“I was on a super high science route, but it wasn’t making me excited. I wasn’t really finding my fit. It wasn’t until my high school art teacher said, ‘Hey, there’s this career called medical illustration’ that I was like, ‘Wait, so I can do science and drawing, and they merge together?” I quickly changed my major.”
Rick Sargent is a visiting professor of art at The Citadel, where he teaches drawing, painting, animation, and illustration. He also leads a freelance career as a medical illustrator. Sargent is from Columbus, Georgia, and now resides in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Sargent attended the University of Georgia, earning an undergraduate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Medical College of Georgia, where he earned a master of science in Medical Illustration
Interview
Transcript
Rick Sargent
I am Rick Sargent. I’m originally from Georgia, Middle Georgia, small, smallish town middle sized town called middle Columbus, Georgia. And right now I currently reside in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
Sara Sobota
What do you do for work? And where are you working from, right now?
Rick Sargent
I am primarily a college professor at the Citadel. And I teach art. I teach drawing, painting, animation, and illustration. What makes me suitable for that is my other career. My side… my other gig, is being a medical illustrator. And so I, when I’m teaching, obviously, I’m teaching on in person, not online. As a medical illustrator, I work from home.
Sara Sobota
Okay, next question. How long have you been working there? And what’s your official job title? I guess you have two of each of those?
Rick Sargent
I do. Yeah. Yeah. I think at the Citadel for 10 years, I have been a medical illustrator for 22 years.
Sara Sobota
Okay, wow, how you ended up in the field. We kind of went over that already. But if you could just give us a recap a little bit.
Rick Sargent
Yeah, absolutely. So, I ended up being a medical; I’ll start with a medical illustration, Sykes, that chronologically leads into that. Um, is that I started out becoming a medical illustrator from the inspiration, advice I had from my high school art teacher, and who knew a medical illustrator and thought that I’d be a fit. I changed my major at the University of Georgia to have an undergrad degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and then went on to become; have a Master of Science degree in Medical Illustration, and became a medical illustrator. And then, from that, I came into practicing medical illustration in New Jersey, came down to South Carolina, and had a colleague who was teaching at another school who turned me on to the idea of teaching. And, um, he left the program, and I came in and took his job, so to speak, or took over for him as he left and became a teacher. Fell in love with teaching, and I’ve been a teacher ever since.
Sara Sobota
Wow, that’s great. So your graduate degree was a M.S.? Is that right? And medical illustration?
Rick Sargent
Correct.
Sara Sobota
Wow. That’s fantastic. You don’t also hear or see that very often, I wouldn’t think.
Rick Sargent
Yeah, so it’s, you know, different programs offer different degrees. Some like Johns Hopkins offer Master of Arts program. We at the Medical College of Georgia, formerly known as the Medical College of Georgia, their take on it was like, we can teach you we can we want to give you a more solid scientific background. So we want that to be first and foremost, while teaching you the arts.
Sara Sobota
And forgive me, I don’t know what medical college of George’s name is now. What is it now?
Rick Sargent
Yeah, so it is now, The Augusta University.
Sara Sobota
Oh, I didn’t know that.
Rick Sargent
It changed, maybe five years ago. It used to be Georgia Regents University, and they changed; they got a gobbled up by the Augusta University.
Sara Sobota
Got it. Okay, so what background did you have that helped you land that role? I feel like we went over that.
Rick Sargent
Yeah, yeah, for sure. As far as Professor goes, you know, it was a real-world experience. Obviously, having a master’s degree, um, allows me to become a college professor. So, I’ve reached the terminal of my degree; there’s no doctorate in medical illustration.
Sara Sobota
Are there any medical decision programs in South Carolina? Do you know?
Rick Sargent
There are not?
Sara Sobota
Okay. Okay. So you need to go to another state to pursue that.
Rick Sargent
Yes, there are approximately six schools across the country that have a master’s degree. There are some that have, like R.T.; Rochester Institute, they have a bachelor’s degree in medical illustration.
Sara Sobota
Okay. So, can you walk us through a typical work day? What does your work process look like? And what is expected of you on a daily basis?
