Term 2, Anatomy I — Torso, Week 1
For a description of this unit see my Anatomy I unit plan. For full context, see the description of my Art Home School Curriculum.
Retrospective
This was a slow week. I drew about as many hours as I normally do, but the types of assignments I was working on were new enough to really slow me down. There was a time when learning and drawing all the bones in the body would have sounded boring, but I’ve actually been enjoying it.
Log
Drawings and Critiques
Monday, Feb. 15
Copy David Finch.
You can see a professional artist draw this same image here.
Anatomy tracing.
This exercise was really difficult, not because I don’t know where all the muscles are, but because I’m still really new to digital art. My hand-eye coordination with a drawing tablet is really bad. I didn’t do any erasing or use undo because I want to be able to track my progress. This exercise returns throughout the proko anatomy course, so hopefully my future attempts have cleaner lines.
Digital warmup.
Just practicing straight lines with a drawing tablet.
Hand drawing of anatomy tracing.
This wasn’t an assignment in the proko course, but I needed to get some confidence back after fumbling around with the tablet.
Tuesday, Feb. 16
Copy Finch.
Once I’m satisfied with the proportions, I start adding some line weight and making the contour more interesting. The little x’s remind indicate the areas I need to fill in black.
Anatomy tracing.
The first is my attempt before watching the instructor demo, and the second is after. I didn’t really take my time to make these nice. It’s tough starting over with a new medium.
Types of joints.
These are simplifications of joints. It felt more like a perspective exercise than an anatomy exercise, and as you can see, my perspective is rusty.
Digital warmups.
Wednesday, Feb. 17
Copy Finch.
Finished the contour and starting to fill in the interior.
Digital warmup.
Anatomy tracings.
Types of joints.
My perspective was a little better today. This almost felt like a different medium because I was trying to use graphite and my drawing board. Usually when I work with graphite it’s on a flat desk. I wanted to work on bigger paper (14" x 17") so I used the drawing board. Circles and ellipses are easier to draw for me with the thumb on top of the pencil.
Simplified bones.
This is a loose lay-in that I finish tomorrow.
Thursday, Feb. 18
Copy Finch.
Everything is still going smoothly.
Digital warmup.
Anatomy tracings.
Joint simplification.
This was hard work because I’ve had a break from perspective for a while. I like how the elbow turned out though. I had trouble getting the concave ellipse of the ellipsoid joint.
Friday, Feb. 19
Copy Finch.
Digital warmup.
Anatomy tracings.
Glad to be done with these for now.
Joint simplification.
Saturday, Feb. 20
Copy Finch.
Finally finished. I really like how it turned out. I think the shape of his left hand is a little off. Also his left kneepad isn’t quite the right ellipse for that perspective. I feel like I got the proportions down pretty good though.
Joint simplification.
After I got back into the hang of perspective drawing, these became fun. It’s cool to try to design a set of simplified shapes that could work together to mimic a joint in the body. It’s like figuring out little machines.
Sunday, Feb. 21
Spine exercises.
The focus of these is on the spine, and how it connects the three major masses of the body: head, rib cage, and pelvis.
Hopefully I can pick up the pace a little next week. At this rate I won’t even get to any muscles before the unit is over.
