Effective techniques of gaining knowledge of the human form?

[blog]

Hello,

I just wanted to say that only a few months back did I even start enquiring about getting to grips with anatomy. And I was wondering if any of you guys had any processes, activities or anything of the sort that has really helped you with your anatomy?

[Blue]

Well since everyone has just told you to "practice practice practice", i'll share a little more information with you.

I always start with a stick figure (rough skeletal system) then build rough muscles on top, then finally add skin and such. The process ensures i have an anatomically correct figure long before details are added, and if changes are required, all i need to do is correct a stick figure and not an already developed figure. It also helps when you want to mock up whole scenes with proper perspective too.

[figure2]

I was wondering if any of you guys had any processes, activities or anything of the sort that has really helped you with your anatomy?

Absolutely! It's called practice. The more the better.

[Profil]

Blog I still have a shitload to learn about anatomy but I've been getting better latley. What helped me was just to draw and practice and THINK how the bones affect the skin and how it moves etc. God, I don't want to say this but life drawing really helped, so go if you have one near to you, it really helps.

[skullsquid]

Lots of live figure drawing and of course never stop, you keep learning from them.
First get some intro classes and when you have the basics, move on to uninstructed workshops.
Short poses are better than long poses, as you get more mileage out of them.

[blog]

Dude, profil, how the hell did you get into a life drawing class? You're 15, there is age restrictions! They've actually recently started doing life drawing classes in my school, in the art department. Every tuesday or so I think. Do you think I should go? I know it would help tremendously. Any other techniques other than life drawing classes?

[skullsquid]

Copy master drawings all day long, but I would attend the classes, copying can be tedious and boring.

[Interceptor]

draw!heheh.. I find self portraits are a great way to learn

[JERI]

Hello,

I just wanted to say that only a few months back did I even start enquiring about getting to grips with anatomy. And I was wondering if any of you guys had any processes, activities or anything of the sort that has really helped you with your anatomy?

It will sure help if you can find an article all on human proportions (telling you excatly how each body part compare to another).

What I found helpful was to break the human body down into parts. For example, you can choose to break a person into his/her head, torso, hands, arms, thighs, calves, and feet. Then you proceed to study them extensively one by one. Say if you start with hands, you do some sketches of hands to find out how you can draw it best (eg, break it down in to parts again, separate palm from fingers). If you have a model of a hand then it would be perfect (you want to look at it from all angles and perhaps even feel it to get a better idea of its form in 3 dimensions). Once you're happy with hands, repeat for all other body parts. Then you proceed to practice drawing all these parts together as a single person.

[Profil]

ok, here's what is a good way to learn anatomy according to me.
1. Proportions, learn them by heart so when you see something off, you'll notice it.
2. Skeleton.
3. Muscles

then just practice practice practice.

[WildSpruceMoose]

Don't forget DYNAMICS.. we've had enough stiff figures posed figures in art history. You might even want to draw something that ISN'T correct to get the dynamics right.

And rhythym! Even dynmaic poses can appear awkward or stiff if the masses of the body aren't balanced off properly with rhythym. I was in life drawing class the other day and I drew the torso and pelvis going in the same direction instead of opposing each other, that was disastrous.
Most life drawing instructors don't care what someone's age is, if they are willing to learn the human figure that's good enough for them. Unquestionably attend those life drawing clasdses, blog!

[NoSeRider]

I always thought Europe was a little bit more liberal about minors seeing nudity?

Anyway, find a Life Drawing class. I think I attended one when I was sixteen, but I didn't tell anybody.....since people are overly opinionated when you're a teenager. I highly recommend you treat your fellow teenage peers like mushrooms.....keep'm in the dark and feed'm shit.....even treat some adults that way.

Mostly out of fear they might discourage you from taking a life drawing class.

[blog]

Yeah I was knida worried about the shit I'd recieve from peers!

[blog]

And thanks a lot profil, jens, wild spruce moose, noserider for the help. Apprecieate it! I think I should visit the lounge more often. I learn quite a lot from it.

[Necronomicouch]

I always thought Europe was a little bit more liberal about minors seeing nudity?

Yup, correct. There are nude women and men on daytime television after all, and they don't edit their swear words. Personally a boob here and there doesn't offend me either I don't know why its different here.

Figure drawing classes helped me LOADS. There is a definite difference in my art the week before figure drawing classes and the week after I took a few. Its really amazing. Plus seeing the model live and in person helps you think of their body as something 3D rather than attempting to wrap your mind around the contours in your imagination as you would with a photograph.

[dfacto]

Vivisection.


But since that may be a bit illegal, I would suggest that you grab a medical anatomical atlas and learn the inside while you're practicing the outside. Learn the skeleton and the major muscles and you will have a better understanding of how and why the body looks like it does in various poses. Learning these things can even improve your anatomy without any practice whatsoever, because even if you haven't drawn a leg, for example, the knowledge of how it works will stick and automatically improve your image.

