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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