Megan Bluhm

Human Hip Bone. Carbon dust and carbon pencils.

Megan Bluhm was born in Michigan City, Indiana in 1975. Coming from an intensely artistic family, she was inspired to develop her pencil skills early. She was introduced to scientific illustration at age sixteen. After producing drawings to accompany lab reports for a high school anatomy course, her teacher, Miss Roxy Young, directed her to the field of medical and biological illustration. Already aware that she loved both art and science, Bluhm knew that she had found her path. After high school she began her studies towards a Biology degree at Purdue University North Central, but the pull of art school was very strong. She left Purdue to study at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. At the Art Institute her passion for representational natural subjects was encouraged. One professor, Peggy Macnamara, would prove to be her greatest influence and ultimately a dear friend. Through Macnamara, Bluhm learned her watercolor technique and the idea of fearless painting through careful underdrawings and bold experimentation with color.

Anatomy of the Posterior Pancreas. Part of an Illustrating Anatomy series at Johns Hopkins involving cadaver dissection, sketching and rendering the final image in watercolors.

Bluhm completed her undergraduate studies in 1998 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Two years later, she returned to academia for her Masters at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Medical and Biological Illustration in May 2002 and began her freelance business, Megalo-Media Illustration, in Michigan City, Indiana. From her home studio, she spent the next two years creating pencil drawings, web sites, paintings, and digital works for a variety of clients, including the Smithsonian Institution, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the National Institutes of Health.

Today Bluhm is one of three staff Medical Illustrators at The Anatomical Chart Company in Skokie, Illinois. She creates illustrations and designs charts on anatomy, injury, and disease, and assists in the custom development of visual materials for pharmaceutical clients. Her work has been acknowledged with the Award of Excellence from the Association of Medical Illustrators, the Outstanding Portfolio Website awards, and as a Vesalius Trust Research Grant recipient. She approaches her work with a great deal of enthusiasm and her personal education is ongoing. Conducting research for the accurate representation of her subjects will always be a significant part of her work. She has dissected four cadavers and she has been in attendance during surgical operations both as an observer and as an illustrator, drawing while peering over the shoulders of surgeons.

- NVG

Pencil sketch of the External Eye, a precision Ophthalmological self-portrait.

Winner of the Association of Medical Illustrators' Award for Excellence in Medical Tone.  Pencil, airbrush, and Adobe Photoshop. Created in conjunction with the National Aquarium in Baltimore.