Skin piece

Here is my final graphic chunk of skin I did.  I think it is so great that as a medical illustrator, I can just create images of the human body just for fun.  Piece of skin, ear anatomy, liver...really the world is my oyster. 

Piece of skin

I just watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation the other day (Netflix I curse you!) and...I wonder if this illustration was subconsciously influenced by that.  I hope not, because it was literally, literally, one of the worst films I have ever seen in my life.  Starring Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey strangely enough, but it was still so terrible.  However, it could be put in the 'it's so bad it's good' category, along the lines of Honey starring Jessica Alba, and Glitter starring Mariah Carey.  While wikipedia-ing Mariah Carey for the name of the film Glitter, there was a note that, "She made her film debut as an opera singer in the romantic comedy The Bachelor (1999), starring Chris O'Donnell and Renée Zellweger." Renee Zellweger again! Weird. Actually, maybe not that weird.

Off topic. I started this illustration as a base for my new portfolio website design.  I want to finish this before I start the actual creation of the website, so here is a shot of it so far.  It was suppose to be a quick job but in reality all "small illustrations" take a good amount of time.  I do want it to be very graphic looking, drop-shadows and all, light and fun. You can click the image for a slight enlargement.

Current Events

So what's up?  What's up with you?

As always, I am redesigning my website.  Trying to create the whole thing in Flash because of my increasing familiarity with the program, or maybe just incorporate some aspects of Flash within the overall design.  I don't know yet, I have to investigate and see how it works out.

In the meantime, I am reading a VONDERFUL book, Between a rock and a hard place, by Aron Ralston. He is the guy that had to free himself from a boulder he got pinned under by amputating his lower right arm using a dull swiss army-type tool. Very insane I know. 

Film soon.  I happen to have low expectations of this book to film adaptation, only because I was deeply offended by Sean Penn's adaptation of Into the Wild, an amazing book by Jon Krakauer which I loved. However, it seems to be common knowledge that once you read a book, the film typically never stands up to your personal interpretation of it.  However, I will probably see 127 Hours when it comes out.  Just to see.


Via wikipedia:

British film director Danny Boyle is currently working on the film 127 Hours about the true story of Ralston.^[12] Filming is expected to take place in March of 2010, with a release date scheduled for late 2010. Fox Searchlight will be funding the film.^[13] Actor James Franco will play Ralston.^[14]

Vector Illustrations

Here are a couple medical vector objects I did for my research project on Sex Reassignment Surgery - a foley catheter and a dilator (you can click to enlarge).

U-Needa Italian Ices

So...I was asked by my crazy cousin Laura if I would be create a logo for her Italian Ice business she was opening up this summer.  I said sure thing, and although I created it under the spell of the flu, it came out alright.  She sent me a very very undeveloped sketch of an idea of what she wanted, which ended up helping me out tremendously.

My newly designed portfolio!

I am going to see a band tonight that I love, plus I finished my new portfolio design and creation (simple simple simple) so I am a happy fool!

http://www2.uic.edu/~rbetts2/index.html

My final pieces

Hey ya'll here are my finished pieces for my independent study, yah!  They are done, and I am happy.  Click to enlarge, if you're into that.

Half good.

Here is YET another project I am working on for my independent study.  My independent study needs to be 4-5 complex projects - this satisfies a 'half' credit so it didn't need to be too intense of a final project.  I still have work to do on it - the eyebrow leaves much to be desired, but overall it's going smoothly. I will be showing John it on Thursday for the first time, so we'll see what he suggests then - eek.  The main focus was the textured iris so the when I post the final, I will have to zoom in on that portion.  Woop!

'It's like people only do things because they get paid, and that's just really sad.'

Here is a detail of yet another piece for my independent study with John, my professor.  The final whole piece has 3 vertebrae, not just one and a half, but I figured here I could zoom in on the part I like, the spinal cord and nerve roots.  Will post final when complete!

::GASP::

Here is another :not quite: finished piece for my independent study.  Midsagittal section of the male reproductive anatomy.  I did a sketch for my research project, and decided to Photoshop it as one of my independent study final pieces.  A tad more work to do on it, but overall doing this was a very educational experience due to all the textures I had to create in Photoshop.  I love Photoshop, yah!

Nip it in the bud

I want you all to know that that is the first and last time I will ever be using a saying such as the title of this post, 'nip it in the bud.'  I don't know why I did this time, I guess it just felt right...anyways, this is the start to one of my pieces for my independent study I am doing this semester with my excellent professor John Daugherty.  He wanted to push my use of color, especially with bones, since I tend to go a little 'muddy' with my darks...I will be layering muscles and tendons on this bone base of the foot, so we will see how it goes.

UIC AHS Inaugural Vivette R. Rifkin Memorial Seminar

Hey so, I was offered an opportunity to paint a portrait of Vivette R. Rifkin, a woman who recorded books and textbooks for her blind daughter so as to not allow her disability to hinder her education, for a memorial seminar event coming up at UIC.  Close to completion, here she is.  Below is the information for the event:


You’re invited to the UIC College of Applied Health Sciences’
Inaugural Vivette R. Rifkin Memorial Seminar

****  COGNITIVE DISABILITY AND TECHNOLOGY
IN AN ERA OF ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY ****

Presented by David Braddock, PhD
Executive Director, Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disability
University of Colorado

DATE: Wednesday, March 31
TIME: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
LOCATION: Student Center West, Chicago Rooms, 828 S. Wolcott Ave.

Lunch will be served.

Admission is FREE and open to all, but please make a reservation by Fri., March 26, by visitingwww.ahs.uic.edu .

