[jfrancis]

a/k/a "Fun With Poser!"

The problem with leafing through anatomy books is that you get the impression you are learning more than perhaps you really are. You think you've learned something, but when you go to apply it later, it all seems so vague.

For me, a systematic approach and plenty of repetition are what help me really learn the details.

The poser skeleton is not perfect, but it's not too bad. I like to render it in different positions and print the skeleton poses onto work sheets. For each pose, I find a muscle -- the deltoid, say -- and I draw it in position onto every skeleton worksheet I have.

When you have to really place it, you have to take the time to see exactly where on the clavicle the anterior head goes, and exactly where on the scapula the rest of it goes.



Same with the rhomboids. Here as well, you have to see from just which edges of the scapula they come, and just how high on the spine they go.

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Why do all this?

If you know and can draw a skeleton, and if you know and can place the muscles, you'll have gone a long way toward drawing complex, well realized figures from nothing more than your imagination. And regardless of how important life drawing may be -- it's a fun thing to be able to do without reference now and again.

[Nausicaa]

Hi--

I went myself to a Jesuit Art College and I remember the anatomy classes very well. We had to learn all this stuff by heart (was hell, lol) still, I don't remember the details now...14 years later. Your system seems to be very interesting. Where did you get that skeleton from? Is that something downloadable somewhere? (In case you made this, congratulations--and didn't mean to offend)

Thanks,

Naus
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Nausicaa

[jfrancis]

The skeleton is really from Poser.

Poser is a program a lot of people have that allows them (they think) to make computer-generated figure reference. Unfortunately, what they really seem to do with it is pose things badly and then present the rendered output as if they themselves had painted it. One reason it is hard to pose figures using Poser is that there is no true weight and gravity. In a real walking figure, for example, the weight-bearing leg drives the hip up, and the hip over the free leg sags with gravity. In Poser, the artist has to add the hip roll manually -- assuming he or she even know enough to do it.

Poser has an output mode that produces skeletons. I used that.

The idea here is I'm trying to come up with a system for myself that teaches me through repetition of simple steps. Once you find the deltoids in 10 randomly oriented skeletons, you pretty much know it. Then you can move on to another muscle or muscle group and repeat the process.