Self-Illustrating an Exercise Book

[WildRice]

Fellow Xara users,
I am contracted to write a book about the biology of exercise with a famous athlete coauthor. In addition to sport photography I will be self-illustrating the book using Xara PGD9 and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. I would like constructive criticism of these images before we go to print. Anything you think that needs correcting, different colors, composition, or detail.

Xara PGD9 drawings:


Sketchbook Pro drawings: these are drawings, not photographs:

[gwpriester]

Looks good to me. Sperm are much smaller but for sake of illustration that works.

[Egg Bramhill]

Great images, particularly like the Einstein drawing. Only comment I would make is that the two plated food images appear over blurred to me.

[wizard509]

Looks good to me too WildRice. The "two plated food images" blurring is so subtle that I barely noticed.

[WildRice]

Looks good to me. Sperm are much smaller but for sake of illustration that works.

The reason for this image is to show that the ovum is roughly 1,000 times the size of a sperm. Mitochondria inhabit the cytoplasm and not the nucleus of cells. That is why we get our mitochondria from our mothers. I used the electron microscope image below as a basis but just eye-balled the proportions and did not measure. Just need to ballpark the relative sizes. The sperm are a tad big to make them visible, but I could easily make the ovum bigger, like the surface of a planet.

[WildRice]

Great images, particularly like the Einstein drawing. Only comment I would make is that the two plated food images appear over blurred to me.

I did try to make the plated food images sharper, but then they started to look more like photos instead of hand drawn art. In the book they will be big files shrunken down to half page size, so maybe the blurring won't be too bad.

[WildRice]

A human ovum is 120-150 microns and a human sperm head is 5 x 3 microns, and volume = 4/3 Pi r3, so the cytoplasmic ratio is about 60,000 to 1 and my first attempt was off. I redrew the proportions making the ovum larger.

[WildRice]

The book is about exercise so I am going to replace the close up portrait of Albert Einstein with this Sketchbook Pro digital drawing of him riding a bicycle with his famous quote.


“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving.”

– Albert Einstein.

[WildRice]

Good news! I just finished writing the last chapter of my book and now my self-illustrated fitness book "The Science of Fitness" with Greg LeMond is listed on Amazon as a pre-order item. My coauthor is arguably the best American athlete of all time and my publisher (Elsevier) is the biggest science book publisher in the world with distribution to 180 countries, so this is not a small, self-published work. It could be a big international seller. It is due for release in a few months so although there are no customer reviews yet you can read some of our glowing peer reviews and get an idea of the content. Tell me what you think.
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Fitnes...words=mark+hom

[WildRice]

Reviews:
This book project passed academic peer review (with flying colors) from two major academic publishers: first the Johns Hopkins University Press (the oldest university press in America), and then Elsevier (the largest scientific book publisher in the world). Elsevier also accepted for publication the follow up version: "Mitochondrial Fitness: The Science of Athletic Energy" a larger hardcover scientific reference book intended for biologists, physiologists, clinicians, and researchers. Here are some of the peer review comments:

"This title by LeMond (and) Hom....will be the best fitness book published in the year it is released....This is not a fad book, but one that will be meaningful and timeless and should help a lot of people....the book strikes a balance that covers all the topics one needs and provides a plan that, if followed, will really help a person maximize their potential..."
- Summary of acceptance for publication by the Johns Hopkins University Press

"Mitochondrial biogenesis and adaptation with regular exercise are now recognized to have implications for a broader range of health issues, rather than only the enhancement of exercise performance. The authors' contention that exercise has broad effects on the overall human physiology is fully supported scientifically. In essence, this is a timely book for a society that in general...lacks motivation to exercise and stay healthy while intensely distracted by gadgets and flooded with easy-to-eat and drink junk food...There are no borders for this book."
- Anonymous peer reviewer

"I would recommend buying the scientific reference version of the book to our library at JHU (Johns Hopkins University). I would also do the same myself and with my colleagues (cardiologists) at JHU, encouraging them to recommend the book (shorter version) to patients in their clinical practice. I will also recommend the book to friends and acquaintances, and stimulate them to consider the importance of keeping their mitochondria strong and healthy..."
- Anonymous peer reviewer

"This is the right time for human societies immersed in an epidemic of sedentary life style, obesity and diabetes. Professionals, scientists and the big public need to be aware that they have "simple" and relatively cheap life decisions related with nutrition, diet and physical activity at hand. When made at the right time and applied consistently, these decisions have the potential to make a positive impact on health and life quality while benefiting the society at large."
- Anonymous peer reviewer