Lazy Sunday

So I will make a long overdue post on my pen and ink assignment while I wait for my whoopie pies to cool. One of the earlier assignments we had was a traditional pen and ink assignment. The first part of the class was to pick an object and to render it with a crowquill pen. The other part of the project was to do a simple line drawing of the hand.

I chose a turtle skull and held it like scar hold the gazzelle skull in Lion King.

After that, we were to make an anatomical plate on a part of the body that interested us. I decided to concentrate on the muscles of mastication.

The superficial muscles.

The deep muscles

And last but not least, the temporalis.

I also wanted to express how much i love eggs and whoopie pies. I tend to waste a lot of time baking these days.

Eggs baked in croissant cupcakes with muenster cheese and scallions.

Carrot cake whoopie pies with cream cheese filling!

Finally... some color!

As a color exercise we were given a macro shot of some tissue and instructed to paint the photo in photoshop without using the eye dropper tool.

close up of the mesentery in the intestines.

Of course my first instinct was to try and use the eyedropper tool, BUT I WAS GOOD AND I DIDNT USE IT! I don't normally work like this in photoshop so it was pretty challenging at first. However, after the first few hours, I found the process oddly cathartic. Since I spent so much time painting this, I think I will print it at a ridiculously large size and hang in my room. But then it will probably magnify my mistakes and I may sit and obsess over all my little mistakes. Anyway.. happy lukewarm winter everyone. More updates to come.

Insert Clever Title About Alligators.

So after something like 2 months (?) of work, I can finally stop thinking about alligators. The goal of this project was to pick a specimen (one that can be easily obtained) to create a plate that describes an interesting fact about it.

Being the masochistic being that I am, I decided to go with an alligator. To obtain two alligators, I had the pleasure of digging through the Functional Anatomy department freezer. It was by the most fascinating freezer I've ever seen. Once the alligators were thawed, I had the pleasure "kalima-ing" one alligator (aka, dissecting and removing the heart) and posing the other.

I lucked out since the alligators preserved in a swimming position. All I had to do was hang the alligator and use pins to move the arms.
Then we spent a whole lot time drawing the specimen in pencil. After a while the scales started to get nauseating.
Then we took the drawing and photoshopped the background, text, and insets . The little factoid I concentrated on was the crocodylian heart anatomy. Long story short, alligator hearts are complicated and cool.

The end of this project feels like the end of an era.

Up next 3D sculpting, inked stuff, or things I waste time drawing . We'll see.

Morbid.

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying good food and family. Since I am home nursing my ever messed up vocal cords, I thought i'd take the time to share my morbid project.

Our assignment was to create an image with a first aid procedure on it. After sketching out some less morbid first aid issues like dealing with sprained ankles, I drew a couple sketches on taking care of accidental amputations and ended up doing my final on it.

The the challenge to this project was to make it as least morbid as possible. Hopefully I solved it the right way.

So since the year is almost over, I'd like to say it was a turbulent year, but it was good and humbling. I look forward to the next year and I hope everyone has a Happy New year. Till next year.

Anatomical Sketches

Sketching anatomy is the most relaxing class I've ever taken. We sat around and drew anatomy for 3 weeks. It was like a mini-vacation. Here are some highlights of this class.

Hands

Kidney

Submandibular gland and parotid gland.

Intestines

Heart (the prettiest thing in your body)

Bissected Skull

Next up, biological illustration.

What Happens When You Put a Perpetual Doodler In an Anatomy Class?

In the last seven weeks, I took the most physically and mentally draining class ever and I survived! (hooray!) Anatomy might have been the most fascinating class I have ever taken, and I feel blessed that that I had the opportunity to learn from some of the coolest people ever.

So how did I stay awake throughout the class (which started at an ungodly hour)? By doodling! There were many mornings where I mentally felt like the image below. (I was fairly good about not sleeping class. hehe)

So, since I don't have any new "real" artwork, I decided to slowly go through my notes, binder, and sketchbook to find some doodles.

My sketchbook was quite handy in learning the skull. The bones and foramina in the skull were a pain in the ass to learn, but drawing it was certainly enjoyable. The 1st image is from an atlas (Thieme) and for the 2nd image I used a mixture of a real skull and an atlas to figure out where all the little bumps and holes were.

I also doodled a ton in my binder, but most of it was just my hand relieving itself of boredom so none of it really makes sense.

One of the strangest things I noticed was that many of my drawings got weird while sitting in class.

Anyway, now that anatomy has ended, I am now auditing a biochemistry class where I am realizing very quickly that I am not very good at it. I unfortunately left my binder in my studio last night.

This is what happens when Hannah leaves her binder at home.

Hip Bone Hank and My Adventures in Anatomy

So, the first project that I was assigned at Hopkins is a 100 year old tradition that all my predecessors have done. The assignment was to draw/paint a hipbone using carbon dust. It's been a while since I've done a true technical drawing so getting used to measuring, sketching, transferring and dusting took a bit of effort.

What i've come to realize is that carbon dust may be the strangest medium I have used. It seems to be unbelievably fragile but plastic all at the same time. We called this a drawing, but it felt more like I was painting since we used paint brushes to layer on the tone.

After we finished the carbon dust drawing. We scanned it and did a computer exercise. I relearned illustrator and came realize what an awesome program it is. (prior to this exercise, I had beef with the pen tool) I decided to outline the muscular origins of the hip bone in the three different regions.

After the first two projects, we were then thrown into gross anatomy. So far it's been a bizarre experience. I was given a "bone box"(which is quite literally a box of bones) and it's been sitting in my closet for a week or so.

Now the lab portion is great and all, but the readings for this class have completely consumed my life. I spend half of my day in lecture and lab and the rest sitting in my room reading and drawing pictures of body parts.

Anatomy may consume my life and cause me anxiety almost all through out the day, but so far this class has been quite awesome and it's full of cool information.

view from my awesome studio!

About a month has passed since I've moved back and I am pleased to say that it's been better this time around. I have experienced an earthquake (which happened on the 1st day of anatomy) and will brave a hurricane in 24 hours. It's been an epic start to my semester.