here are some progress shots:


You know you're on the road to becoming a medical illustrator when you feel no awkwardness from spending hours rendering up that inferior view lol!

Maya modeling month!

Over the past few weeks, I've come to appreciate how much planning (and trial and error) is involved with modeling. I scrapped countless numbers of models due to poor planning. But that's part of the process - or so I'm told!

Here are my category 1 (bones) and 2 (surgical tools) models for class. My category 3 model is too crappy to be viewed at the moment haha. ;) These will be properly textured and thrown into turntable animations by the beginning of December!


On the topic of texturing, I've also been learning about materials and UV mapping. For class, we had to map photos onto our hand models. It honestly creeps me out a little bit... and by a little bit, I mean a lot...

I had a lot of fun with texturing this teapot! 8D


And here I am, up to no good in Photoshop! I've learned that seams are very difficult to deal with...


November is going to be a busy month - deadlines approaching...