Misperceptions in the absense of feedback

This cartoon was done for the HHMI-funded training program I talked about on July 13 and 18. The scenario depicted was inspired by actual events described to the PI on the grant by a female student. She felt that she got zero feedback from her advisor, as opposed to her male colleagues, which led her to think that he didn't even care enough about her or her project to be angry at her. More likely, he wanted data from the male student for a particular reason, but when no feedback is given, imaginations are given free reign to fill in the gaps. The training is about giving feedback, but giving it wisely, and not just to certain students. As a side note, it has obviously been awhile since I ran a column. Now that I think about it, I doubt she would have collected that many fractions in only 15 minutes without pushing air through the column. As fueled as she is by disappointment and resentment, these forces cannot contend with gravity. I may need to edit this a bit.

Girl with Bowler Hat & the North County Coastal Businessman

In an effort to ward off cabin fever, I've taken my work out of the house a couple of times this week. The work I've been doing over the past few days isn't really worth showing yet, so instead I'll show you what I did during my breaks. Because one of my current projects involves illustrating humans, it's a good time to get some fresh practice drawing people. From my perch next to the window inside a cafe, I had a great view of people sitting outside. The hardest part of doing sketches like these is the hands. Not only are hands notoriously hard to draw, they are the parts that we seem to most often move, even when we're sitting still. So cut me a little slack on the weird looking hands, they are partially drawn from memory. And lest there be any misinterpretation, that is a pen in the man's hand. The young lady is texting, I believe.

The truth about my inspiration

Like the post on July 2nd, this figure is for a systems biology textbook that a client is writing and I am glad to be involved in. For this one, he sketched out roughly what he wanted to go into it and I turned it into this. At this point we'll probably make some decisions about the style of the illustrations that will go into the book, since we'll want to keep them consistent. For instance, I've been using my two-toned shaded but sort of 2D representations of proteins. I have a few different ways of representing proteins, but when I can't use real X-ray crystal structures, this is probably my favorite. I'd like to say that my style was influenced by Picasso or Cassandre. The truth is, it is inspired by watching the cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force on TV (particularly the character Meatwad). I was looking to strike the balance between simplicity and aesthetics, and this is what happened. We'll see if it sticks.

Ever feel like a turkey?

This sketch, illustrating imposter syndrome, is in the same series as the sketch from the previous post. This training session is given broadly, but is in large part designed for teaching assistants at MIT. When I was a TA at MIT for freshman chemistry, I was surprised to find that my students were not robot geniuses speaking in a secret language of differential equations, but rather they were for the most part 18 and 19 year olds terrified of not living up to expectations. I could relate, because as a 1st year grad student, I was still a little nervous about whether or not I belonged there too. An extreme form of this is called imposter syndrome, in which one believes that he or she doesn't belong, and lives in fear of being "found out". Hence the wise but self-doubting owl in the illustration, seeing itself in the reflection as a decidedly less clever species of bird. This is why educators should be careful to use "wise criticism" when talking to struggling students, as opposed to saying things like, "So... your family must have a strong alumni connection to this school?"

Stereotype threat

Today I've been diving into one of my new projects, which is to create illustrations to accompany training materials for a course that is given to teaching assistants and professors in the sciences on stereotype threat, a term I hadn't heard of until recently. The idea is that students may underperform if they feel that instructors, advisors, or fellow students/labmates are stereotyping them, whether they are or they aren't. For example, I might worry that a potential client isn't taking me seriously because I am a woman, because I am small (which makes me seem younger than I am), or because my last name suggests that I might have just come from the pub. As the sketch above depicts, some fMRI studies suggest that there is actually an increase in blood flow from the portion of the brain responsible for logic and reasoning to the region associated with emotional response when subjects are under stereotype threat. From there it's pretty obvious to see why it might be harder to learn chemistry or make progress on their thesis projects. More on this soon.

Transcription factor figure gets a makeover

Before:

After:

Frankly, those boxy boxes were doing nothing for fnr's figure, and DNA is so obviously an autumn, not a spring. (Hello? Has it never had its colors done?) Finally, notice how highlighting the mechanism really brought out its function. And how does the subject feel about its new look? "Like a million copies." <cue groans>

Yum, sugar. Nom Nom Nom.

Here is just a sliver of a project I've been working on. Just like us humans, this simplest of all unicellular organisms, Mycoplasms genitalium, converts glucose into energy and metabolites that feed into all of its cellular processes. This bug has clearly never heard of the Atkin's diet, but might laugh at us for snubbing such a useful source of fuel, if it had a mouth and a sense of humor.

