Studio Kayama Medical & Scientific Illustration

16/03/2022

Working on neurons in situ and enjoying adding colors, textures, and highlights

18/03/2021

Hooray my Gigantopithecus illustration will be featured on a program on the Discovery Channel. I'll post you with updates when the air date is set! Congrats again to Dr. Welker et al. for this breakthrough technique!

Orangutans (genus Pongo) are the closest living relatives of Gigantopithecus blacki, the biggest primate that ever walked the Earth, according to new research published in the journal Nature.

25/02/2021

Wonderful article about medical illustration and its history by Estrella Carrie. Thank you for reaching out to feature some of my illustrations!

Medical illustration dates from the coronavirus image now known worldwide today back to the very beginning of medicine.

25/02/2021

Hope things are well, all things considered.

I had an amazing honor of working with the amazing staff at Sienna Solstice on a special edition podcast. Hope you enjoy :)

The editors have put together a special edition project! In this podcast we speak with two individuals who we feel embody the idea of the antidisciplinary. Join us as we continue exploring the truths which binds us all. Find us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify as well!

17/12/2020

Thank you so much for featuring the Festival of Lights, Greenbelt News Review!

This is the last week of the virtual festival, so get your last minute holiday shopping here

06/12/2020

Thank you so much to for liking, commenting, and visiting the virtual art festival booth!

A load of shipments completed: lots of bird art are shipped all over in addition to dropping off a bunch for local pickup at the Greenbelt Community Center. I didn’t know what to expect, but your support has truly blown me away. Thank you❤️❤️

29/11/2020

With 95% of art festivals cancelled or postponed, I made a video of my scientific birdies to make my little art booth go virtual!

Greenbelt Festival of Lights Juried Art and Craft Fair 2020 Shop safely online with over 50 regional artists November 27 - December 20, 2020 www.greenbeltmd....

27/11/2020

Shop small, shop local! If you are in the DMV area, check out Greenbelt Festival of Lights.

21/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the little brown jobs. Day 20-Another day, another sparrow--American Tree Sparrow. The bill is bi-colored and has a little dark spot in the breast. Maybe I made it a bit dark overall.

19/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the little brown jobs. Ok, slightly more yellow and I need to add more darks--Pine Siskin. To me they look and act like American Goldfinch...except they are not. Streaking on the body.

18/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the little brown jobs. Ok, slightly doing better today--White-crowned Sparrow. Besides their white crown, they have that very distinct whistle at the beginning of the song.

My values are little better compared to yesterday. The stripes on the back feels really contrast-y. I'm not sure if I got that right. I'm not touching the juveniles this time, but I didn't realize how red their young ones are.

16/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the little brown jobs. A Female Indigo Bunting. She's not indigo--she's grey-brown-cinnamon. She looks like a sparrow and a finch. Sometimes she would sport a tiny bit of blue.

Does chanting, "Cinnamon-grey-brown" to yourself help get the greyscale correct? I don't know, but she looks kind of light brown, so I consider that a success that I might repeat. I always feel bad not knowing what she is without her buddy. Is that a finch? A sparrow? Oh wait...An indigo bunting!

15/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the little brown jobs. A Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak. It's not rose-breasted--she's yellowish with fine streaks on the breast. Distinct wing bars.

I got way too excited and may have made the wing to dark. Oh well. After drawing this, I didn't know what the purple finch female looked like (But I drew her on 10/4 which is infinity ago). They both have the white eyebrow and large bill. This one has wing bars. If I could do this again...I mean when I colorize everyone, I also need to fix the throat and the feet. The feet threw me off today. I thought I had the feet covered! I know nothing.

14/10/2020

Inktober is here! Everyone's nemesis: House Sparrow (female). They can gang up and kill other birds(!) and as an exotic species, it is one of the two species not protected by the migratory bird treaty act.

The house sparrow was probably one of the first birds I noticed that the males and females look different.

I managed to make the thinnest line to date with the Esterbrook extra fine extra elastic 128 nib! I hope I got their light tan color in black and white. I tend to hold the pen too tightly...so it was a good exercise/reminder to relax and draw some thin lines.

13/10/2020

Inktober is here! Everyone's nemesis: House Sparrow (male). It's kind of strange that they aren't really sparrows--they are really finches, but they manage to give all the other sparrows a bad rep. :/

11/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the hard-to-identify birds who appear as little brown jobs. Field Sparrow: Overall, they are small and PINK. Pink bill, pink feet. So. cute. And they sound like ping pong balls. CUTE

10/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the hard-to-identify birds who appear as little brown jobs. Adult Lincoln's Sparrow: Overall, they are a bit smaller, daintier, delicately-patterned with a slender bill compared to other sparrows.

I think I got the buff color on the side without being too dark! Today I tried a mixture of stippling with light lines--a morse code of sorts. I think it worked. Maybe a little less dot so it looks less mottled.

Lincoln's Sparrows are unicorn birds to me. They don't show up very often and sort of sounds like a wren to my ears. When they do, they kind of look like Song Sparrows until you see the thinner streaks on their breast and you notice it's smaller than a typical song sparrow. Ooooh! It's a Lincoln's! It makes my day when one pops out of the shrubbery and look around.

