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Ever wondered what an atom or molecule would look like if it was a living thing? I certainly have! Sadly that’s not how the world works, but I’ve used this curiosity to fuel one of my ongoing projects: what would the elements on the periodic table look and act like if they were alive! This is a project I began several years ago while in highschool chemistry and have recently revisited. After learning about the distinct properties of many of the elements, I thought it would be interesting to translate those properties into character traits. It started as a couple of sketches of hydrogen, helium, and lithium:
My interest in this project was rekindled after taking multiple chemistry courses and labs in college. Organic chemistry in particular was the main catalyst (pun intended) that got me interested in designing these characters again. There was something about learning exactly how the atoms of specific elements interacted with each other that inspired me, particularly learning how to draw arrow pushing diagrams for the movement of electrons.
I have always believed that art and science are intimately intertwined in many ways, at least more than the world gives them credit for, so I constantly take artistic inspiration from the scientific world. I ended up tweaking some of my original designs and started working on a few others.
I plan on continuing to design these characters and hopefully complete all 118 elements. I have some other ideas regarding this project that I may discuss in the future but for now I’m just making these characters for fun and design practice.
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