PLME0400: Introduction to Medical Illustration
Depiction of diseases, anatomy, medical practices and surgical procedures has been around since antiquity. Medical illustration evolved over the centuries, in parallel with advances in the medical field – it has played the role of historian, documenting the beliefs and knowledge of its time. Today, medical illustration is as present as ever – despite the advent of photography and videography.
The course aims to help students develop their visual communications skills, understand the value of didactic images and learn the role of medical illustration in creating a just healthcare environment for all.
Medspeak Illuminated (Kent State University Press 2022) is a companion book for the course.
Below is the course schedule and a reference list.
Semester Course Schedule
Week 1
History 1: Prehistory of medical illustration
Drawing instruction 1: Light & shadows
History 2: From Vesalius to Brödel
Drawing instruction 2a: Perspective
Week 2
History 2: Medical practices in art
Drawing instruction 2b: Perspective
History 3: The artist as observer
Drawing instruction 3: Values/learning to see
Week 3
Drawing instruction 4: Colors and grayscale
Drawing instructions 5: Creating a sketch
History 4: The artist as patient
Drawing instruction 6: Textures
Week 4
History 5: The shady and the sublime part 1
Field Trip: RISD Model Drawing/RISD Nature Lab
Week 5
Drawing instruction 7: Figure and organ drawing
Invited speaker: Certified Medical Illustrator
History 6: Visionary or poor vision?
Week 6
Invited speaker: Physician & Illustration Professor
Drawing instruction 8: From sketch to narrative
Invited speaker: Surgeon and artist
History 7: The shady and the sublime: part 2
Week 7
In-class discussion: Ethics and medical illustration
Invited speaker: How to illustrate an operation Invited speaker: Medical Illustrator & Doctor
Week 8
Field trip to the operating room
Week 9
Invited speaker: Diagnostic imaging and illustration
Art+Science in utero
Drawing instruction 9: Visual abstract
Invited speaker: Visual Thinking Strategies
Week 10
Field trip to the operating room
Week 11
Keynote speaker: Certified Medical Illustrator
Final Project presentations
Week 12
Keynote speaker: Certified Medical Illustrator
location
Useful references
1. Luks FI. MedSpeak Illuminated: The art and practice of medical illustration. Kent State University Press 2022. ISBN 978-1606354438.
2. Gray H, Pickering Pick T, Howden R. Gray's Anatomy. ISBN-10: 0517223651
3. Netter FH. Atlas of Human Anatomy. ISBN-10: 1455704180
4. Stone CA. Can a picture really paint a thousand words? Aest Plast Surg 24:185-191, 2000
5. Patel SK, Couldwell WT, Liu JK. Max Brödel. J Neurosurg 115:182–190, 2011
6. Liou KT, George P, Baruch JM, Luks FI. Clinical sketches. Medical Education 48:525, 2014
7. Suk I, Gokaslan ZL, Lees GP, Sandone C. The art of the critique: J BioCommunic (JBC) 36 (3): E81-E94, 2010
8. Rohde Mike. The Sketchnote Handbook. Peachpit Press 2013. ISBN-13 978-0-321-85789-7
9. TYoo TS, Bliss D, Lowekamp BC, et al Visualizing Cells and Humans in 3D. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications Sept/Oct 2012.
10. Seligmann DD, Feiner S. Specifying Composite Illustrations with Communicative Goals. Columbia University (1989)
11. Seligmann DD, Feiner S. Automated Generation of Intent-Based 3D Illustrations. Computer Graphics, Volume 25, Number 4, July 1991
12. Shadowing gone awry: http://www.postcards-from-google-earth.com/Links to an external site.
13. Budrys V. Neurological deficits in the life and works of Frida Kahlo. Eur Neurol 2006;55:4-10.
14. Strauss RM, Marzo-Ortega H. Michelangelo and medicine. J R Soc Med 2002;95:514-5
15. Ashrafian H. Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian man: a renaissance for inguinal hernias. Hernia 2011;15:593-4
16. Espinel CH. Michelangelo’s gout in a fresco by Raphael. Lancet 199:354:2149-52
17. Giuffra V, Vitiello A, Caramella D, et al. Rickets in a high social class of Renaissance Italy: the Medici children. In J Osteoarcheol 2013
18. Gruener A. Munch’s visions from within the eye. Br J Gen Pract 2014:36-7
19. Johnson HA. Gerard de Lairesse: genius among the treponemes. J R Soc Med 2004;97:301-3
20. Berger HM, de Waard F, Molenaar Y. A case of twin-to-twin transfusion in 1617. Lancet 2000;356;847-8
21. Watson T. Skeletons show rickets struck the Medici family. Nature 2013 (doi: 10.1038/nature 2013.13156)
22. Tan M, Goh S, Ashrafian H. Michelangelo’s John the Baptist and thalassemia. Ann Hematol 2013;92:1293-4
23. Wolf PL. The effects of diseases, drugs and chemicals on the creativity Arch Pathol Lab Med 2005;129:1457-64
24. Marmor MF. Ophthalmology and art: simulation of Monet's cataracts and Degas' retinal disease. Arch Ophthalmol. 2006 124:1764-9.
25. Falconieri Hays V: How I built a 3-D model of the Coronavirus for Scientific American. June 25, 2020
26. Christoph Niemann (TED Talk): Visual language
27. New York Times article: American Sign Language changes
28. Andrew Ibrahim, MD: Primer on how to create a visual abstract