I’m going to be teaching Life Drawing this semester at Murray State. I’m really excited about the class! These past few weeks I’ve been working on my syllabus and boning up (sorry, I can’t help myself!) on anatomy to get ready to teach.
One of my favorite courses in undergrad was Life Drawing. They only offered one level of the course at my university, but I took it a second time as an independent study because I loved it so much! Ever since, I’ve been a fiend for studying bone structures and superficial muscles because I love to draw hybrid man/beast monsters. Here’s one of my drawings from my Life Drawing Independent Study, where I focused on exaggerating elements of the human form drawn from life:
I’m still working on my exaggerated human forms, these days by hybridizing them with animal figures such as in this sketch:
Even if you’re not particularly interested in drawing the human figure or drawing from life in general, the study of the human form and anatomy is a great way to wrap your mind around complex 3-D forms in space and to find a way to translate these volumes onto a 2-D surface.
In addition to drawings such as these in my sketchbook, I’ve been working on compiling handouts for my students with samples from some of my favorite anatomy texts. Each of these has their limitations, but they work well together to form a fairly good study of the human form in space.
Schider, Fritz. An Atlas of Anatomy for Artists. Dover Publications: 1957.
Barcsay, Jeno. Anatomy for the Artist. Little. Brown Book Group: 2006.
Perard, Victor. Anatomy and Drawing. Dover Publications: 2004.
Simblet, Sarah. Anatomy for the Artist. DK Publishing: 2001.
