The Client
Dr Buddhika Balalla is an Australian based Orthopaedic Knee Surgeon, who specialises in all aspects of knee surgery including arthroscopic (key-hole) surgery, ACL and other ligament reconstruction, partial (uni-knee) and total knee replacement, revision knee replacement and computer assisted surgery. His expertise lies in patient’s care, including assessment, surgery, and rehabilitation, and maintaining and applying the most up-to-date knowledge of current orthopaedic developments and technology.
The Project
We were approached to complete a set of medical illustrations but in a format that could be used to hang in the surgery’s waiting room. The project was to complete a series of six greyscale pencil drawings, supplied at 300dpi at A2 size, to be printed as Giclee fine art prints on cotton rag paper and framed for the walls. The drawings need to be anatomically informative, with the main purpose for the creation of beautiful, appropriate additions to the patient’s waiting room decor. For this reason it was thought the softness and subtlety of the greyscale pencil drawings would be the ideal medium. Pencil is often a very suitable medium for portraying anatomy due to its unique qualities as a medium. To see further pencil medical illustrations click on this page here.
The project brief was descriptive and the anatomy involved was to be along these lines with some flexibility:
- Shoulder joint – view of the front aspect of the shoulder showing the clavicle, scapula and upper humerus, including the rotator cuff muscles, biceps, subscap, and deltoid muscles.
- Knee joint – front view or 3/4 view without patella, showing collateral ligaments, menisci, and cruciate ligaments.
- Hand & wrist – hand and carpal bones, as well as tendons/nerves. Volar aspect more important than dorsal.
- Foot & ankle – oblique view of medial side of foot and anterior aspect, showing tib post and other tendons, ankle joint, and syndesmosis, as well as 1st metatarsophalangeal joint with tendons surrounding.
- Hip joint/pelvis (one side only) – view of hemipelvis from anterior aspect, showing hip joint, labrum, and acetabulum within femoral head, or alternatively, posterior view showing short external rotators, sciatic nerve, gluteus minimus, and medius. Possible also show blood supply to hip joint on posterior view.
- Elbow – elbow joint and ligaments, biceps tendon, triceps, and medial, radial, and ulnar, nerves.
