Medical Illustration Podcast

In this episode I’m speaking with Sana Khan, biomedical illustrator, designer and animator based in Toronto. She runs her own freelance business, SFKhanVisuals, and has been working as a Senior Medical Illustrator at Designs that Cell, Research Communications Designer at the University of Toronto, Surgical Illustrator at Credit Valley Hospital, a Fellow of the Johnson & Johnson Diversity initiative just to name a few. Show notes at: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/medical-illustration-podcast-sana-khan-interview

In this podcast I report on my experience attending the Anatomy Connected 2024 conference in Toronto Canada. If you weren’t able to attend this event, I hope I can give you a sense of the subjects covered and types of presentations. Show notes for this episode will be posted on TVASurg, in thanks for sponsoring me to attend this event: https://pie.med.utoronto.ca/TVASurg/anatomy-connected-2024/

In this interview I'm speaking with Anthony Baker, a Board-Certified medical illustrator in Columbus, Ohio. Since 2008, he has directed The Ohio State University’s Medical Visuals team, creating visuals for Ohio State health sciences faculty, physicians and researchers. View the show notes at: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/medical-illustration-podcast-anthony-baker-interview

Let’s get back into it! I’m happy to announce a new season of the medical illustration podcast! In this solo episode I’ll be giving some updates about news in the field. You can check out the show notes, with mentioned links, here: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/medical-illustration-podcast-season-2

Updates to the field of medical illustration for the summer of 2023! I chat about what I've been up to lately which includes some fine art studies, some major upcoming events both within and outside the field, and few recent snippets in science. You can check out the show notes, with mentioned links, here: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/medical-illustration-podcast-summer-2023-announcements

It's March 31st 2023, and we are still in Year Zero of AI tools being made available to the masses. These are wild times. I made an episode at the end of last year about AI art that I wanted to follow up on. So here's some recent updates and some reflections on the era of AI. Show notes here: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/ai-tools

For this episode of the Medical Illustration Podcast I’m going to give a virtual tour of my personal library of art books for figure drawing. Learning to draw the human figure well is a challenging task, but one every medical illustrator must be familiar with. Here's a collection of my favorite references for figure drawing, check out my site page for links: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/medical-illustration-podcast-figure-drawing-february

This is a podcast dedicated to the memory of legendary medical illustrator Steve Harrison (1947–2023) Show notes: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/in-memory-of-steve-harrison

In this final episode for 2022 of the Medical Illustration podcast, I share some announcements and dive into the topic of AI art and its affects on the medical illustration field. Show notes can be found here: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/final-podcast-for-2022-ai-vs-art

This is a special quick episode of the Medical Illustration podcast to announce the 2022 Vesalius Trust-a-thon team art challenge event! Joining me on this episode is Chelsea Canlas, Vice President of the Vesalius Trust. You can learn more about the Vesalius Trust and upcoming Trust-a-thon at: https://vesaliustrust.org/upcoming-events/trustathon-2022/

Andrew Swift is well-known throughout the profession as a prolific medical illustrator. After graduating from the Georgia program in 1999, he went on to be an Associate Professor there for the next decade and helped to train a generation of highly skilled medical illustrators. He’s been an active member of the Association of Medical Illustrators and presents regularly at the annual meetings. Andrew is well-grounded in traditional art techniques and continues to draw almost every day. He’s worked extensively in ZBrush and corresponds regularly with their development team, helping that software provide the tools medical illustrators need for the types of projects we do. As the Director of Medical Science at iso-Form, he’s been actively working on a multitude of illustration and animation projects and has completed thousands of illustrations, many using a combination of techniques which we discuss. Hope you enjoy this conversation! Show notes can be found at: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/medical-illustration-podcast-andrew-swift-interview

This is a special report on the first in-person gathering of the Association of Medical Illustrators in 2 years! In this episode I comment on the conference and workshops, giving an overview of the scheduled talks and some reflections on the experience.

Mark Belan is a scientist turned illustrator and designer who specializes in scientific education and communication. Mark excels in the niche of data visualization, which is an area of scientific communication we are seeing more people in the field gravitate towards. He currently works at Visual Capitalist, a global online publisher focused on topics including markets, technology, energy and the global economy–seeking to make the world’s information more accessible by highlighting the bigger picture through data-driven visuals. Check out the show notes at: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/medical-illustration-podcast-mark-belan-interview

This is an interview with medical animator Nobles Green. Nobles has over 15 years experience working in medical and scientific animation, and is knowledgeable of numerous 3D applications and techniques. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) and helped establish and lead its Diversity Committee, which strives to increase diverse and inclusive representation within AMI’s membership and leadership. Nobles is currently a 3D Production Manager at Elara Systems. Show notes at: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/medical-illustration-podcast-nobles-green-interview

This is a quick episode to talk about some of the online resources available for learning the fundamentals of medical illustration. Check out the show notes at https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/learning-medical-illustration-online

In this episode I talk about variations on the theme of ownership–how it relates to originality, authenticity, professionalism, and the very literal ownership of intellectual property. All important topics for the professional medical illustrator. You can find the show notes and links at http://PKVisualization.com

Mesa Schumacher graduated from the Johns Hopkins Art as Applied to Medicine program in 2015. She specializes in medical and scientific visual storytelling, and her impressive portfolio includes many of the niche specializations in our industry including medical and natural science illustration, 2D and 3D animations, 3D models, infographics, sculpture and photography just to name a few. In this conversation we talk about her experiences at archeological sites, the strengths and differences between traditional and digital art, getting into the field, building good work habits, networking, living abroad, working from home, how the role of medical and scientific illustrators has changed over time, sciart everydays, the freelancer lifestyle, the Association of Medical Illustrators, time management and productivity, and nurturing a growth mindset.

This is an interview with Chilean medical illustrator Alfredo Torres Parra. He is also a dentist and anatomy teacher. In this conversation Alfredo talks about how he creates his illustrations using Procreate, the work he’s done for KenHub, and what he’s learned from his experiences of teaching human anatomy.

This is an interview with medical illustrator, CEO and Co-founder of BioRender, Shizuka Aoki. A graduate of the Johns Hopkins Art as Applied to Medicine program and a board certified medical illustrator, Shizuka is well-known for her masterful illustrations and has published numerous works in National Geographic and Scientific American. BioRender has quickly emerged in the scientific visualization space as one of the most powerful tools for scientific image-making. With thousands of pre-made icons and templates to work from, BioRender aims to save scientists countless hours and improve their communications so they can devote more time to their life-saving research. In this conversation we talk about her early career journey, how she came to pivot from illustration to running a company, and how she’s been able to grow her business in challenging times. Check out the show notes at: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/medical-illustration-podcast-shizuka-aoki-interview

This is an interview with Michael Hickman, Senior Technical 3D Artist at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Michael is a whiz in all the technical aspects of high-end 3D production and an active contributor on the Association of Medical Illustrator’s members HUB forum, where he’s posted several articles about emerging trends in the tech sector that will affect the future of the field of medical illustration. In this episode of the Medical Illustration Podcast, we chat about some of these advances and workflows for high-end medical animation studios and 3D medical visualizers. The opinions expressed in the podcast are those of Michael and do not reflect those of his employer. Show notes can be found at: https://www.pkvisualization.com/post/medical-illustration-podcast-michael-hickman-interview