Sunday, April 6, 2008

Dem Bones

My first figure drawing class is probably the only other class that, had I been the teacher, I would have handled a little differently. My main criticism is that we never did any anatomy studies – one would think that would be standard. I know that other instructors did require anatomy studies, and I took those instructors later in my education. But, I guess by that time they assumed we had all done it.

I do remember my instructor, a visiting artist from England, came into class one day after her review. She ranted that she had been criticized for not teaching “certain things” (not named) that she was never told she was supposed to teach. Fair enough – a lack of communication.

Of course, there was no one tying my hands behind my back, keeping me from doing it myself. But, as I mentioned in the previous post, I didn’t exactly have the spare time or the drive to pursue more projects beyond what I already had to do.

Anyway, that was then and this is now. So, for the last couple of break times at work, instead of drawing from an animal field guide, I grabbed an anatomy book off the shelf. I started with the basics – overall skeleton, hands, and feet. I only get 15 minutes to work on this stuff, so it’s a little rough. But, it does add to my understanding – in particular, the way the bones of the lower arm are turned when it’s in a relaxed position (shown in the arm on our right). The other thing I noticed was how long the bones of the pinky are. One often thinks of the pinky as the smallest digit. But, when you look at the bones that make up each finger (sans all flesh), it's longer than the thumb.

There are some more bone studies I want to do, but I’m looking forward to doing the muscle studies. That will be quite useful for capturing the fleshier parts of the figure. Then I’ll be able to put it all together in my work.

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