Myasthenia Gravis at the Neuromuscular Junction How To

8/7/2019 Myasthenia Gravis at the Neuromuscular Junction How To

1/9

Adobe Illusraor CS5 How-To Guide

From his home ouside Kansas Ciy, Missouri, Mark M. Miller runs a

medical illusraion business ha caers o a variey of naional and

inernaional cliens, and depics a wide range of medical, biological,

scienific, and veerinary subjecs. From exbook illusraion o online

medical resources, Mark creaes visually amazing insrucional maerials

in line, one, and color, using boh radiional media and his Mac.

An early ineres in boh ar and medicine led Mark o combine a BFA in

Fine Ar wih an MA from he Deparmen of Ar as Applied o Medicine

a he Johns Hopkins Universiy School of Medicine, where he

subsequenly held a faculy posiion for a number of years. Upon seling

in Missouri, Marks business has grown and he can be found hard a work

in his aic off ice when hes no casing cusom concree rocks on his

propery or aking a break a he pub. Laughing, Mark old us ha his

experience sculping and casing prosheic ears and eyes is coming in

handy wih his new landscaping projec.

Adobe IllusraorCS5How-To Guide

Myasthenia Gravis

at the Neuromuscular Junctionby Mark M. Miller


2/9

2Adobe Illusraor CS5 How-To Guide

How I work

For me, illusraion begins wih a love of science. I excies me

ha wih each new projec I have an opporuniy o pass on a

lile of my passion o he audience.

The way I work depends upon he subjec. If is a sraigh-

forward anaomical drawing, hen I jump righ ino he skech

wih pencil on paper afer reviewing he subjec hrough

various exs ha I have in my office. If is a subjec requiring

more creaiviy such as an ediorial illusraion, hen i worksbes if I allow a few days o ruminae on he subjec, leing he

bes conceps arise sponaneously.

For his projec I waned o focus on subcellular or molecular

processes because hese are excellen subjecs for Adobe

Illusraor. Highly complex organic molecules can be reduced o

heir visual essence o make complex ineracions easy o

appreciae and undersand. Using vecors, he elemens in he

ar can be easily manipulaed and used repeaedly, speeding

he creaion process.

Wha is Myashenia Gravis?

Myashenia gravis is a chronic auoimmune disease ha causes varying degrees oweakness o he skeleal muscles o he body.

Tis arwork depics a microscopic view o a neuromuscular juncion, where he longarm (he axon) o a single nerve cell comes ino conac wih a muscle cell.

Normally, when a nerve impulse ravels down he axon o he neuron, i releasesa chemical called aceylcholine a his juncion. Te chemical moves across

he open space and ataches o recepors in he muscle cell membrane. Teserecepors, having received his chemical signal, now open a channel which allows

sodium o fow ino he muscle cell. Te sodium hen riggers muscle conracion.

Wih MG, anibodies atach o hese recepors, blocking he aceylcholine, hus hesignal is no relayed o he muscle and he muscle can conrac.


3/9


Geting sared wih anibodies

I firs scanned my rough skech, hen placed i on a new

Illusraor arboard, using a separae arboard for he creaion

of complex elemens such as hese anibody molecules.

For he anibodies, I impored raser ar from anoher projec.

In Illusraor, I used Live Trace wih he Color 16 prese o

creae vecors for a single molecule. I expanded and

ungrouped he arwork o ge rid of cas shadows, and used

he Eraser ool o clean up he perimeer of he shape.

Te elemens in his illusraion are he nervecell a he op, and he muscle cell a he botom

showing recepors embedded in he cell wall.


4/9


For color variaions I used Live Color, messing

around in he Recolor Ar panel o change he

enire scheme of he colors all a once.

Then I used he Free Transform ool o change

he anibody shapes and he Illusraor 3D

Effecs o roae he shapes in perspecive.

I saved a variey of differenly-shaped and

disored anibodies o use laer.

My primary goal as a medical illustrator is simple,

and that is to teach. An aesthetically pleasing medical

illustration is a ailure i it doesnt portray the sciencein an accurate and understandable manner.

However, thats not to say that a medical or scientic

illustration cant be both beautiul and efectively

instructionalthis is what I strive or.


5/9


Recepor molecules

Nex up was o creae recepor molecule shapes. The new Shape Builder ool urned ou

o be he perfec way o join and remove areas o creae he wrench-like shapes ha

represen he halves of he recepor molecule.

I sared by drawing a hick verical line using he Line Segmen ool, wih a widh of 60

poins and wih rounded ends. I used he new Widh ool o modify he line o vary he

sroke widh and make more of a eardrop shape. I drew one large circle on op and wo

more congruen circles, using Smar Guides o align hem wih he oher shapes. I henunied he shapes o creae a single shape ha looks somewha like a wrench.

I was hen easy o roae and reflec he shapes o make he oher side and creae he

connecing shapes using ellipses and he Shape Builder ool.

I creaed he green surfaces using he Mesh ool, going for a 3D look on he wo wrench

shapes, wih a highligh, a shadow, and refleced ligh. I filled he cenral channel wih a

linear gradien.

Recepor molecule ops

These are he green buon-looking shapes siing onop of he muscle cell membrane surface.

I sared by creaing an oval a he op of he recepor

cell objecs for reference, sizing i o encircle he pars

ha I waned o show above he membrane. I used he

Shape Builder ool o rim away he pars I didn wan.

Using he 3D effecs ools in Illusraor, I revolved he

shapes o creae he 3D disk objecs.

