Ha ha…. There are few things in life that I love more than illustrating science. I don’t belong to any group of medical illustrators though this was the dream that began my career in science. I do wish I could send well wishes to long-ago-deceased Lucille Castle Innes who lived next door to me (and the family) at 5252 Windermere in Los Angeles California. It is to her that I give credit for introducing me to scientific illustration.
I remember showing her a diagram of a muscle cell, which apparently I was proud of, and that was likely a school assignment (Eagle Rock High School in the class of a woman whose name I have forgotten (I do, ha ha, think she was the archetypal spinster scientist lady-high school teacher)), but Mrs. Innes mentioned to me that I has not spelled “striated” muscle correctly. Never since have I missed that word. Ha Ha. Mrs Innes not only gave me instructions, inspiration, but also landed me my first job at White Memorial Hospital in LA where I helped sort 2×2 slides of diseases and stuff, watched my first autopsy (lordy, I remember nearly passing out) and watching her work, and receiving guidance when wanting to enroll in a medical illustration degree course (which I did, at the University of Toronto, under the directorship of Nancy Joy).
As life would have it, those aspirations of being a medical illustrator were derailed and I ended up at the University of Cincinnati, in Anatomy, but always illustrated and worked up my own graphics, earning the not so wonderful title from a less than supportive Director of Toxicology during my time in the Department of Environmental Health where I did electron microscopy aka, comparative anatomy and pathology — the Queen of Corel. By way of admission to absolutely loving a program, I have to say CorelDRAW just works for me…. ever since the very first version on 11 little pink floopies, downloaded (probably not legally) from a local print store. Since then, CorelDRAW (versions 4, 6, 10, X3 and 15 have been a life-mainstay). So very different from the hand made stippling and little circles in the first scientific illustrations I did decades ago, now it is diagrams like this one below, of an alveolar type II cell. Just loads of fun, and color appeal but still full of good scientific information.
This particular andy-warhol-style-diagram of a parenchymal cell in the lung was just a little too wild as a cover submission to submit along with my editorial on the ANATOMY OF AN ALVEOLAR TYPE II CELL DIAGRAM .
