Microbial Magic

The season of giving will soon be upon us so I thought I this would be a great opportunity to search the web and curate a mini exhibition of the anatomically awesome things that people create! For the first of this series lets start small, with some microbes!

Society6 is one of the sites I joined last year to help promote my work. And through it I have been able to find a variety of fresh yet talented artists:

Microbe 1 by Veronica Martinis

 

Microbe Family by AMOSLIDE

(And I am not quite sure what this is, but I like it too  … )

Microbes are also quite fashionable:

Bacteria – Thousands Of ‘Em (Pink) by Chayground

Histoplasma Capsulatum by Yours Truely 😉 ( Autumn Kulaga )

Retro Amoeba Earrings by LemantulaDesigns

 

Or maybe you know someone that appreciates more tangible objects. You know grown adults searching for “collectables” ( a.k.a desk toys) .

Bacteriophage T7 Model

Shapeways is an amazing site bringing 3D printing and prototyping capability to the masses.

4c9o by Virtox

E-coli Toxin by Anthromod

 

And of course we can’t forget about the more commonly known plush microbes. Cuddly enough for an infant, even the bed bug is adorable!

Bed Bug Plush

 

Alicia Watkins is an Etsy Vendor who will create any one of a variety of microbes by cross stitch:

Microbes cross stitch set by Alicia Watkins

Or perhaps you are crafty enough to try out some of her patterns yourself?!

 

Know of any other microbial wonders? Feel free to share in the comments of this post!

Origination

Origination == Generating an Original Idea;

This is sometimes the most stifling part of the process. When the only limitation is “visualize a physiological process”, your choices still seem endless. With so much interesting information to choose from, I usually find it hard to stick with a topic. For two of my classes my final assignment is to illustrate a whole, or part of a, physiological process. This post is of sketches for each class.

–Illustration Techniques —

The final will be painted in Photoshop or Corel painter. The focus is to use color to define form and present a mood. I chose the release of Epinephrine and Norepinephrine from Chromaffin cells in the Adrenal medulla.

–3D–

For my 3D class the objective is to build, texture, light and composite render a 3D environment of the process or event. While we had to opportunity to pick the same process, I chose something different. It took me a while to come up with an idea I liked. What I struggled through most was ‘seeing’ microscopically.

I finally chose these little guys:

Giardia Intestinalis.  Infestation of the bacteria occurs because it is somehow ingested in cyst form. Once the cyst gets into an the small intestines, conditions are and the cyst’s outer shell breaks down. The bacteria then become active. Giardia intestinalis have optical discs which adhere them to the endothelial lining of an animal’s small intestines. They then outcompete the host’s absorption of nutrients. Symptoms include but are not limited to diarrhea and vomiting ( doesn’t sound fun ).

The following are sketches that I am going to keep rendering. I want to get a better understanding of the form of the bacteria, and how they interact with their environment. Once I pin down a sketch I will generate some value and color schemes to get a better idea of what I want going on in the scene.