When Gayle Gross de Núñez took a peek into a microscope during a mandatory lab class, she changed the course of her career. She turned her back on her liberal-arts degree to learn more about the science behind the miniature universe that first beguiled her. With her scientific curiosity satisfied, she later returned to her arts background to combine both of her passions to pursue a career illustrating the microscopic world (see 'Painting the brain').
Scientific illustration — once relegated to a few niche jobs at a handful of publishing houses and museums — is now evolving and growing. New tools in computer-based design and illustration are speeding up a once painstaking process — and making it cheaper into the bargain. And advances in animation and three-dimensional visualization are taking scientific illustration beyond the confines of the textbook and the museum wall. In addition to eye-popping graphics for science magazines, textbooks and sundry publications, scientifically accurate illustrations are also needed for legal presentations and forensics. Even more lucratively, the health and pharmaceutical industries have seized on high-end three-dimensional graphics and animation for surgical training, web-based education and marketing.
But finding steady work requires more than just artistic flare. Most work is done on short- to mid-term contracts, and on a freelance basis. So beyond artistic skill, fledgling scientific illustrators require Internet savvy and an ability to market themselves. About 40% of the 600-member-strong Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI), based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are freelance, says the association's president, Marcia Hartsock. Ray Evans, science illustrator and treasurer of the European Association of Medical and Scientific Illustrators (AEIMS), says that networking among colleagues and promoting their work to potential clients are necessary survival skill for illustrators.
Like most editors of science publications, Ed Bell, art director of Scientific American, relies on some 20–40 freelancers with different specializations to meet the needs of his multidisciplinary magazine, as it has no staff illustrators. "When illustrations become challenging, these artists can talk to scientists directly," says Bell, noting that a scientific background is important because the artists need to understand what they are trying to depict, as well as how to communicate with writers and editors.
New-wave niches
HURD STUDIOS 2003
Computer-generated illustration showing cells responsible for breaking down bone.
Although there is still a place for the hand-drawn botanical, anatomical and entomological renderings of yesteryear, most of the current demand in scientific illustration springs from the digital and online worlds. The general market for illustrators is very competitive, says Bell, but there is still room for artists who can handle science to carve themselves a niche — particularly because science is so specialized. Understanding the fundamentals of biology enables a scientific illustrator to translate complex findings into intuitively understood images.
A scientific background can help an artist find a niche in the traditional publishing world, but the biggest growth in work is in professions such as law, marketing, education and entertainment. But to break into these sectors, budding scientific illustrators must expand their palette beyond pen and ink, brush and canvas. Acumen in computer animation and three-dimensional rendering are now prerequisite skills for many jobs, says Bill Glass, director of medical modelling and illustration at Immersion Technologies in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He develops three-dimensional simulators used to train healthcare professionals on the latest medical procedures.
Once an illustrator combines their artistic skills and scientific background with the latest computational tools, doors to new career corridors may open. Take law, for instance. From medical malpractice to personal injury, illustrations are needed to explain complicated medical concepts to jurors. "Sometimes you really need animation to explain a progression of events," says Bob Shepherd, vice-president of MediVisuals in Richmond, Virginia, adding that sophisticated animations increase jurors' recall of facts.
The role of the medical artist is getting much wider.
Caroline Wilkinson
And forensics, an offshoot of law and criminal justice, is also benefiting by merging sculpture with three-dimensional rendering. This means that a medical illustrator or sculptor can now find work in facial reconstruction, to assist in surgeries, as well as in forensics and archaeological work. "The role of the medical artist is getting much wider," says Caroline Wilkinson, who does facial reconstructions at the Unit of Art in Medicine at the University of Manchester, UK.
An animated option
Perhaps the biggest growth area is animating how drugs work in the body — either for advertising or for educating patients. "Animation is a way to bring terms to life — that's a very powerful educational medium to reinforce learning," says former drug-industry executive Eleanor O'Rangers, now vice-president and group scientific supervisor at Phase Five Communications, a medical-education company in New York. She says that once created, animated pieces can be repackaged and used in several different public-relations capacities.
Jane Hurd, president of New York-based visual-science agency Hurd Communications, says that increased computing power and the Internet have fuelled a plethora of new venues to showcase high-end three-dimensional animations for the drug industry. "Everything we do now is heavy in cell biology and molecular biology, describing how new pharmaceutical products work," she says. Hurd thinks of her role as content developer as well as animator.
Most scientific illustrators tend to start out proficient in either science or art, and there are increasing opportunities for them to hone the rest of their craft in graduate training programmes, a number of which are now emerging. These tend to take quite different approaches from each other. The University of Manchester's Unit of Art in Medicine, for example, has its roots in developing medical, surgical or anatomical education materials and teaches art. But students at a two-year programme at the Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, tend to start out with an art and painting background and learn the science.
The science-illustration programme at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is one of the few globally to have a broader purview than medical illustration. It places more emphasis on professional skills. The one-year programme emphasizes learning computer techniques and three-dimensional animation, and is followed by an internship at venues such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California or the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
But how can you afford such training — especially when there are few accredited programmes and virtually no guarantee that completing one will get you a full-time job? Although funded studentships are almost nonexistent in this field globally, the Vesalius Trust, a non-profit organization based in Kildeer, Illinois, funds the training of a few scientist-artists to conduct innovative education and research in the health sciences.
Most industry insiders recommend formal training, although many succeed without it. Gross de Núñez and a colleague took on their first video project without either of them having a clue about medical illustration. They learned three-dimensional animation on the fly, finished the project and kept hustling for work. Whether artist-turned-scientist or scientist-turned-artist, illustrators armed with the right mix of artistic and technological tools can make a masterpiece of their career.
Painting the brain
Formally, Gayle Gross de Núñez describes her art as interpretive histology, but more often than not she refers to it as brainpainting. "The artwork begins with the lab work," she says. In general, Gross de Núñez begins by dissecting brain tissue — in What the Waters Brought Forth, below, she has used cells from an an embryonic zebrafish brain. Using the tissue as a canvas, and the dyes and reagents from histology as her background paints, she can then add her interpretive flourishes and incorporate her artistic vision.
G. GROSS DE NÚÑEZ 2005