Rick Sargent
Yeah, for this I will focus on the medical illustration side. I specialize in what’s called Medical Legal Illustration. So, I work for attorneys, and they have to explain; you communicate in layman’s terms and visual terms what happened in an accident or a medical procedure. So, a typical workday is that I will assess documents from a doctor’s operative reports they will send me films, our view of the radiology, and make them a proposal based on what I see that I would think is the best protocol, the best way to present their case would be that is reviewed with a medical expert. We normally have some Zoom meetings lined up, where we’ll discuss what the point there and the jist to their case, is making sure that I have all the supporting materials that I need. And then I will proceed to create the illustrations for them.
Sara Sobota
Okay, wow, you’re blending law, medicine, and art.
Rick Sargent
I’m telling you it is all over.
Sara Sobota
That’s amazing.
Rick Sargent
Yeah.
Sara Sobota
That is awesome. Can you describe a defining moment in your creative journey, something that had a significant impact on you, or something you produced that really showcased your creativity?
Rick Sargent
I will say… medical illustration-wise. Yes, yeah. Yeah, there was a defining moment; I was the senior medical illustrator at Houston Sports Medicine Orthopedic Hospital in Columbus, Georgia. And there was a conference coming up, where a surgeon wanted to display a new surgery technique. And he was, this was way back in 2002. Um, 2003, time. And he was cutting edge. And even in technology as far as visual communication. And so, he was really pushing the department to move to 3d. Whereas we were just scratching the surface of that, a lot of stuff that we did were in is in Photoshop; every now and then, we would dip into After Effects and things like that to make things move for animation. And so, in a very quick turnaround, he bought the software for 3D, told me to learn it, and create an animation of his procedure. So, we had a roughly three-week turnaround time, from start to finish, of storyboarding of creating the models and rendering to get ready for his presentation at his conference. And we actually won an award for it. It was, it was insane. It was long nights spent. Us. I think I slept there over the weekend trying to create this thing. But well worth it. And I think he’s still using some of the components of it. Yeah.
Rick Sargent
That’s amazing. So when you say we, who all was on the team? Was it just you and him or…
Rick Sargent
It was me and him as; we had another medical illustrator on staff, who was helping to kind of give art direction to it. Since she was more, publications. But, she was definitely lending a hand to the process. We had all hands on deck, so to speak, right? So.
Sara Sobota
That’s amazing. Was it for you to find this career path? Or to figure out how to apply your background to this task? We kind of talked about that, but.
Rick Sargent
Definitely a challenge, for sure. And I definitely wrestled with, could I make a career, I’m just gonna go with medical illustration, like, it was definitely challenged to say that I was going to be a medical illustrator. I actually got turned down, twice, applying to the school. And so with my portfolio I just kept, I think I was more kind of not really, I was a little bit wishy-washy, at least on the second round, because I was debating on this career or this career. And I was like, well, I’ll just submit my application. And then I took a year off. And that kind of sat down, reassessed where I was going, and what I needed to do, and I think, really put the nose to the grindstone and just drew and drew and drew and drew, you know, everything that they wanted for the portfolio, took their advice from the previous portfolio, and it’s like, Alright, I’m gonna, I’m gonna hit this hard, you know. And then, when I finally got in, I was I was pretty excited, so.
Sara Sobota
Yeah, that’s amazing. Great. Can you recommend any specific skills that an aspiring applicant should have to increase their chances of landing a role in your field?
Rick Sargent
I know that, obviously, rendering and the timeless skills are line, shape, accuracy, value, accuracy, being able to communicate visually, and being confident and effective about the way that you communicate with line and value. That is something that, hands down, digital or non-digital, you have to know. So, but I know that, you know, AI is coming up and you know, or people say, is that going to replace, you know, illustration and things like that, and then relying on generative AI, things inside of software such as Adobe Photoshop, which we use a ton. That software only gets you so far, and that reliability on that can only get you to a certain level. So, I would say you need to; don’t rely on those things. You can use them as tools, but you’re making case specific and what’s going to make you relevant is that you can be case specific, and not generic and not rely on things like AI, or generative art that’s going to make you seem more clip art and non relevant. So, I would say, keep being creative, I would say, keep up your draftsmanship skills and your ability to learn how contrast of how atmospheric perspective communicates and makes a hierarchy. That will be the most important skill that I would recommend.
Sara Sobota
Okay, great. Okay. Are there any local organizations, programs, or events that you recommend for aspiring creatives in South Carolina?
