Everyone takes different paths to medical school, and junior doctor-turned-artist Lauren Squires took one a touch more haphazard than most.

With a background in research science, Lauren had no intention to become a doctor until she undertook a Masters in Public health. She entered medicine without ever having taken an anatomy class, or opened a copy of Netters. In hindsight, she suspects was not a great way to prepare for the rigours of a medical program.

To cope with the steep learning curve of the University of Queensland’s MD program, Lauren quickly turned to anatomy colouring books and hand illustrating her study notes. Finding this creative time a lovely respite from textbooks and lectures, she eventually created Almost Anatomical- a passion project focusing on creating pieces of whimsical watercolour anatomy art.

Lauren’s work is particularly interested in capturing the wonder we feel when we are first discovering how the human body works and fits together. The body is a beautiful and amazing thing- not only for how it looks, but what it does! She particularly loves creating pieces for medical and health clinics; works that are both anatomically correct and educational, as well as much more engaging than same old anatomy posters we’re all used to! Most of all, she loves to bring a sense of humor to anatomy, working in bright, non-anatomical colours, and incorporating blooming flowers into pieces of anatomy.

She balances this with full time clinical work as an Emergency Medicine registrar.