by Monica Tsai
Staff Writer
What would you do to land your dream job? For Jeff Davis, president of a new business called Legal Art Works, it meant seemingly endless months of isolation carving up bodies.
Davis is not a homicidal maniac. He is a medical illustrator specializing in the preparation of exhibits for lawyers. What he went through was a six-month training program in Rochester, N.Y., to learn how to create realistic pictures of the human body in all types of conditions. Dissecting cadavers is part of that learning curve. And there are only five schools in the United States that offer this particular degree.
“I had no friends, no sunshine, and I was dissecting dead people all day long,” said Davis. “There were many times when I called my parents in Jacksonville saying, ‘I’m miserable; I don’t know if this is worth it.’ My dad is a dentist and had to do a similar curriculum in school. So I kept hanging in there.”
His tenacity paid off. Davis went on to work for institutions such as the Mayo Clinic and the Presentation Group. These days, he focuses on composing exhibits of medical injuries for attorneys.
Medical illustration is a field Davis backed into. Unlike many of his graduate school classmates, he did not have a background in science. He was completing his bachelor’s degree at the Savannah College of Fine Arts when his professor suggested a detour in Davis’ vocation.
“I excelled in the realistic, figurative drawing,” said Davis. “This felt almost natural to me.”
Medical illustration is a profession with starting salaries hovering at $40,000 and above, plus fringe benefits. Royalty and re-use arrangements with publishers or clients also may be possible. Additionally, illustrators are not tied to a particular geographic area and can work freelance or in-house.
Within the field are several specializations: the making of prostheses, forensic reconstruction, ophthalmological illustration, medical research, authoring or co-authoring textbooks or articles and medical/legal presentations, which is what Davis does.
These presentation pieces may be used in the courtroom to outline the steps of a surgical procedure, to depict the stages of a worsening health condition, to underscore the significance of medical tests and provide other visual explanations of concepts specific to the medical or legal community.
“My business is making the difficult-to -understand, easy to understand,” he said.
“The average jury has an eighth-grade education. They [Davis’ clients] need something that will clearly demonstrate the point that they’re trying to make.”
Using computer programs such as photoshop, the image is enlarged and explanatory terminology is superimposed on the display panel. Davis does this by scanning the film from an X-ray, MRI or CT scan into a digital format, then adding bits of color-coded, or otherwise clarifying, information. He can also create drawings that are easily transferable to an application like Power Point.
For Jacksonville attorneys, Davis will visit them in their office to discuss the pending case. The next step is supplying a written proposal of the artwork for the document. Davis then generates proofs for the client. When they are approved, the exhibits are blown up to poster-board size, mounted and laminated so they can be written on.
“It’s not just for trials,” said Davis. “They’re popular in mediations to scare the pants off the other side [to secure a settlement].”
After having worked for a number of companies exclusively and on contract, Davis’s new venture into solo proprietorship had to be put on hold for a year until his no-compete clause was fulfilled. He used that time to cultivate clients through networking. Now that he has his own office base in 11 E., he intends to be very busy doing illustrations.
“You have to be very detail-oriented,” said Davis. “As a medical illustrator, you have to be able to understand very complex surgery and anatomy and then relate it in a way that’s very simple.”
He believes his artistic background gives him an advantage over his peers.
“An exhibit can be boring if you don’t know what color compositions will keep the viewer interested,” he said.