About learning human anatomy efficiently

[wolfnooM]

Hi everyone,

I´m studying human anatomy right now, but I’m moving slowly, it´s hard to understand the shapes in 3D.

When I´m drawing humans from references sometimes I enter in "automatic mode" and I completely forgot what I´m drawing, I realized that just copying isn´t enough, so I searched for books, I found that loomis and bridgman have a good reputation so I´m going to read those.

What I would like to know is if anyone knows any kind of tips, tricks or whatever to improve the learning process. I´ve been searching but I don´t find too much information. For me that kind of mental stuff is extremely important so anything will be appreciated.

thank you

here is my SB
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/sho...d.php?t=243754

[artenemy]

Hi,I'm also studying human anatomy and I know what you mean - hard and slow process!I am afraid I am full of prejudice on both eastern and western schools - I think the secret is to combine the best of both - personally I study from the anatomy of Bammes, http://www.amazon.com/Die-Gestalt-Me...bammes+anatomy
I think you can't find it in English though... But it has great simplified structures of complicated human shapes. The other one I use is Goldfinger's
http://www.amazon.com/Human-Anatomy-...bammes+anatomy
He has good deep study but a little too medical than artistic I think!So the combination is the best!
And lately I found this guy http://www.scott-eaton.com/, I haven't tried him but he looks like someone who knows what he's doing!
And of course the most important is practice practice practice and don't give up!(keep on telling this to myself too) But don't forget to have rests of course and praise yourself for the work you've done ( I don't agree with the idea of studying as a machine when you're totally frustrated)
Hope I've helped!Good luck!

[briggsy@ashtons]

Noomwolf, I know what you mean about going onto automatic pilot. Even after you have learnt anatomy, for a while you need to keep pushing yourself to put your knowledge to work.

From the fact that you are trying to "understand the shapes in 3D", and from the skull and head drawings in your sketchbook, you seem to be on the right track. The main tips are "bones before muscles" and "big things before little things", and don't move on to the little things until you can visualize the big things in your mind and in your model, and nail them in your drawing. Observe 2D shape, explain that observed shape in terms of 3D anatomical construction, and then model the visible 3D form over that foundation.

artenemy, I agree about using Goldfinger in combination with other books, such as Bammes (which is great). Goldfinger is very detailed but also very clear, so it can be helpful for looking up anything you find confusing in one of your other books. Unlike an actual medical anatomy book, it only covers the things that you actually might see when drawing, but it does cover all of those. A better introductory book is Stephen Rogers Peck Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist, which is full of diagrammatic tips on proportions and mass conceptions.

[artenemy]

Briggsy,THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all the links you've posted!!!

[Jacobiahs]

When sculpting in 3D Goldfinger is indispensable. It's all those extras that are crammed in there. A few other great books are by Frederic Delavier. He is a body builder but also a great technical artist his books cover some comparative anatomy which is very useful. The best thing about these books though is that they show you what the muscles are used for. He has a great blog http://www.fredericdelavier.com/ if you can't speak French get google to translate it.

Cheers for the heads up artenemy I'm just enjoying your link to the Scott Eaton blog.

[wolfnooM]

Thank you very much for all your answers

artenemy Bammes it´s too german for me but I like what I see in Goldfinger's book, seems like a very complete book, have a lot of stuff.
And yeah I try to don’t frustrate myself, I find that the right attitude is critical in the artistic way. I try to enjoy the learning process as much as I can. I just think it´s weird the lack of posts about this kind of matters. They are so important.

briggsy@ashtons Really nice tips thank you , what you said reminds me of one thing I read in a anatomical book by Sarah Simblet, basically she said to draw side poses of laid down people from above completely from imagination, and it was quite amazing, after that when I copied the ref I started to feel the deepness of things, and understanding more the model.

Jacobiahs But I was meaning understanding shapes in 3D in my mind to apply in 2D, but I enjoyed the blog thank you

[briggsy@ashtons]

Briggsy,THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all the links you've posted!!!

You're very welcome artenemy! Actually the anatomy links on my teaching site are overdue for an update, but I mean to fix that for my workshop at our National Art School next week.