Concentration #8 2nd Picture

I added more contrast, but I'm still not quite pleased with it.

Concentration #8

This painting depicts Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or more commonly known as Brittle Bones Disease. A person with this disease has weak bones that fracture easily due to half the normal amount of collagen. While researching for this piece I was inspired by old medical journals that doctors would fill with their observations, so the first layer on my canvas is torn paper. I found a book that had really old, golden pages and the color makes a good background and the text adds linear texture. Next I added the skeletons in pencil, charcoal, and a little acrylic for more intense white. The molecules are collagen and the section depicting Brittle Bones Disease has one, rather than two, collagen molecules to represent half the normal amount of collagen. To visually tie together the bottom skeleton, the single red collagen molecule, and the red set of dots in the bottom right corner, I used red. The red dots continue behind the bottom skeleton to include it in the Brittle Bones section. The dots represent bone density and I painted them in concentration structures that are very dense for the normal bone and considerably less dense for the brittle bones. One thing I plan to improve is the contrast in this piece, particularly on the skeletons - part of the problem is the light I took the picture in...I need to take another picture and maybe the contrast will be okay.

Concentration #7

This piece portrays Muscular Dystrophy. In this disorder cells are not able to produce the protein dystrophin which stabilizes muscle tissue. So the muscle cells turn into weak connective tissue. The top section of this painting shows the cells of a person with Muscular Dystrophy; the cells are faded and empty-looking. The blue strands are tangled because without dystrophin, the muscle tissue is not stable. The bottom section shows healthy muscle cells and strong muscle strands.