Lathyrus odoratus blueprint by Macoto Murayama
How would an engineer or an architect go about and design a flower? With blueprints, of course!
When he was studying at Miyagi University in Japan a few years ago, Macoto Murayama was inspired to combine the worlds of architecture and scientific illustration and apply computer illustration techniques to diagram flowers in great details.
Murayama carefully dissected flowers, removed their anatomical parts with a scalpel to the individual parts - the petals, anther, stigma and so on - under a magnifying glass, and then sketched and photographed them. He then recreated the flowers, part by part, using computer graphic software - in essence, he has created botanical blueprints for some of nature's most beautiful flowers.
Frantic Gallery in Tokyo has fantastic images from Murayama's 2011 exhibition, titled "Inorganic Flora." Check it out: Link
Blueprint of Sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus)
Blueprint of Asiatic dayflower (Commelina communis)
Blueprint of Yellow Cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus)
View more of Murayama's excellent artwork over at Frantic Gallery: Link