Female reproductive anatomy

Here is another vector image I did, le female, duh!  You should probably click to enlarge.

Inner male reproductive anatomy

Self explanatory!  ::click to enlarge::    

This must be fiction.

"This must be fiction."  The first thing I thought when I read the synopsis for the book being featured for a UIC book club.  I couldn't believe the story, but really, who am I kidding? 

I have yet to begin reading 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks', by Rebecca Skloot, for the UIC Urban Allied Health Academy Spring 2010 Book Group that I just joined, but I cannot wait to start.  Here is a brief summary:

"HeLa cells (named for Henrietta Lacks), which were removed from Mrs. Lacks during a biopsy and cultured without her permission, have helped build thousands of careers, not to mention more than 60,000 scientific studies, revealing the secrets of everything from aging and cancer to mosquito mating and the cellular effects of working in sewers.  Yet her family remained unaware of Mrs. Lack's contribution to science for over 20 years.

In “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” Rebecca Skloot introduces us to the “real live woman,” the children who survived her, and the interplay of race, poverty, science and one of the most important medical discoveries of the last 100 years."

A quote from the book's jacket that I think is perfect, "Deborah (Henrietta's daughter) ... was devastated to learn about her mother's cells.  Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells?  And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn't her children afford health insurance?" Here is a link to the more detailed New York Times review.

Basically, right up my alley. 

Digital design.

This is an icon I did for a professor who wanted to update 'the look' of a course focusing on Digital Design.  This is actually the alternate version of the icon; the original is a more painterly, Photoshopped image which was the one they actually used for the course.  I did this vector graphic style as another option, but ended up liking it more than the one used.  Oh well.

Old Illustrator work

        

Old Illustrator work.  When I was first introduced to the program, I chose to do some friends and family, vector style.  Highly underdeveloped, but they hold a special place in my heart.  I remember doing them and yelling, 'This is so much fun!!' which, it was.

What is it? I don't know.

Here is a doodle creature of some sort I created and colored, that I obviously found charming enough to share on the internet with my name attached to it. Go figure. Why post it? Why not I guess...

Ima kick you.

As some of you will know, I judge people by their footwear. I do. I know it's bad, but so far it is my most fail-safe mode of judging. Instead of looking at clothes, hair, overall style, I go straight for the kicks. It is a flaw that was deeply embedded in me by my Long Island, slightly ghetto, urban-mixed-with-suburbia upbringing. What can I say, home is where the heart is. On this note, I decided to share some of my most recent spray-painted 'projects.' I have been spray-painting my Nikes for about...7 years now, and only recently was seriously hindered by my move to Chicago, where buying spray-paint is illegal. Yeah I know. Apparently you can purchase paint in real suburbia Chicago, but I don't got a car. So. I went to the internets and bought a beautiful shade of baby-blue paint, which I only recently got to use with a freshly bought pair of all-black Nikes I received as a Christmas present. Upon asking friends and family, "Do you think I should paint them?" with the collective voice screaming, "NO!" I was hesitant to deflower an already beautifully simple pair of kicks. However, I found myself not embracing the new sneakers, largely in part because they weren't painted. I felt odd wearing a pair I haven't 'made my own.' Therefore, the images you will see are of my new masterpieces (maybe not masterpieces but I definitely dig them). Along with the all-black pair, you will see I was somewhat racist and only went for the all-white uptowns, which of course, I highly regret now. I did wear the hell out of those things, until they were literally unsafe and unhealthy to wear anymore, so couldn't have been too shabby. But with the all-black ones, the contrast you can get is hard to resist. The thing I love about the whole spray-paint effect is the level of control of paint I can get, along with the inherent chaos that is produced by the nature of spray paint.  I tend to repaint them as they age and lose color, but the layers of color and chipping that is achieved by this only enhances the crazy colorful, organic look of them, which I love.  They constantly evolve by wear and tear.  A natural degradation that can't be mimicked any other way.  Anyways, after spilling my life journey in regards to my sneakers, have a peak at some of my new, and very old, painted sneaks.

My partners in crime.

Erin Stevens. She alright.

Here is a link to my friend's portfolio that I coded and designed.  There are a few sections missing (Bio and Anaplastology) but this not on my end.  ::Ehem::  Erin needs to send me the stuff, but the website is live, woop!

Cover your eyes children!

So I am actually updating!  Insane, I know.  No, what's insane is the amount of work I have to do in order to graduate this May...Listen I don't want to talk about it, ok?  Here is a screen grab of a piece I am working on for a few things.  I cannot disclose that information at this point, you will just have to keep checking my blog to find out.  Anyways, the point is to show the inner anatomy in relation to the outer anatomy, so the bladder (which has not been worked on, hence the flat look of it) and the prostate gland, testes, etc. will all be slightly transparent under the outside skin.  The images are damn desaturated and not nearly complete, but you get the point.  I really like how the scrotum came out, so I included an image with and without the testes and epididymis (the pink slug-like object resting on the testes).  Off we go.

Final tumor.

My final edited tumor.

Another one.

I edited this baby as well.

Quick job, but came out splendidly!

I kicked my ass to get some work done this break, so I used a line drawing of the brain I did last year to serve as the base of a photoshop painting of a brain.  It's nice to create something you're proud of, especially when you did it in about 24 hours!  Yowza.

Snap shot from final Maya twin project

Photoshop touched up and edited, ready to go. (click to enlarge) 

Render passes.

Here are a few shots of my Maya twins together...these are old, so my final probably will look slightly different, but I do love the depth of field effect I got here.  These were snap shots so the depth of field was easy (as in just 'checking' depth of field attribute) but I need to figure out how to get the depth of field effect with a motion camera.