Free Paintings

It's almost moving day, and I need to let go of some old paintings. I'm finally ready to admit to myself that I'm never going to do anything with them, and they don't need to sit in a box at the back of another closet for another 5 years. So here is where I'll say farewell to them, and if anyone wants them, they are up for grabs. Otherwise they'll be tossed by the weekend. For the first two, which are self portraits, I had big plans of selling them to restaurants or bars to be used on their ladies' room doors.  The problem is that I never got around to pairing them with counterparts for men's rooms. I tried to get my male friends to take photos along this same theme in men's rooms. and a couple of brave ones did, but the photos didn't really turn out. So, I'm throwing in the towel on this ill-conceived project.

Finally, I have no idea where the inspiration from this painting came from. I don't even do abstract art. It just sort of happened shortly after I moved to San Diego.

All of these are 18x24-in (estimated - the tape measure is packed) oil paintings on treated foam board, so shipping wouldn't put you out much if you'd like to make one of them yours!

Update on Monday, June 20, 2011 at 08:01PM by Mary

Believe it or not, these found a home before making it to the dumpster!

Final-ish poster for Ocean Discovery Institute

As a follow-up to the April 17th and May 5th posts, here is the nearly finished product. I'm still waiting for the final comments, but they seem pleased so the final product will look something like this. I'm working on touch-ups still while I wait. I have to remember that it's going to be a 36x24-in poster, so any little stray marks or mistakes will be glaringly obvious. The clients wanted this poster to be very simple, which makes it harder for these little gremlins to hide. This must be how actors felt once HD television came along and everyone got 60-inch TV sets. (Admittedly, the audience of this poster may be a smidge smaller.)

Scenes from NYC

Just came back from a great long weekend in New York (Long Island and the city), and sadly, as usual, forgot to take photos. But I did discover a new place for sketching people. Aside from the jerkiness of the ride, and thus the sketch, the subway is great for catching people engrossed in a book, their own thoughts, or a sketchbook of their own (from left to right, respectively). The last panel is a minor highlight of the trip. While in The Strand bookstore, I came across this signed copy of the first novel by one of my favorite writers. I read it about 10 years ago, and lost my copy of it in a move about 6 years ago. Shteyngart lives in NYC and had signed some of his books for The Strand, a stroke of luck for me which at first seemed second only to stumbling on an actual book signing. On further consideration, I realized that this was actually better, since I'm not now obsessing about some stupid thing I would have certainly said to him.

Now that I'm back to work, I'm excited about a couple of new projects: illustrating a training booklet for general chemistry teaching assistants at MIT, and illustrating a systems biology textbook. More on those soon!

That's so Raven

After the longest hiatus this sketch blog has ever taken, here is a painting of a raven I did after watching a Nature channel program about how ridiculously smart these crafty birds are. A bit off topic, but I hope you enjoy!

In the heat of the fusion

Untitled from Mary O'Reilly on Vimeo.

This is an animation I made for my Chem151 students, but was foiled from showing it yesterday, the second to last lecture of the semester, because for the first time, the cord that connects my computer to the projector was missing from the classroom. It wasn't a big deal to do the lecture on the white board - it was mostly working through problems - but I did mention that I was bummed that I couldn't show the animation I made for them. After a collective "Aww..", they offered to all (40 of them) gather around my laptop to watch it. They also eagerly offered to act it out. (This came from a class months ago when they were having a hard time grasping orbital hybridization, so I got some volunteers to act out hybridization and then the p-p and sp-sp orbital overlaps of the carbon-carbon triple bond of an alkyne.) I should say though, that all of this came after their initial hopefulness as I searched the room for the cord. "Does this mean class is canceled?"  They are awesome, but they are human after all.

4th-6th grade clients prove most challenging

As an update to the sketch I posted on April 17th, here is the result of today's efforts to digitize and make some progress on this project for the Ocean Discovery Institute. It will be a 24x36-in poster that will be taken into 4th-6th grade classes as a visual aid to explain how our everyday use of electricity is linked to release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It needs to be simple and clear, but convey a lot of information. I spent the better part of the afternoon on this, and was disappointed by how little I got done.  As the Santa Ana winds blow in hot air and malaise* over southern California, I must not be the only one struggling to get work done, but we are the last ones allowed to complain about the weather.

*Interesting finding today: Santa Ana winds set a particular fungus to sail on the winds, which can lead to flu-like symptoms or worse if it really takes hold in a person. It has also been suggested to be associated with the "weird" feelings that people report having during the Santa Ana winds. Sure, why not.