Rick Sargent
In South Carolina, I would say, you know, Piccolo Spoleto, getting involved in getting your artwork out there as much as possible. Being involved in art and art competitions, I found it really useful. I won the Cooper River Bridge run poster design contest, you know, way back when, and just getting involved in competitions, like those sort of things, even though the Cooper River Bridge one, wasn’t medical illustration at all, you know, but it’s designed, and it got my name out there. It gave me a little bit of, you know, clout, as I approach and talk about design, they’re like, Well, what did you do? And I say, well, here’s this or people recognize my name from certain things. And I’ve always been a proponent of just finding any competition that interests you make stuff and find ways to get into it, you get connected to more artists that way, that, Oh, I saw your work and fill in the blank, right? And so design organizations, graphic design organizations, I would be a part of or try to connect with. There’s the Association of Medical Illustrators, as far as my own career that I’m a part of, I would connect with them, you know, follow them online, look at their stuff on Instagram. See what’s happening? What are hot topics? And learning those topics? The research know, is on your own?
Sara Sobota
Yeah. And this is one more aside: Have you ever been to art fields?
Rick Sargent
I have never been to art fields. I know, stop. I know, I know. It’s, it’s my own fault. It’s my own fault. Some of that, I’ve submitted fine artwork to art fields that was not accepted. It is one of my goals to have a piece that is accepted that way; a lot of my stuff is more illustration-based rather than more pushing the envelope of arts. I’ve had friends; one of my best friends here, who’s a painter, you know, she got in several years ago, and just spoke highly of that and loved it. And I want to take my kids there, they are now traveling age where we can do that sort of thing. And so, yes, so it’s my own fault. But I want to be part of that.
Sara Sobota
I only ak because I’m so proud of that gem for our state, you know.
Rick Sargent
Yes. It’s amazing. It is so amazing. Yes. Yeah.
Sara Sobota
It’s really nice to have here. Do you have any advice for current college students or pre-professional young adults who are pursuing a career in the creative world?
Rick Sargent
Yes, I do. I would say they are there two main schools of thought for creatives currently. Number one is that you find your thing and do it really, really well. It seems more of a single focus. And so I would, I would say, it’s easy to get distracted from social, in social media and discouraged and say, Well, I’m not that person, and then just quit what you’re doing. I would say, first and foremost, find, figure out what you like, and figure out what you want to do. And what gives you energy, what feeds your creativity, and do that thing and keep going at it. It is a discipline. And so focus on that. And just keep going, keep going, keep going.
Rick Sargent
Draw, sketch. If you are a fanatic about birds. How can you communicate, birds, and do it over and over and over and over and over and over again? The thing is, is to not resist the temptation to have diversity. So, are you an acrylic painter? Are you an oil painter? Are you a sculptor? Do you have a creative inkling to move into other realms? Don’t limit yourself. So, I know it seems like a little bit of a disconnect or contract or I’m contradicting myself a little bit. But at the same time, man, there’s some really cool stuff that you can be involved in, and you’re never going to know that if you follow this little track of creativity it’s going to come back to that other bit that you were just passionate about or like oh, wow, now I see these connections. I’ve had so many things that have strangely connected me and developed my artwork. You name it. sand sculpting, you know, like what? Sure, you know, like sculpting has helped me become a better draw or like a better illustrator, like learning in depth and plains of the face as maybe a better portrait painter by becoming better by sculpting like things that you would never think that could be connected somehow gets connected. So, if there’s something don’t ignore things that give you fire as far as a creative like, Man, that is so interesting. pursue it, learn about it, and figure some things out because it may come back to bless your drawing, so to speak, or enhance your drawing, so to speak, or enhance your other part of your creativity.
Sara Sobota
Yeah, fantastic. Well, that’s all the questions that I have for my interview; you’ve given me so much; I really appreciate it and your input, I know will really be helpful to the students. And there’s also a few other things that we might have going on with creative careers in the future. So, is it okay if I reach out to you again if anything comes up?
Rick Sargent
Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Okay, well, I love talking about this stuff. I love meeting other medical illustrators or other illustrators or aspiring medical illustrators. For you know, Zoom calls, I’ve had text, I’ve had Zoom calls, I’ve had coffee, you know, with with people who are interested in this. So, either that or any sort of creative please let me know.
Sara Sobota
Okay, that sounds great.
Rick Sargent
Yeah.
Sara Sobota
Thank you for your time.
Rick Sargent
You’re welcome, Sarah. Nice to meet you.
Sara Sobota
Have a great weekend, you too. Very nice to meet you. Alright, bye.
