Most of my designs are just the central cartoon figure. This is basically laziness. I kid myself that it’s all to do with simplicity of the main image, not wanting to add unnecessary detail or just that I can’t draw backgrounds. Really though it’s because creating an effective background, simple or detailed, takes a lot […]
This design came about by accident. I’d been working for a long time on a detailed picture of an astrocyte in a garage as an analogy for synaptic repair. The challenge I set myself was to do a full composition, not just a cartoon cell. Backgrounds are not my strong point. In one version I’d […]
I can’t really claim a deep interest in manga as the inspiration for this and much as I like Japanese artists like Hokusai (my toilet wall is a giant mural of the Great Wave) neither is his influence evident here. I’m afraid the reality is that I was a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja […]
Trying to weigh up the relative importance of different types of neuron is pretty much a waste of time. Despite this many neuroscientists have their favourites, just as many geneticists have their favourite gene and I imagine astronomers have their favourite galaxy. Some will glory in finding the most obscure or quirky example, some will […]
Every developing axon has a specific target that it wants to reach such as a motor neuron growing to a certain muscle. However, the axon does not the luxury of a video feed: when it leaves the spinal cord it cannot see its target which might be a muscle at the end of a limb. […]
This cartoon is a close relative of Neurons vs Glia, I’d been using Superglue as a tongue in cheek slide title in the same talk. One time when I was reviewing them a superhero glial cell flew out at me. Normally I don’t draw cells with proper hands. Partly because hands are hard to draw […]
My first venture into the flickering world of GIFs. Animation brings infinite possibilities but as many overenthusiastic Powerpoint users have found to their cost, just because you can do something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Effective animation is a highly skilled artform in its own right, as beautifully explained in the classic Animator’s Survival […]
This is by far the bestseller in my RedBubble store it’s very popular as a sticker. I’d been toying with the idea of a steampunk brain for a while and this was the result. Despite its success I’ve tried redrawing it several times in slightly different styles – this one was done by hand and […]
When the electrical signal carried by a nerve reaches the end of the cell there is a physical gap before the next nerve cell. To maintain the connection, neurotransmitters, such as glutamate or serotonin, are released by the electrical impulse. These diffuse across the gap, called a synapse, and bind to receptors on the next […]
The final part of the trilogy after part 1 and part 2.. I’m pleased with Sylvester’s chin and eyebrows and the slight grin of triumph as the montage reaches its climax! Rocky! Rocky!! ROCKY!!! And if you’ve got the tune stuck in your head now, my work here is done… This design is available on […]