Resource

The CIBA Collection of Medical Illustrations, Volume 5, Heart, Frank H. Netter, M.D.

This book is amazing. Not only is it from 1969, it is beautifully illustrated with both detailed illustrations of the heart, but also technical illustrations highlighting different states, problems, and solutions of the heart.

And I LOOOOVE IT.

Mary

Arthritis Illustration

I worked on this in class today.

Excited to put the color down and start back pain!

Mary

Extra Surgery Photos

I am so lucky.

Mary

Constructive Anatomy and Migraine Pain

I forgot I had this book, and am sad to have overlooked its usefulness in the past.

Also...

Migraine pain is done!

Now onto arthritis in the hand!

What I would give for a cadaver example right now.

Mary

New and Wonderful Things!

So it's been another week, and it has been truly awesome. Exhausting, but awesome. I have a couple pictures from an eye surgery that I sat-in on, and can I honestly say that people who work at hospitals are so nice and eager to educate.

I had the pleasure of watching a cataract extraction that took about two hours. Most of it I was looking into a scope that looked directly into the surface of the eye. They had to extract all of the vitreous humor out of the eye while maintaining the pressure with water. After that, they replaced the fluid with a clear, heavy liquid that would keep the retina from detaching as well as "spot welds" with a laser. They even let me take a bunch of screen shots with the camera that was attached to the scope during surgery.

It was truly enlightening. Our inner eyes are beautiful.

Here are a few of the screen shots:

Cutting away the outer skin of the eye to get to the inside.

Stitching the outer layer of the eye back on.

The tube in the lower right is the fluid they are putting into the eye to replace the vitreous humor. It was a clear, heavy, oily substance. You can also see that they've already put a few stitches in place.

The tube in the upper right is keeping the eye pressurized as they get ready to suck out the vitreous humor. The two studs are holes that they are preparing to put their instruments into.

This surgery was so amazing, I would give anything to get back in there.

More soon!

Mary

Surgery!

Well, today I got to hang out with my awesome Father in the surgery room at Fairview Southdale Hospital and watch a cardiac artery bypass graft. I took some pictures, some video and did a few sketches. I seriously love being a part of stuff like that.

I also have THESE:

I started on the finals and hopefully with be done by tonight. I'll keep you guys posted.

There may be more soon!

EDIT:

Here are some pictures from the procedure.

Making the first incision

This is the chest cavity all opened up. The tubes are connecting to the main arteries of the heart, sending the blood flow to the Heart Lung Machine (which is what my Father works with), keeping the blood circulated. For this case they didn't stop the heart to work on it.

This little instrument is a suction cup that has a fixed arm that can lift up the heart and keep it in place. One of the arteries they were repairing was on the opposite side of the heart.

Finished repairing, so they are tying the sternum together with thick wires. after this, stitches go into the subcutaneous fat and also on the final layer of skin.

My amazing Dad and I!

There you have it!

Mary

Also!

I have a project proposal. It is as follows:

For my senior project, I would like to do a series of medical illustrations encompassing the topic of everyday aches and pains. I am interested in taking on a project that involves medical illustration not only because medical illustration has always been something that I have wanted to do, but also because I have no

t seen any work of that sort come out of MCAD. I will create a series of twelve 11”x14” illustrations, with one inch borders done in technical pen, watercolor, acrylic ink, and other various mediums. I would like to include a representation of how my interest in medical illustration began with an educational video that my Father made for my second grade class about how a heart lung machine works.

The topics that I will address will include aches and pains that revolve around muscular tension, joint pain, and disc pain, arthritis pain and for two, joint replacement. Every week, I hope to start and finish a new illustration, starting with a triptych that addresses the various locations of migraine pain on the human head. After that I will do single illustrations addressing the topics of arthritis pain, back pain, carpal tunnel pain, heart attack and fibrillation, hip and knee replacements, neck pain, foot pain and infection of the inner ear pain.

I wish to project my work to an audience

that is above the age of 19 or 20. I would hope that parents, grandparents and older siblings would be intrigued by the application of an artistic medium to something that is traditionally seen as scientific. I would also hope to reach people who are in the medical field that don’t necessarily associate art with medicine. I also understand the “gross out” factor about medical illustration, but I want to make it clear that the illustrations will not be grotesque. I simply want to show that there is a market for this kind of illustration.

The resources that I plan to investigate with this project are books that I already have in my possession or experiences that I can easily attain. Seeing as my Father works in the medical field, I have permission to join him in surgery to take pictures, video, notes and sketches of the human body and the processes and tools of the surgical process. The biggest resource that I will be using is the “Atlas of Human Anatomy and Surgery” by J.M. Bourgery and N.H. Jacob.

I plan to present my finished work in three rows of four on the wall with silver metal frames. I would like to have the surgery video that my father made with the presentation.

With this project I plan to challenge myself as well as liberate my own interests in medical illustration by clearly projecting the topic in a clear and aesthetically pleasing way.

And with my trusty book, I will be UNSTOPPABLE!

Mary

And the third and FINAL skull!

Whipped this baby up today.

Then they shall be colored and lovely soon!

Hopefully by the end of this weekend, as well as two more non-related illustrations. Whew!

Mary

Skull #2

Another Skull! This is the second in a tryptic of three!

Mary!

Migraines

Yep, this is it, the first preliminary sketch of the first illustration. I have a bunch of lists that I'm going to scan too.

So excited!

First post of my last semester!

Okay, I'm keeping this blog to keep all of my process together for my senior project at MCAD. I'll update as much as I possibly can with new research, work, process, and of course, the final product!

More to come soon!

Mary