(Above: Bert Oppenheim) The AMI includes professional visualizers who create artwork that shows what is going on inside the body. The artwork must be scientifically accurate and clear in its explanatory purpose, for people's lives often depend on it.
The images appear in textbooks, magazines, courtrooms, museums, digital readers, and doctor's offices. These days, most of the work is digital, including 2D, 3D, and animation. About half of the 2000 trained practitioners are self-employed.
The field also includes paleoart and art for the veterinary sciences. Above is AMI member Dino Pulerá, MSc.BMC, sketching from a dinosaur fossil, photo courtesy Science Magazine.
Members have traveled from as far away as Russia to attend this convention, but most hail from the USA and Canada. The handful of universities that offer accredited graduate programs in biomedical illustration include Georgia Health Sciences University, University of Illinois, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and the University of Toronto.
The training includes rigorous work not only in traditional and digital rendering techniques, but also in dissection and an array of life science studies. It's a very interesting field for young artists to consider if they are looking for something that combines art and science.
Thanks, AMI, for inviting me and for being such great hosts and workshop attendees!
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Association of Medical Illustrators.
AMI's FAQ
List of graduate programs
Read about how Dino Pulerá turned his zoology major into an art career.
Previously on GurneyJourney:
Frank Netter's Medical Illustrations,
RIT Illustration,
Guild of Natural Science Illustration
