MEDICAL ILLUSTRATION INTERNSHIP

Journal of the American Medical Association

 
 
 

ABOUT

This illustration was inspired by an article discussing the microvascular anatomy of the non-lobulated liver of Xenopus laevis, or the African clawed frog, which were studied by scanning electron microscopy of vascular casts. It was published as the cover of the February issue of the Anatomical Record on January 12, 2022.

Format: Journal Article Figure

Software: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

CHECK OUT THE ARTICLE

JAMA. 2022;327(12):1194. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.0786


Research and Ideation

To begin this project, I skimmed through the different articles to get an idea of what they were discussing, did some of my own research, and spent a little time thinking about how I would represent each of these topics visually. I eventually selected the article that most inspired me. For this article, my first thought was to highlight the species being studied. Then, looking at the provided electron microscopy images, I thought about how vasculature is reminiscent of trees and vines. With that idea in mind, I decided to have the vasculature transition into the natural environment of the frog.

Sketches

 

Visual References