AWESOME POSSUM!

IT'S HERE!

The cover of Awesome Possum volume 3     

I got my copy of Awesome Possum volume 3 in the mail yesterday. It is over 300 pages of natural history goodness! Stephen Bissette (yes that Stephen Bissette) inked the cover designed by Angela Boyle. Angela also happens to be the editor.

Surprise! Cats like birds and squirrels.

My contribution is a sketch of an anatomized opossum and a shark (each on the subway) as well as A Pictorial Anatomy of the Denizens of Manhattan's East Village, Gramercy Park, and Stuyvesant Town. Yes it's a bit wordy but I like old pamphlets with titles that take up the entire cover. 

This project gave me an excuse to buy A Dissection Guide and Atlas to the Rat and a couple of tomes on vertebrate anatomy.

PERSONALIZED PICTORIAL ANATOMY

POCHI FROM FANTASTIC COMICS
You've seen Pictorial Anatomy of the Cute. You've seen Pictorial Anatomy of 007. You've seen New Linea Alba, which is essentially a "Pictorial Anatomy of Kriota". Now you can commission your own customized Pictorial Anatomy Drawing!

Who had the honor of being the first to be immortalized in all their muscular glory? The adorable dog Pochi at Fantastic Comics, that's who!

Here's the photo I picked to work with from the Friends of Fantastic Comics Tumblr.

I made a series of sketches locating Pochi's skeleton through all that fur. Glad he had a haircut! Once I had the skeleton laid down I worked in the muscles to fit his bony frame. I had to keep a list of what was what and where.

Then I retraced the line work, colored, and voila!

Pochi approves!

Zoey is jealous.

Want to give that special someone a gift they'll never forget? Say "I love you" or "Happy Vesalius's Birthday" with an anatomized portrait! I love doing commissions. You can message me on Facebook or Kriota (at) earthlink (dot) net.

NOTES FROM VESALIUS 500 - Part 2

It's the incredible day that can't be contained in one blog post! So here we are for Part 2! (Yes, it took awhile, but waiting builds discipline.)

SKETCHBOOK DRAWINGS FROM PANELS
For the rest of my Vesalius 500 day I attended some excellent panels, and took my sketchbook. Good luck reading my writing! Good luck reading my drawing! If you are looking for some form of linear narrative, you are screwed. I usually start drawing in the upper left corner, work my way in pseudo left-to-right rows down the page, and then start cramming additional comments and illustrations up the right side. Eventually I just put anything extra wherever it will fit and create relationships that may not have been discussed in the presentation. Despite all that, I find other people's sketchbooks interesting. Here are my pages...

MK Czerwiec and Ian Williams gave a presentation about Graphic Medicine (comics with medical/patient/caregiver themes) and its evolution as a website, a transformative and creative practice, a teaching tool, and their personal relationships to comics and medicine.

Lisa Rosner, author of The Anatomy Murders, spoke about her discoveries in researching the lives of the notorious Burke and Hare and their victims. She described the culture of 1830's medical education, the premium on bodies for dissection, and the method by which B and H killed their victims. Then she went on to describe the ways in which the press misdirected the general public in their understanding of who their victims were, as in Mary Patterson was NOT a prostitute. For some reason I've been interested in the circumstances leading up to the Anatomy Act of 1832 so this was a "treat" (if such things are treats!)

Alice Dreger spoke about Fascinomas, pathologies or conditions that evoke fascination in the medical community. She also talked about the evolution of medical representation, the myriad messages behind anonymizing patient photographs, and towards the end rocked my world with a dismissal of the feminist dismissal of Vesalius' illustration of a vagina. Kudos, Alice! 

NEW LINEA ALBA

STARTED IN 2011 AND FINISHED IN 2014

New Linea Alba 

While recovering from abdominal surgery in October of 2013 (I'm fine!) I decided to drag up an anatomical illustration self-portrait project that had been sitting on my shelf for a couple years. You might notice that this is my hairstyle from awhile back. I was compelled to finish it with my updated anatomy and memorialize my new scar. I scanned a page from a relatively "ancient" paperback of Shakespeare plays for the background to add antiqued "authenticity."

A scan of the original image, page 24 of the book.

