I am reconstructing Charles Bell’s engraving of the dorsal view of the brain, embellished with watercolor and published in the volume The Anatomy of the Brain, Explained in a Series of Engravings. I chose this image not only because I love studying neuroanatomy, but also because I found this image aesthetically beautiful with the soft washes of color and the subject’s posture. These illustrations may have been intended for medical students or educated people interested in anatomy that also have an appreciation for art. We can identify all the materials needed to make it because the illustrators themselves have classified their materials, and the collections that currently house Charles Bells’ work also records the medium.It is possible that Bell may have used different brands of watercolor or ink, as well different types of paper that may have been composed of different materials (e.g. wood, animal fiber, fabric, etc.) 

As thorough as Bell was in his work, his illustrations are still susceptible to time, as ink, watercolor, and paper will all fade over time. Conservation of the original works are required to preserve their quality. To create this work, we will need ink and pen, watercolors, and paper. While it is likely that I will never be able to get ahold of the animal-fiber watercolor brushes, nibbed pens, and inks and papers made from mostly natural materials, there are modern equivalents of these tools that will give roughly the same results — e.g. synthetic watercolors + inks, and ink pens. 

I started sketching the outline with pencil by securing my poster board paper with masking tape onto my laptop screen. I made sure to shade the outlines of the shadows as well, so that it would be easier for me to color in the details later. After I finished the outline and shading, I blended the cross hatches with my finger/a q-tip to soften the pencil lines so that the shading lines would not stand out against the translucent watercolor. I colored in the image with watercolor, but I found that the image was too blurry and ill-defined. I decided to define and further shade the illustration with colored pencils, which emphasized the details and further heightened the color contrasts. Unfortunately, the top layer of the paper (on the right side of the painting) tore off and resulted in a rough, pilling texture. I was reluctant to paint or color over that unevenly textured section, so I just left that area uncolored.

Technological changes will impact our interpretation of the image in that the photography and scanning technologies that we use to replicate the images for distribution fail to capture the subtle textures surface variations inherent in non-digital pieces. Therefore, it is harder to see the warps, scribbles, and even small mistakes in the pieces.

 

FIELD NOTE 1 OF 3

• Date: 2/10/2022
• People Involved: Elaine Le
• Location: At home
• Reconstruction conditions: Indoors during the late afternoon (natural daylight) to evening (artificial light) (on a large dining table in the living room)
• Time and duration of reconstruction: 5:30PM – 7:15PM
• Equipment and tools used: 
  • Ruler
  • Masking tape
  • Pencil
  • Scissors
  • Poster board paper
  • Laptop screen (for tracing)
  • Eraser
  • Pencil sharpener
• Subjective factors, e.g., how things smelled/looked/felt:
  • Pencil lead smudged the paper, giving it a slightly faded, clouded look
  • Parts of the paper felt rough because the masking tape accidentally pulled off a patch of the top layer
  • As the pencil I used wore out, the lines began to get thicker and darker
  • As the sun set, I had to rely more on my lamp that emitted a warm light, which I did not like as it offered less contrast than natural sunlight and made it harder to trace fine detail
  • The ink pen that I used felt smoother than the ink nibbed pens that 19th century artists had at their disposal; dispensed more ink
  • Got graphite dust on the side of my hand
  • Eating snacks will get the paper dirty 🙁
• Prior knowledge that you have: 
  • One of the topics that interests me the most in neuroscience is general neuroanatomy, since it is the gateway for neuroscience for many people. Here, Bell’s work depicts the superior view of the brain, with the dura mater exposed. I also like how clearly the two hemispheres of the brain are distinguished.
• Reflection on your practice: 
  • Watercolors layered on top of the type of ink pen I am using (even when the ink is dry) will smear; Should outline with pencil first, color with watercolors, then outline with ink on top!
  • Vary drawing instrument pressure to produce thicker/thinner lines
  • Use masking tape to secure the image to the screen while tracing
  • Fine details of the branches are hard to capture, especially if I zoom in too much on the digital image and the pixels become blurry
  • Place a napkin under your hand when doing the initial outline to avoid blurring the lines/getting your hand dirty
  • Because I am right-handed, work from left to right to avoid blurring/getting hand dirty
  • Make sure to also refer to original image while inking over final outline.
  • Don’t eat while doing this…
• Photos/video documenting process: 
  • 
• Questions that arise: 
  • How long did it take Bell to create this illustration, considering that his equipment was probably harder to use than mine?
  • Did not having electric lights affect the times that they had to work on these? Did they have to rely on candlelight?
  • How did they replicate the original works for printing in books?
  • Did Bell create these works as part of a commission? Did he create these out of intellectual interest, for education purposes, for payment?

