In addition to the operative reports and autopsy notes, our Client sent us a scan of the EMS records. Their initial budget for the case was limited, so we first gave them an option of using one of our existing ‘stock’ images, which we customized by adding a surgical layer to show the attempted repairs.  We have thousands of existing images available that we can customize for projects with lower budgets.

Our Client later agreed that it would be worth the additional billable hours to have us create a fully custom illustration showing an actual likeness of the deceased.  The Client’s goal was to have an illustration that seemed “as close to a photo as possible” since there were no photos taken after the explosion.  We asked for old family photos, and used those along with the medical records as reference material for our illustrations.  

The final art was composed of layers, which allowed the Client to manipulate the level of appearance for the surgical incisions and superficial burns in PowerPoint.  We were also able to reuse the original surgical layer we’d created for the initial stock illustration, saving our Client both time and money.