Pencils, not scalpels, were the tools of choice at Tulane University as undergraduate art students led a medical illustration workshop in the Center for Anatomical and Movement Sciences. The workshop, which was on April 15, was the second session of a collaboration between the schools of Liberal Arts and Science and Engineering.
Senior studio art majors Owen Canter and Carmen Alcocer started the workshops last fall. The most recent session was led by Canter and Rosalind Meaux, a sophomore neuroscience major and studio art minor who will take over the program when Canter and Alcocer graduate this spring.
The collaboration began when Canter and Alcocer emailed CAMS director Dimitri Papadopoulos, hoping to observe a class and sketch alongside students.
“There’s this cadaver lab on campus undergraduates use … to study and dissect [anatomy],” Canter said. “I thought, how cool would it be to go draw there?”
The idea has historical precedent. Many famous artists dissected human bodies to better understand the forms they were trying to depict. Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical drawings, featured in the workshop’s opening presentation, are foundational to modern medicine.
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Tulane students work on anatomical drawings.
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Tulane students work on anatomical drawings.
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A student creates an anatomical drawing of a hand.
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Students work on drawings in the Tulane Center for Anatomical and Movement Sciences.
With time, Canter and Alcocer imagined a bigger project: a collaboration between art and anatomy students in the form of a lab.
Eight biomedical engineers and pre-clinical students who are pursuing careers in medicine, nursing, physical therapy and dentistry attended the session. After a 30-minute presentation on technique and history, they moved to the cadavers with clipboards, pencils and erasers, choosing structures to draw.
Canter and Meaux taught a three-step process: finding form, building light and shadow, then adding surface texture and detail. They framed the goal as functional, not artistic. In CAMS, where photography is not permitted, drawing is how students take home what they see in the lab.
“Bad drawings are not something to be embarrassed of,” Canter told students. “We’re not trying to be Picassos here. We’re trying to be accurate notetakers.”
Fabian Clifford, a neuroscience master’s student, drew the back of a hand and forearm. He said the exercise reframed structures he thought he knew.
“I can point to [the structure I drew] and describe it with my eyes closed,” Clifford said. “But looking at it and trying to draw it is a completely different story. You learn to look at things [from] a perspective … you’ve never had before.”
For Canter, the workshops brought a longtime interest in medical illustration into focus.
“I always had this interest in anatomy and a wish to use my [art skills] to bridge the gap between those two fields,” he said. “[The workshops] made me realize this could be real.”