Sketches: Journeying to the Brain Underbelly

Boy oh boy. This is going to be a long one.

It all started with a seemingly simple neuro assignment: depicting the cerebrum or the brainstem from two perspectives. Looking at the project description, I thought, what if you can do everything the project asks for in ONE illustration?

When the weather is cold and slimy, a walk to UofT’s anatomy museum just feels far. So instead, I stayed cooped up in our Mississauga workspace and stared at some models:

I was happy with the concept and sketch, then I proceeded to the photoshop render. Comes the deadline of the assignment and this is what I submitted:

Spring critique rolls around. The more I looked at what I handed in, the more I wanted to change it. I had a better idea of how everything fits together after a semester of neuro. The direction of the corona radiata looked weird? Change it. The cerebral peduncles looked pasted on and modular? Change it. The general shading of the cortex looked too schematic? Change it. Emphasize the shading of the orbit. Clarify the structures that have been removed.

 

 

It was the night before the spring critique. I was reasonably content with the progress of the illustration. “Interesting. I’ve never seen a brain in this orientation before.” Someone commented. “Something is still off though, I need to look at more references.”

“The way you rendered the white fiber around the thalamus is interesting. Why not do the same thing for the cortex?” Another suggested.

“The optic chiasm looks weird. So does the cross-section.”

“You definitely need to look at more actual specimens.”

I went back to Grant’s museum and focused on specimens that showed how the diencephalon is connected to the cortex. On the model, you see a vacant space for where the 4th ventricle is –– and it looks awkward as hell when you add some depth shading to it. Looking at the sketches of the human specimens, I decided that I can either render the entire internal capsule or render the basal ganglia overlapping the thalamus to avoid showing that awkward, sans-cerebral-spinal-fluid black gap.

I also made maquettes with sculpey polymer clay to help me draw and shade the caudate nucleus.

This current render is the closest to what I had envisioned while sketching the first draft. Could it be better? Absolutely. But, for now, I’m letting my brain rest from looking at brains.