Research Point - Anatomy

Several books that I have been looking it on the subject of anatomy, the first Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters by  Robert  Beverly which looks at works including Michelangelo, Rubens, Botticelli, Rodin and describes the the creative process with reference to these works for example identify the sphere and egg shapes that can been found in the of Michelangelo's Studies for The Libyan Sibyl.

As you make expect the book includes Leonardo da Vinci's  Canon of Proportions. The author makes and interesting observation, that these ideals of proportion appealed to him as a man living in the fifteenth century Italy... An Asian man performing the same investigations made not have found these proportions suitable.

From Canon of Proportion's we learn that the the following measurements

• Nipple line is one head below the chin
• The pubic bone is halfway done the figure
• The upper and lower legs are two heads high
• The head is divided in to three equal parts from the hair line down

Studies done from this book 

1) Andreas Vesalius, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, 1543

In this study focusing on picking out what in my mind are the main muscles

2) Peter Paul Rubens, Study for Abraham and Melchizedek

3) Raphael Sanzio, Study of David after Michelangelo

Here I am thinking abouts the tension in the muscles in the pose being held, have read that that it is advisable to experience the pose for yourself that you are trying to draw so that you can feel which muscles are doing the work.

4) Jacopo da Pontormo, Male Nude

Real sense of limbs in his drawing, almost like they are not fully under control .. like a young dog that still has to grow into its paws.

Another book/magazine that I have been looking at is Anatomy essential (from the makers of Imagine FX).  Introduces you to Reilly's method and talks about the importance of identifying the gesture line and the "landmarks"

• Pit of the neck
• Points of the shoulder bones
• Bottom of the ribcage
• Peaks of the hip bones
• Bottom of the crotch
• Kneecaps
• Ankles
• Big toes

Viewing the figure from the back you would plot the

• Shoulder blades
• The Sacrum (triangle patch of dimples at the bottom of the lower back

Attended a short course, two evenings, that looked at anatomy from the  point of view of an artist.

On the first evening we looked at the skeleton covering the  types of bones the skeleton is made up of. There  are I believe over 200 bones in the body all of which can be considered one of the following:

• Long bone :  Limbs, fingers and toes
• Short bone:  Wrist and the ankle bones
• Flat bones:  Shoulder blades, pelvis and ribs
• Irregular: Vertebrae, bones of the face
• Sesamoid: Found with in  tendons, hyoid in the neck and the knee cap

We then looked at the joints functions, studying a skeleton and other bone movements. One movement that I hadn't appreciated was the way the two long bones in the lower arm (Radius and Ulna) cross over when you rotate your lower arm and hand.

Once we had studied the skeleton, we drew some match stick action people showing roughly were we felt the main bones should be placed.

Also looked at Disney's early interpretation of skeletons, The skeleton dance.

Finished first session, by drawing the skeleton

  

Second evening looked at the muscular system

Types of movement:

Concentric: Muscle attachments pulled closer together
Eccentric: Muscle pays out in a controlled, slowing down movement against gravity e.g., sitting down.

Finished the session by drawing from a live model, positioned, series of short poses to bring, to highlight the muscle definition