Building a Kidney From Scratch
We have become accustomed to viewing health and science information as flat, vector graphics. Undoubtedly, this is clean and efficient! There is just something the feels organic about traditional sculpture when trying to communicate human anatomy…
To mix things up a little, I engaged in polymer clay work to create a detailed kidney sculpture as the feature of a mixed media kidney anatomy and physiology poster.
Accuracy is key, so keeping multiple reference images open of human kidney bisections, was essential. Using beautifully displayed AR and VR human organ prosections by The HIVE (UBC), surgical photos and Acland’s Video Atlas of Human Anatomy, I was able to visualize detailed kidney anatomy, colour and scale. Once sculpted, baked, and painted, I photographed the sculpture with lighting that would lend itself well to a final poster display.