Friday 5 January 2007

A Difference in Illustration

You wouldn't draw pictures more suited for a teenager with a story for small children and you wouldn't illustrate a book for adults with illustrations suited for small children. Each subject needs to be complimented in a different way. The same is true for the different aspects of Anatomy.

There are several different areas that use anatomical illustrations.

Anatomy
Pathology
Surgery

Like my example of the children stories each area needs to be treated differently with its approach. Anatomy is the "Description of the interior of a perfectly formed body". Pathology shows "What can go wrong" and Surgery shows techniques i.e. "how to heal the body".

Because of this the illustrations or diagrams accompanying each area are profoundly different. Pathological ones are disconnected with the body and are preserved or illustrated plainly. Pathological illustrations are a catalogue of abnormalities, disease, atrophy and malfunction.
Surgical illustrations need to show technicalities or a method of procedure. The subject is often passive or victim to the overlaid hands and tools.
Anatomical artworks are used to illustrate the wonder of the human body. They are devices used to intrigue, beguile and astonish us.

Art is powerful.

"A Picture tells a thousand words"

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