 

FIELD NOTE 2 OF 3

• Date: 2/11/2022
• People Involved: Elaine Le
• Location: At home
• Reconstruction conditions: Indoors during the evening with artificial light (on a large dining table in the living room)
• Time and duration of reconstruction: 7:30PM – 8:40PM 
• Equipment and tools used:
  • Ruler
  • Masking tape
  • Pencil
  • Scissors
  • Poster board paper
  • Laptop screen (for tracing)
  • Eraser
  • Pencil sharpener
  • Q-tips
  • Colored pencils
• Subjective factors, e.g., how things smelled/looked/felt:
  • Hand was sticky from snack (did not learn from last time)
  • Intentionally blend the shading so that the pencil marks did not show as much when I did the watercoloring — used fingers, q-tips
  • Trying to erase/blend over the patches that had their top layer torn off would result in a very uneven, unpleasant speckled texture that stood out from the rest of the illustration
• Prior knowledge that you have: 
  • Because I study and conduct research in neuroscience, I am familiar with the neuroanatomy of the brain from various angles. I can recognize the dura mater and pattern of blood vessels on the surface of the brain.
• Reflection on your practice: 
  • Don’t place masking paper on so much of the paper so that if removing the tape does take the top layer of the paper off, it will probably take less off
  • Edit the saturation/contrast of picture to make it easier to trace
• Photos/video documenting process: 
  • 
• Questions that arise: 
  • How did the illustrator deal with mistakes in their work (e.g. blots, etc.)
  • How did the illustrator decide on what medium to use? Why use watercolors instead of pastels, oil paint, crayons, etc.?
  • If Bell used a real cadaver as his reference, how long was he able to refer to the model, considering that it was unlikely that the cadaver was embalmed at this time in history? (Embalming only became popular for funerals during the Civil War, and it is unlikely that medical cadavers would have been embalmed for dissection during the early 19th century.)

 

FIELD NOTE 3 OF 3

• Date: 2/12/2022
• People Involved: Elaine Le
• Location: At home
• Reconstruction conditions: Indoors in natural daylight, then artificial light (on a large dining table in the living room)
• Time and duration of reconstruction: 12:20PM – 1:30PM and again 5:30PM – 6:45pm
• Equipment and tools used:
  • Ruler
  • Masking tape
  • Pencil
  • Scissors
  • Poster board paper
  • Laptop screen (for tracing)
  • Eraser
  • Pencil sharpener
  • Q-tips
  • Colored pencils
• Prior knowledge that you have: 
  • The brain may have varying coloration based on the conditions from which it is viewed — e.g. oxygenation levels, how long the subject had been deceased, how the brain is presented, whether it has been preserved or not, etc.
  • Live dissections of a whole body were integral to teaching medical students anatomy; Bell’s watercolor may have been modeled off one of these subjects.
• Subjective factors, e.g., how things smelled/looked/felt:
  • As I layered more watercolor on top (and forgot to tape the edges down with masking tape), the paper started to curl up
  • The rough spots got even rougher because I peeled more of the top layer off >:(
  • Watercolor will cause most paper to curl if you do not tape it down.
  • Watercolor is prone to capturing the texture of the surface that it is layered on top of.
  • Mixing contrasting colors will dull the final color — good for replicating the toned-down color palette of the illustration.
  • I am not good at watercolor, so my work tends to look very muddy and dull; layering colored pencil on top for definition helps sharpen the image a little,
• Reflection on your practice: 
  • Because I sometimes got carried away with inking/coloring and failed to look at the reference image, there are some inaccurate components of my reconstruction (e.g. the innermost vertical lines flanking either side of the worm diagram are supposed to be dotted, not solid).
  • The lighting plays a huge role in how easily I can copy details!
  • I did take some of my own artistic liberties in my reconstruction of Bell’s watercolor, particularly in the subject’s face. I found that if I did not outline the beard and facial features much darker than the rest of the portrait, it would be really hard to tell what the entire illustration was.
• Photos/video documenting process: 
  • 
• Questions that arise:
  • How did illustrators deal with varying light conditions?
  • How was their work replicated for publication? Did they have a say in what their work would look like when it was published, considering that the process of replication may have obscured/lost important/relevant details?
  • Were details in the illustration lost due to flaws in the contemporary processes of replication for publication and distribution?
  • Did Bell try to replicate every single detail in his subject, or did he choose what details to include and what components to emphasize?
  • Why did Bell choose to depict the human owner of the brain rather than just the brain itself? Wouldn’t the addition of the face, shoulders, and hand draw attention away from the brain itself?