Barry Baker

I was lucky to have worked with one of the top medical illustrators. Barry Baker was my supervisor in my first job after medical illustration school and he guided me over the rough road of medical communication. His sense of humor, embodied in the cartoons he drew, belied his ability to see what the message was, and to communicate it with an illustration.

Many artists and illustrators think that gilding the lily, using extraneous information and eye candy in an illustration, is the way to convey information. Barry taught me to stay simple and to see clearly, not obfuscate. An illustrator is a communicator, someone who takes complicated information and makes it understandable to the viewer. Most of a medical illustrator's work involves thinking and planning. The final execution of an illustration is mere talent, but the first two demand the ability to understand complicated scientific concepts then find a way of transferring this information in a clear manner.

Barry did not let me take the easy road - to him even the simplest illustration was worth doing well. Only after you have worked for years with doctors, can you can sit down and draw flawlessly and with ease, because the work has already been done in the mind. It doesn't matter what media, software or computer you use - owning a grand piano does not make you a concert pianist - it is the intellectual ability that makes a great medical illustrator.

Here are two of his illustrations. NB these images are copyrighted by Baylor College of Medicine.

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