Anatomy: Where To Start?
Does it help an artist to know that one of the main muscles in the neck is called the sterno-cleido-mastoideus? Probably not. But it is critical for an artist to know how this muscle affects the surface and shapes the neck. These long Latin-sounding muscle names are merely describing its shape, size and/or location. For example, “sterno-cleido-mastoideus” is really just saying that the muscle originates at the sternum (sterno), fans over to the collarbone (cleido), and then inserts on the scull just behind the ear (mastoideus).
You Don’t Have To Know Everything
Anatomy is like chess or photoshop – you simply can’t (and maybe shouldn’t) know it all. My favorite anatomy instructor used to say, ” I know so much about anatomy that I am no longer a good artist”. After teaching anatomy for so many years it dawned on me what he meant. When you know so much you want to show all you know about every little subtlety of every muscle and you end up losing the dynamic shape of the muscle or the overall pose of your subject.
So, Where Do You Start?
I used to tell my anatomy students if you forget all the muscle names and most everything we talk about here in class just remember this (if you are drawing an adult):
- Divide the body into eight head heights
- The first is the head the second is the breast nipples
- The third is the location of the navel
- The fourth is the anatomical center or crotch
- Now use two head heights for the upper leg and two for the lower leg
While this quick distillation is an abomination to serious anatomy students, it will get your sketches looking human. And that’s a good place to start!
We are proportionately similar but characteristically very different.
Dave Messing
Remember, we (humans) are proportionately similar but characteristically very different. When you learn anatomy you better understand our proportional similarities. When you observe your subject you see their unique characteristics. This combination of drawing what you “know” and what you “see” will really help your figure drawing!
Stay tuned! Because of my love for anatomy I will be posting many fun and easy ways to learn alignment and proportion, facial feature subtleties and revealing the many functional and beautiful differences in the male and female body.