I finished he recepor ops off by applying a drop

shadow effec o each of hem and posiioning hem on

he muscle cell membrane surface.

Science:Recepor molecules res in he cellmembrane wih one end ouside hecell and he oher on he inside. heyac as gaes o selecively allow, ordisallow, cerain oher molecules oener he muscle cell.


6/9


Science:Cell membranes have a

classic, well-deinedsrucure, wih molecular

heads on he ouside o hemembrane, and leg-like

molecules on he inerior.

Membrane molecules

For he muscle membrane cross-secion, I creaed he closely se seriesof molecules. I sared wih he Blob Brush ool, using i o make wo

rows of organic blob shapes, nudging hem close ogeher and aligning

hem o he edges of a box used as a guide.

I creaed a 3-color radial gradien for each of he

blob heads and posiioned he highligh a he

upper lef corner.

For he legs of he molecule I used a 9-poin

round calligraphic brush and drew wo legs per

head. I did his in Draw Behind mode.

I colored he legs wih a suble highligh usinghe pencil ool and added a in of purple color.

To easily duplicae he molecules, I defined he

group of 18 heads and legs as a paern swach.

I creaed a paern brush wih i and sroked i

along a pah drawn wih he pen ool o creae

he cell membrane, scaling he paern o fi.

To se off he membrane, I backed i wih a solid

dark blue shape o conras agains he

membrane legs, and I finished by adding a drop

shadow effec o he enire membrane.


7/9


Science:A miochondrion is aorganelle ha providesenergy or he cell.

Science:he par o he musclecell membrane where

he nerve cell axonaaches is a sligh

depression, or cle.Chemicals, called

neuroransmiers,low rom he nerve

cell o he muscle cellhrough his cle

Muscle cell cyoplasm

On a layer beneah he membrane and recepor

layers, I made a shape using he Pen ool and filled i

wih a dark blue color. This layer was duplicaed and

se o 25% ransparency for use laer o modulae he

appearance of he cyoplasm.

Using he Brisle Brush shape of a fla fan, I made

large srokes wih a sligh in of he blue o give he

cyoplasm a painerly, organic feel.

Membrane depression

For he ligher colored dished area, I drew a shape

and filled i wih purple. Using he Mesh ool, I

creaed a gradien mesh o modulae he surface

and adjused he mesh manually o ge he look

of dimension.

Miochondrion

The miochondrion in he lower lef corner was

drawn wih he Pen ool and objecs cu ou using he

Shape Builder ool. I added linear gradiens wih he

ransparency of each gradien adjused o help hemiochondrion blend ino he blue background.

Science:A cell is like a bag illed

wih luid. he bag iselis he membrane and heluid is called cyoplasm.


8/9


Neuron, he nerve cell

For he neuron membrane, I drew a pahwih he Pen ool, using my skech as an

approximae guide. I used he Widh ool o

modulae he widh of he edge o give i a

more organic shape.

I gave he neuron membrane a dark yellow

fill, added an inner glow effec, and

deepened he color o a brown. I hen

duplicaed he membrane o creae a shape

for he inside of he nerve cell, giving his a

ligh yellow fill and hree effecs: wo inner

glows and one grainy, clumped exure.

For he ouside of he nerve cell, I creaed a

gradien mesh, added mesh poins and

adjused he gradiens o give he nerve a

3D volume. I repeaed his for each of he

neuron axon segmens as hey appear o

move away ino he disance.

I really enjoyed the Shape Builder tool,

which is intuitive and very useul in creating

complex objects out o simple shapes.


9/9

Adobe Systems Incorporated

345 Park AvenueSan Jose, CA 95110-2704USAwww.adobe.com

Adobe, he Adobe logo, Illusraor, and Phooshop are rademarks of Adobe Sysems Incorporaed in he Unied Saes and/or oher counries.

All oher rademarks are he propery of heir respecive owners. 2010 Adobe Sysems Incorporaed. All righs reserve d. 4/10

Far background

I drew he neuron body in he far background a he upper righ using he Pen ool.

For he dendries (he spidery legs), I used a pressure-sensiive brush firs, hen hand

sroked he pahs and joined he branches ogeher.

The background gradien from yellowish a lef o deep blue a righ was creaed on

a couple of layers and has he exure of an arisic sponge. One Illusraor feaure

ha was imporan for his area was Recolor Arwork, which I used o change he

color of all he background layers a once o ge a richer, cooler shade.

Foreground elemens

The foreground conains a number of differen molecular elemens. These are he

endosomes, which are he orange ellipses inside he neuron. They conain

aceylcholine, represened by small orange spheres. Due o heir small size, I creaed

hese by sacking a few successively smaller, ined spheres on each oher raher han

using gradiens. I hen made he spheres ino a symbol and used he Symbol Sprayer

ool o spray hem ino he gap beween he cells and ino he larger endosomes.

I hen duplicaed he anibodies presened earlier in his guide and placed hem

where I waned hem; roaing, resizing, and adjusing heir ransparency.

For he las sep, I added he arrows and used he new arrowhead conrols in

he Srokes panel o scale he arrowheads quickly and posiion hem o finish

off he composiion.

Myasthenia Gravis at the

Neuromuscular Junctionwas commissioned by Adobe and

creaed using Adobe Illusraor CS5.

For more information

Produc deails:www.adobe.com/illustrator

Documents

Myasthenia Gravis at the Neuromuscular Junction How To