Discover new ways of Drawing Anatomy

by Vincenzo

 

Why bother drawing anatomy? why bother learning anatomy? What's the point? Are you supposed to learn all that information that come with it, muscles, bones and all the rest to become a good artist!?

Why should you punish yourself in the process?

 

 

 

Learning how to draw anatomy is not difficult, really! The only problem with learning and drawing anatomy is that it is hard to learn the right way. We think is very difficult to find a book or a course where anatomy for artists is thought in a useful and usable way!

 

We found there are two lines of thoughts when it comes to teach anatomy to artists. Either the "anatomy for the artist" type (with a lot of half naked people drawn roughly and with drawings of random bones every two or three pages) or plain medical books with hundreds of names and details of every minute muscle in our body with figures normally posed really stiffly.

 

We believe both approaches are pretty useless when it comes to teach anatomy for art.

 

The problem is that both approaches do not specifically and explicitly contain the kind of information we artists need when we are studying anatomy.

 

If you really want to create believable figures (human or animal or humanoid) and you want to pose them freely you need to know what happens under the skin of your subject.. and I mean how muscles behave under the skin. ( if you are copying a subject or drawing from a real or photographic model it's everything easier obviously).

 

There are two things that you really need to know:

 

1. You need to know the shapes of the muscles you are going to draw, their form and volume and how they change with the contraction.

 

2. And you need to know the relationship between muscles and bones. Not just how they are positioned relatively to one another, but exactly how the movement of one influences the other and vice-versa.

 

Wow! this seems like a lot of stuff, you might think. Well, yes and no.

 

First of all, this does not apply to ALL the muscles and bones in our body but just to the principal groups. You should start with them, familiarizing with the main groups and subsequently adding knowledge and anatomic detail to your drawings.

 

It's easier than you think. (it requires work and dedication though).

 

Having these two principles in mind, here at the Drawing Factory we are creating guides and tutorials that will give you exactly this type of knowledge. We think that drawing anatomy shouldn't be a chore, on the contrary! It should be fun and challenging.

 

Let me make just an example. Once you have learnt where and how the biceps, the bigger muscle of the arm, is attached to the skeleton (it's attached in fact onto many points) and how its shape changes when contracted or relaxed, you will be able to draw a perfect arm with a bulging/relaxed biceps in any position and from any angle.

 

You'll know how that muscle moves compared to other muscles and you'll be able to position AND draw it realistically and correctly.

 

And you know what? If you want you can disregard the rules and draw it as you please BUT, you'll know exactly what you are doing! You will have cracked the code that make the anatomy drawings of certain artists so terrific.

 

Enjoy our collection of articles now and have fun drawing anatomy!

 

how to draw eyes thumb

How to draw eyes: a simple technique

part 1 | Part 2

Vincenzo
face drawing thumb

Face drawing: the set up of a face

Vincenzo
face drawing sideview

Face drawing: the profile

Vincenzo
nose drawing thumb

Nose drawing tutorial: Nose geometry and placement

Vincenzo
hand thumb

How to draw hands: the proportions

Vincenzo
how to draw faces

How to draw faces

Vincenzo
face drawing tutorial

How to draw a face: male character

Part 1 | Part 2

Vincenzo

 

 

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