Arts Design

TINY BEAUTIFUL DEADLY: DAVID S. GOODSELL

by David S. Goodsell. “Hepatitis B.”

DAVID S. GOODSELL

There’s beauty, art, and design in the tiniest things -- even in deadly viruses! Scientist & artist David S. Goodsell creates incredibly beautiful artworks that both amaze and educate. Molecular biology is his muse.

It’s hard to reconcile the idea of something that can cause so much suffering, or even death, can be so beautiful. The intricate beauty at the tiny, microscopic level is remarkable.

Goodsell’s watercolor paintings of viruses and living cells are masterpieces that are worthy of wallspace. Their color palette and rendering style is reminiscent of Peter Max paintings.

As an associate professor of molecular biology, in the Department of Molecular Biology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, Goodsell makes sure his renderings are accurate visualizations of tiny realities.

While microscopy can show us what the whole cell looks like, it doesn’t show detail. Goodsell's images are composites of gathered visual information integrated into a single painting. He gets down to tiny molecules and atoms. Interestingly, viruses contain a lot of symmetry.

Watercolor painting of HIV virus under attack from antibodies in blood serum, by David Goodsell.

Goodsell has loved painting since he was a child. He then trained as a structural biologist. In graduate school, Goodsell became interested in scientific illustration while writing molecular graphics programs to visualize protein and DNA structures. His fusion of science and art produced his signature style.

Macro view of a nerve synapse, rendered in watercolor painting by artist David Goodsell.

Viruses are essentially colorless, so Goodsell takes liberties to create his own palette, choosing certain colors to highlight important features. Goodsell's detailed illustrations of viruses like Ebola and HIV look almost sweet, as he employs a 1960s kind of palette.

Brightly colored watercolor painting of the interior of a Eukaryotic cell, by David Goodsell.

Goodsell colors all molecular structures according to their function; the cytoskeleton is blue, membranes are green, ribosomes are purple, RNA and spliceosomes are pink, DNA and nucleosomes are yellow.

Watercolor painting of a macro view of biological cells and viruses, by David Goodsell.

The Zika virus contains a strand of RNA that holds its genome, enveloped by proteins. It’s a relatively simple virus. Goodsell uses different colors to highlight the envelop around the genome, to distinguish it from the cell it infects.

Deadly HIV virus looks beautiful when seen under microscope and in watercolor painting by David Goodsell.

Some viruses, like Ebola, are a lot more complex. And some, like HIV, update continuously, offering new information, so their drawings need to be periodically updated.

Like a Peter Max painting, this watercolor of a cell, greatly magnified, displays a beautiful pattern of orange, yellow, pink and blue.

Goodsell earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from University of California, Los Angeles, as well as a B.S. in Biology and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine. He has not formally studied art.

Beautiful watercolor painting of a cell dividing under a microscope, by David Goodsell.

Goodsell has won numerous awards for his artworks, including the prestigious Vesalius Trust Frank Netter Award for Special Contributions to Health Science Education, the Association of Medical Illustrators Literary Award, and the Wellcome Image Award as 2016 Overall Winner for "Ebola Virus 2,000,000X."

Cross-section of an HIV virus, illustrated in watercolor painting by David Goodsell.

Goodsell's illustrations are published monthly in the Protein Data Bank, an archive of protein structures. His illustrations are used in many biology textbooks and scientific publications. He is the author of several books including Bionanotechnology: Lessons from Nature, Our Molecular Nature: The Body's Motors, Machines, and Messages, and The Machinery of Life.

Learn more at Goodsell’s site, Molecular Art/Molecular Science.

And see more tiny viral beauty as magnificent glass sculptures in our story, Deadly Beauty Now.

HIV and antibodies in action, as depicted in watercolor painting by David Goodsell.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

Painting of an e-coli bacteria, rendered in watercolor by David Goodsell.

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Beautiful watercolor painting, by David S. Goodsell, depicting a red blood cell under a microscope.

Do you have amazing photos? Enter them in this week’s BN Photo Contest. We run new creative contest every week!

IMAGE CREDITS:

Image: by David S. Goodsell. “Hepatitis B.”
Image: by David S. Goodsell. HIV under attack from immune system, as antibodies bind to its surface in blood serum.
Image: by David S. Goodsell. “Mesoscale illustration of a nerve synapse. Several steps in the process of nerve.”
Image: by David S. Goodsell. “The interior of a Eukaryotic Cell, from the outer membrane through the cytosol to the nucleus.”
Image: by David S. Goodsell. “Machinery of Life.”
Image: by David S. Goodsell. “Mature HIV.”
Image: by David S. Goodsell. “The interior of a Eukaryotic Cell, from the outer membrane through the cytosol to the nucleus.”
Image: by David S. Goodsell. “Endocytosis.”
Image: by David S. Goodsell. “Cross section of immature HIV.”
Image: by David S. Goodsell. “HIV and Antibodies.”
Image: by David S. Goodsell. Escherichia coli cross-section from “Machinery of Life” book.
Image: by David S. Goodsell. “Red blood cell.”