New LInea Alba is based on an anatomical plate published in the early 17th century. The plate belonged to a deceased (at the time of publication) and prominent anatomist named Guilio Cesare Casseri. The artists making the plates were Odoardo Fialetti and Franceso Valesio. The book this illustration is found in De humani corporis fabrica libri decem was authored by Adriaan van de Spiegel. Confused? You don't have to be! Visit my favorite website, Historical Anatomies On The Web to discover a treasure trove of... well exactly what it sounds like. Plus bibliographic and biographic information on the authors. It's the best!

NEEDLEWORK IN "THE INTIMA"

An image of my needlepoint Root Canal has been published in the Spring 2013 edition of The Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine. The theme running through this latest volume is the concept of vantage points and the biases and and experiences that each one of us brings to the medical experience.

Here's the link for The Intima.

HIPPOCAMPI

Finally, I've finished inking a project (started in July) that I did in Saul Chernick's class, Drawing From The Bestiary at The Observatory. For more praise of the course and to see an anatomy project done in class, visit my Equine Time post.

You'll notice the pun-ish use of very brainy looking brain coral, since the hippocampus is not only a part of the brain but also a mythological half horse, half fish creature. In this case I cheated and made the hindquarters of these "sea-horses" from eels. Making this drawing really satisfied my inner 13-year-old girly-horse-crush!

PALPATION ON THURSDAY AUGUST 9

This summer I've been taking Minerva Durhams figure drawing class on Thursday mornings at Spring Studio, 64 Spring Street, NYC, from 9:30 am-12:30 pm. Minerva is an excellent artist/anatomist and gives small presentations between rounds of figure drawing. She really knows her stuff and is endlessly entertaining. She can draw a pelvis - without reference - UPSIDE DOWN! 

This Thursday, August 9th, I'm going to do a little 30 minute demo on palpating bony landmarks of the upper extremity. We'll look at the organization of the bones and joints in the shoulder, arm, and hand, define the movements that occur at the joints between said bones, fine bony prominences and joints on ourselves, and I'll show them on the model. Then you'll get to practice drawing from a model while keeping that half hour whirlwind tour in the front of your mind.

These are some of the pencil sketches I've been doing in Minerva's class. They are maddeningly pink. My camera did not like my lighting. You'll see some anatomical errors. I was working without reference, and some of them are 5 minute drawings. I love Minerva's classes classes because she gives you permission to emphasize anatomy over the external figure, if that's what you want to do. And of course I do.

EQUINE TIME

This past month I have been taking Saul Chernick's class, "Drawing from the Bestiary: Animal Anatomy of Real and Imagined Creatures" as a part of the Morbid Anatomy Art Academy. I've had a great time! Saul is an excellent instructor and gave great suggestions and feedback on my work. One of the brilliant projects we did was to make articulated skeletons of an animal of our choice. Since I've taught some comparative horse anatomy, I chose a horse. Making the puppet is a great way to introduce students to the workings of bones and joints. We made rigid "bone" shapes from bristol, creating joints with tiny fasteners to make a moveable animal. 

Although every joint is basically a hinge on the puppet, creating the animal-as-skeleton helps reinforce the rigidity of the skeletal system and the idea that even the most basic movement requires the coordination of multiple joints. 

Saul brought his camera to class and we all made simple stop action animation gif-things (yeah, I know) with the puppets. Admittedly I could use a tutorial from Muybridge, but my kicking horse will never tire!

SELECT BODY PARTS

A small selection of anatomical illustrations...

Cuts of meat (Just for fun!)

Hamstrings

Anterior thigh musculature

Saggital section of the knee

A random kidney

ANATOMICAL ASANAS

From my knee/yoga phase...

Virabhadrasana Two

Gomukhasana, anterior

Gomukasana, posterior

Dhanurasana, deeper knee musculature

Dhanurasana, middle layer musculature

Dhanurasana, most superficial layer

COMPARATIVE ANATOMY

Here are some comparative anatomy sketches and illustrations I made for the Drawing Workshop 1 class at the Center for Cartoon Studies. (Co-taught with the fabulous Steve Bissette!)

We used this human leg and bird leg comparison for our chicken knee dissection. The leg on the far right is an approximation of a human leg organized to bird proportions.

My comparative human/horse anatomy is an homage to (or mash-up of) illustrator Jack Hamm and photographer Eadweard Muybridge.