The Head and the Heart

This image describes the same work as the image in the previous post, but with this one I tried to follow the style that appears on many of the covers in this journal. This version depicts how the researchers used proteomes from the brains and hearts of mice to demonstrate the specificity and potency of a serine hydrolase inhibitor in a complex system. The Head and the Heart is just a band I saw on a re-run of Conan that I watched last night, and I kind of liked them. It seemed like a better title for the post than "Alternate cover art design" zzz...

Cover art project

This may be my favorite type of project. Given an accepted manuscript, I'm asked to come up with designs that might be chosen by the journal's editors to represent the article on the cover of that issue.  The risk is that they may not choose to use it, so I will come up with a few different designs (will post a second version soon). The article is about how a small library of electrophilic triazole urea-based compounds, made with the help of click chemistry, revealed three very specific inhibitors of three different serine hydrolases. One even showed great potency and selectivity in mice. It's pretty remarkable considering how similarly these hydrolases look and act, but nothing a little clever chemistry couldn't overcome.

Ocean Discovery Institute project

Right now I'm working on a project for the Ocean Discovery Institute here in San Diego, an organization that "uses science exploration to engage urban and diverse young people in three ways: education, scientific research and environmental stewardship". My job is to make visual aids that they can take into the classroom as part of the education arm. This is just a small thumbnail sketch for a 24x36" poster that is meant to describe how using electricity at home is linked to releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It's part of a project students will do that involves them tracking their electricity use at home and making changes to reduce it. My next poster will probably describe "vampire electricity". Bit of a departure from my usual work, but an interesting project. And yes, I am aware that the light switch is twice the size of this kid's head. It's a thumbnail, okay??

I miss you, Command Z

I have never missed a deadline, but one of my clients has been very patient with me. He's used to it though, he's my Dad. About four years ago, I painted a landscape that he requested, but it was so large I had to check it when I flew home with it. That was the last I saw of that painting. I had very little motivation to do it again after the airline lost it, but Dad and I agreed on a barter about a year ago. He built a bookshelf that I requested (see awesome equation bookshelf below).

In return, I am repeating my original project.  Not to be foiled again, I am painting 5 (maybe 6) small paintings that I can ship easily or carry on the plane in one or two bundles.  Doing it this way opened up a possibility that I actually like better - the paintings comprise a panorama of the landscape, but each represents a different season and/or different time of the day.

I was glad to find some time recently to work on these, though it's been a while since I've picked up a paintbrush and I'm remembering how much harder it is to work without the ability to "undo" whenever I want. Oh, Command Z, how I've taken you for granted.



This is Anginex

Here's the final version of the image for the Functional Glycomics Gateway update, which I sent off on Monday. When I ran the draft by the writer of the piece for some feedback on Friday (see April 1st post), she loved it for its reminiscence of "80's metal" - an unintended but totally gnarly result.  We both agreed that that could be toned down a little, zooming in a little more on the binding site and shrinking the equilibrium arrows. I like it better this way, and now that it's done I can get down to the business of expanding my market to 80's metal tribute bands. Led Zepagain t-shirt anyone?

Chemistry Poetry Book is Out!!

Just under a year ago I was at the Miracle of Science (a bar in Cambridge, MA) with a couple of old grad school friends, telling them about my new science illustration business, when one of them said, "I should get you together with my friend Mala. She's looking for someone to illustrate her chemistry poetry". And thus started our nearly year-long adventure that has now culminated in the release of "Atomic Romances, Molecular Dances", a comprehensive collection of her hilarious and educational poems. I've added a gallery of all of the illustrations with excerpts to go with them here, and the book itself is available for purchase here. In a couple of months it will also be available from Amazon.com. For now it is available from the publisher directly, Lulu.com, at a discounted price ($11.21).

From sketches to a draft

Here's where I am on the illustration for the Functional Glycomics Gateway highlight (see last post). It's not due until the 5th so I think I'll chew on it over the weekend.

This is roughly the size at which it'll appear in the piece.  The hardest part was spending days doing the hand and eye-breaking work of perfecting the shading of the galectin-1 protein structures. All that time I spent learning how to draw shaded spheres has really paid off and I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

(Yes, you guessed it, I rendered Galectin-1 using VMD molecular visualization software*. There's your pitiful April fool's day prank.)

*Humphrey, W., Dalke, A. and Schulten, K., "VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics" J. Molec. Graphics 1996, 14.1, 33-38.