Of course, it won't make you a pro, but your pics will benefit anyways.

[Profil]

I didn't recieve shit from my peers. Mostly like: wtf and OMG and LOL and ..... and fist time you saw someone naked? and... no more and
If you are OK with going there, your peers should be the same, but if you don't want to tell, then you, yourself are making it something tabu.

[JustinBeckett]

Study loomisis book, study it hard, Figure drawing for all its worth, if you really stick your nose in it and practise the exact way he says with lots of practise and study you will be able to draw the figure quite well. Also like everyone else says, go to life drawing, it is probably the best practise. The first time i attended life drawing i came home and i could draw with no ref, with pretty good anatomy!

Practise practise practise, as they all say!


Justin.

[blog]

I started life drawing today and you can see the results in mysketchbook soon if you want (offer some C&C) But I found out that theres only like 2-4 sessions left...and that sucks!

I've also started studying burne hogarth's dynamic figure drawing, cause I haven't got bridgeman. And I might start some loomis...maybe.

[blog]

Right, I only have a life drawing session like once a week. And thats not good cause I have 1 long pose and a few 5 min poses. So is there any techniques of preserving studies from life drawing in your head to benefit you when drawing from life? I really am getting confused with anatomy! Are you just meant to study from life and anaomy books and keep 'practicing'? Like wes, marko and lukias, how the hell are they so confident with anatomy? Its mind boggling. Is it cause they've just 'practiced' a lot or is there something else to it? I need to be educated about something that I don't know, I need info guys and gals, its killing me!

[Dan.v.D.]

there´s no secret. it's just lots of thousands of drawings that seperate you and me from real masters.

you know like 10 a day for three years and you've done some 3650.
do it and you'll be better then.

[blog]

well that is very true danvd but how about say a photographic memory. the ability to preserve images in your head for use when drawing from imagination. Or would I need to start a different thread for that. Is there a way to develop this, technique and so on.

[Profil]

draw and draw. There are no shortcuts dude. I know you are searching for one, I did that, I still do sometimes. I've tried to search for every tip that might just help me get that extra mile without doing anything, well.....That tip doesn't exist, it's just practice.

[cotron]

draw from life, a lot.

I've learned the most this way... books are good, but actually doing it helps you "feel" what you're trying to draw. And you know the majority of human anatomy anyway (you do have a body), it's just putting it on paper that's the trick. observe and draw from life as much as you can. you just gotta put the time in.

[blog]

its that simple huh, I need to shutup and draw!

[blog]

BUT, I have a question people. What does studying anatomy actually mean?

[timpaatkins]

yea, blog, the reason youre going to life class is NOT to have a "photograph" of the pose in your head, its for you to better understand how the body works, so you then get the ability to conjure up your
e own poses in your head. Otherwise you might aswell just, well... get a photograph!

cheers Tim

[Redder]

The single best and greatest way, if you have access, to learn about the human form is to participate in a dissection of the human body. If you're college has courses in the medical field talk to the dept. chairman about getting access to a dissection.

[masque]

not to toss in too big a wrench, but for a visual artist human form and human anatomy, while closely associated, are not the same thing. you can study the structure of all the bones and muscles till your eye bleed but still not be able to execute a convincingly foreshortened forearm, or a well-balanced striding figure.

underlying the details are basic forms that need to be kept in mind while drawing, which means that, for example, knowing how light and shadow react on a cylindrical surface, and how a cylinder seen end-on looks, can help solve that foreshortened forearm prob.

human form also, as mentioned, requires learning proportions, the relationship of basic body components' position, size and mass to one another, and the range that such proportions can fall into.

connecting human form and proportion into convincing representations of human motion is yet another aspect that has little to do with anatomical detail. observation of weight distribution in various poses, ranges of flexion and extension for spine, limbs and extremities, and the nuances of gestural expression, can all be learned and portrayed without a great deal of anatomical detail. in fact, overly-rendered detail can sometimes destroy a sense of basic form and sabotage a drawing or painting. an interesting exercise is to look at accomplished artists' work and think about how much was "left out" rather than what was "put in" the work.

even when drawing from life, you should be looking at the interaction of light with the forms of the subject rather than concerning yourself too much with depiction of anatomical detail. having a knowledge of anatomy is useful, but it doesn't represent the totality of human form.

btw, life drawing classes are of course very useful, but drawing from life can also include your chums, your family, the beach, the gym, the park, the mall, the laundromat, well, you get the point, there's humans all over this planet! get a sketchbook and fill it up. again, and again, and again.

[el coro]

its a two step method.
1. looking
2. remembering.
-c36