CAST, AWAY!!!!

If it were only that simple. My good friend and illustrator extraordinaire, Taylor White, recently busted ass in what some would describe as an epic acrobatic gravity defying swan-dive into the Norwegian snow via snowboard. The end result was a broken wrist and 8 weeks recovery time. It just so happened that this feat occurred the week before she was due for a visit to the U.S. of A. I was thusly wrangled into making this old school plaster cast (they do things funky in Norway apparently) into an awesome work of art. The end result can be seen beloooooow!!!

hand1

She is now a lefty…

hand2

hand3

The meaty side…

hand4

hand6

The final detail. In spite of injury, she is still drawing and posting her rad left-handed squiggles!!!! So check out her RAD blog for more RAD work!!!!!!!! !!! !

UPDATE: Since i’ve had a few curious inquiries, I drew the bones and muscles on the plaster using micron pens, it took about an hour to do, and the bone color around it was a mixture of acrylic paint and matte medium, to make it pop more. I doubt this would have worked well on anything other than an old-school plaster cast (they don’t make them this way in America anymore apparently, they usually cover it with that really ridged & extremely textured plastic that comes in all colors), but maybe if you do break something you can request plaster, it’s a great canvas!

DOUBLE UPDATE: Taylor is back in action folks, look out. Alas, the back of the cast was sacrificed, but the skeletal part remains intact, score.

72 Responses to “CAST, AWAY!!!!”


  1. 1 candice April 11, 2009 at 10:01 am

    daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn. nice work heather!!

  2. 2 Shelley April 14, 2009 at 6:32 am

    Awesome… also very clever!

  3. 3 Milena April 14, 2009 at 6:48 am

    I thought this was great.

  4. 4 alexandra April 14, 2009 at 6:54 am

    lovely! makes a broken bone something desirable :) )

  5. 5 peter April 14, 2009 at 7:45 am

    boney old you

  6. 6 nightshade April 14, 2009 at 9:43 am

    I approve of this endeavor.

  7. 7 kixxster April 14, 2009 at 10:48 am

    A-MAZING! Wondering what medium you used…

  8. 8 C April 14, 2009 at 11:32 am

    I cannot stop thinking about how awesome this would be as a shirt. (you should make one! :D ) The detail is stunning. Good job!

  9. 9 heathertompkins April 14, 2009 at 11:42 am

    I used micron pens to do the outline and hatching, and then painted the negative space with a bone colored mixture of acrylic paint and matte medium to make it stand out a bit more. Thanks for all the kind comments!

  10. 10 William April 14, 2009 at 1:51 pm

    Fab! I saw this on the MUNI and was very impressed. Very nice to see it shared with the rest of the Internet!

  11. 11 Josy April 15, 2009 at 1:08 am

    This almost makes me want to break my arm.
    Almost.
    Beautiful work.

  12. 13 untipofeliz April 17, 2009 at 5:42 am

    I´m wishing to broke a bone to paint this on it!!

  13. 14 Aauhein April 17, 2009 at 6:49 am

    I luv oddities like this,cool.

  14. 15 Dogel April 17, 2009 at 8:11 am

    Gaul banget ki tenan.
    Neng nggonku rak ono sing koyo iki!!

    Kreatif ndes!!

  15. 16 Deborah Valentine April 17, 2009 at 8:29 am

    Excellent anatomical drawing. I love the humor of it however i hope a speedy recovery is in “hand”.

  16. 17 lbrmusic April 17, 2009 at 8:48 am

    Casts should come like that.

    Nice work!

  17. 18 RN4072 April 17, 2009 at 10:25 am

    The cut dotted line was the perfect touch. Nice art work. She might end up keeping the cast longer than expected, just to enjoy it. Thanks for sharing!

  18. 19 Gravity Jones April 17, 2009 at 1:17 pm

    I love you Heather Tompkins! Your drawing cured my scurvy!

  19. 21 Genevieve April 17, 2009 at 4:48 pm

    heather, that is SO COOL! i know who to go to if i break a bone and need a cast! ;D

  20. 22 blaqberry April 17, 2009 at 4:59 pm

    wow… me LIKEY! ;D I agree w/lbrmusic (casts should come like that) friggin awesome.

  21. 24 Geraldine April 18, 2009 at 7:43 am

    Cool. I predict a rash of fake casts (ez on and off) this summer.

  22. 26 zwenkwiel April 18, 2009 at 11:31 am

    what no fracture in the bone?

  23. 27 K April 18, 2009 at 6:24 pm

    yes, nothing can break an artist’s spirit :D

  24. 28 Hans April 18, 2009 at 10:30 pm

    very interesting and ingenious. i know, boredom helps. And i, too, am transformed to be a lefty……

  25. 29 rachel April 19, 2009 at 7:24 pm

    i swear that if i ever need a cast for an extended period of time, i’m going to find you and pay you to do this for me. (rad as helll!)
    good job. (:

  26. 30 Rusty April 19, 2009 at 8:19 pm

    that would be so marketable. super talented!!

  27. 31 Joseph Smith April 21, 2009 at 7:23 am

    You might also want to present how it went broken, so you don’t have to explain to everyone every time again.

  28. 32 ryan April 21, 2009 at 6:18 pm

    Cool, yet mildly creepy. I like it.

  29. 33 Joy April 22, 2009 at 12:34 pm

    As an amature artist I can appreciate the time and effort, but not sure I could do so well as a lefty. I myself was in a cast for uppper arm to fingertips for 4 months, covered in blue hardening tape. You should have them carefully remove it to keep the creative work, sometimes the are nasty after removal however. Great work. Will look for more your your work in the future. Joy

  30. 34 Süyümbike Güvenç April 26, 2009 at 2:32 pm

    What i can only say is I admire soo much..
    Nice and quite hard work.

  31. 35 Thesaya April 27, 2009 at 7:17 am

    Wait, you don’t get plaster casts in the USA? No writing and drawing on casts? You should go back to it, if only for that reason :P

  32. 36 Chris April 29, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    this wins the award for one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. awesome job!

    • 37 Susano May 19, 2009 at 5:09 am

      You drew a left arm in a right one. The bony side is the anterior vision (palmar) in an anatomic position of a left arm, drawn in the posterior side (dorsal) of the right arm. And the fleshy side is in the correct side (palmar) but drawn in the right arm.

  33. 39 PamelaWous May 23, 2009 at 9:49 am

    Super post, Need to mark it on Digg. Thank you

  34. 40 Higor May 27, 2009 at 5:05 pm

    lol, Very interesting!

  35. 41 Rocky May 29, 2009 at 2:10 pm

    Awesome!!! That’s so neat that casts are made a different way in other countries… It’s kind of disheartening to know that everything has come to plastic nowadays…

    Though, it’s great to see artwork on casts! It’s really unique in my opinion! Great work, too! :D

  36. 42 Lau June 4, 2009 at 5:04 am

    Wow! Great work…
    he must have been bored!

  37. 44 Panda-Chan August 6, 2009 at 9:23 pm

    I’m just curious.What did the doctor say?

  38. 45 Eric October 4, 2009 at 6:45 am

    That is awesome. To bad casts get all smelly, not sure if anyone would want to keep it after it comes off!

  39. 47 melissa November 11, 2009 at 7:03 pm

    Love it, rich design, well placed idea


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