08/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the hard-to-identify birds who appear as little brown jobs. Adult Swamp Sparrow: Overall, they are a bit darker, smaller, and more grey compared to other sparrows.

Swamp sparrow is important to me as I sort of became an unofficial "swamp sparrow identifier" during a Lights Out DC bird identification/labeling meeting. Oftentimes the swamp sparrow was identified as a white-throat or song, so I went through and made sure the swamp sparrow was properly represented in the window strike victim population.

07/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the hard-to-identify birds who appear as little brown jobs. Adult Chipping Sparrow in non-breeding plumage : They are easy to find with their red caps with bright white and black brow and eyeliner respectively in spring/summer.

But then they change into their reddish-brown cap and yellow-ochre brow with thinner eyeliners in fall and winter. Even their bill color changes from darkish pink to pink.

I forget that some sparrows have different seasonal plumage and the chipping sparrow always stops my brain for few seconds in the fall--"Wait--I know you...uhhh yes, Chipping Sparrow. Why are you hanging out with house sparrows?"

I see their relatively small size and their somehow distinct face--maybe their eyes are a tad smaller and further back than the other sparrows?

What worked: I'm pretty happy with the patterning on the back and the wings. I hope I got their cute little face right. The forehead angle/tip of bill/eye placement determines the bird face. What didn't work: I think the grey breast reads too dark in this ink rendition. I'll have to practice more on how to make light grey with ink.

06/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the hard-to-identify birds who appear as little brown jobs. A White-throated Sparrow: Look for the bright white throat contrasting against the light grey breast.

06/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the hard-to-identify birds who appear as little brown jobs. A Song Sparrow (eastern): They don't really hide, so look for the broad dark spot in the center of the breast.

05/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the hard-to-identify birds who appear as little brown jobs. A female purple finch (eastern): Look for the white eyebrow, bold streaks on breast and strong conical bill.

05/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the hard-to-identify birds who appear as little brown jobs. A little dark, but female house finch: Look for the blurry streaks on the belly and the conical seed-eating bill.

03/10/2020

Little article about pen and ink tools

It's that time of the year again. Inktober art by Ikumi Kayama 2016-2019 Using less plastic! When I first started the Inktober challenge in 2016 or so, I used the trusty Sakura Microns. They are widely available and rather inexpensive. The ink is permanent and lightfast. I still remember the thrill....

02/10/2020

Inktober is here! Featuring the hard-to-identify often female birds who appear as little brown jobs. First up is the medium-sized red-winged bird female who is not black or have red wings.

22/09/2020

Celebrating 100 Years of the Bird Banding Lab! This medallion featuring a Black-bellied Whistling Duck with a metal bands is a part of the original series created in traditional transparent watercolor.

09/09/2020

Celebrating 100 Years of the Bird Banding Lab! This medallion featuring an American Oystercatcher with plastic and metal bands is a part of the original series created in traditional transparent watercolor.

25/08/2020

Finally breaking open some new watercolors! Let’s mix some greens.

12/03/2020

Update: Anatomical Illustration Workshop scheduled for April 4-5 is rescheduled. New dates TBA.

UMD will be moving to online classes until April 10th and is cancelling many of their larger events as part of their COVID-19 response.

The University will be physically open, as will the STAMP on a limited basis, but it was decided to reschedule the workshop as students will be in too close of quarters to safely practice social distancing, and many may not return to campus until April 10th.

Thank you for your understanding, and take care!

28/02/2020

Pulled out colored pencils to see if they are faster...not really. But I love blue-headed vireos!

17/12/2019

Looking very much forward to seeing my colleagues in Georgia, giving a talk, and strolling through my alma mater! :D

is happy to announce that we are busy putting together the Southeastern Medical Illustration Conference for February 2020! Stay tuned for information on registration and schedule of events. Hope to see you there!

05/12/2019

Very excited to be invited to be part of this wonderful project!

https://impacts.to/index.html

An illustrated journey that links cosmology, astronomy, geology, evolution, and climate change. For the insatiably curious.

15/11/2019

I'm very honored and excited to have my illustrations accompany the recently published article in Nature!

From the press release: "By using ancient protein sequencing, researchers have retrieved genetic information from a 1.9 million year old extinct, giant primate that used to live in a subtropical area in southern China. The genetic information allows the researchers to uncover the evolutionary position of Gigantopithecus blacki, a three-meter tall and possibly 600 kg primate, revealing the orangutan as its closest living relative."

By using ancient protein sequencing, researchers have retrieved genetic information from a 1.9 million year old extinct, giant primate that used to live in a subtropical area in southern China. The genetic information allows the researchers to uncover the evolutionary position of Gigantopithecus bla...

02/11/2019

Inktober came and went, and here we are! Please bear with me as I wrap up some last birds crossing the finish line. Red-Winged Blackbird for the prompt: Dark. The red can be so bright!

02/11/2019

Inktober came and went, and here we are! Please bear with me as I wrap up some last birds crossing the finish line. Ovenbird wasn't on the list at all, but this individual needed to be drawn. One of my favorites.