Anatomy Basics: The Skeleton of the Back

The Back

As we move down from the neck, the next group of muscles we will look at we at will be those of the back. I find the back one of the more interesting yet difficult areas of the body to draw. There is so much happening in the back that it is easy to get lost in the forms of the muscles as they weave together to  create the large mass that is the back. Learning what muscles make those forms and how they move the body makes the process easier when translating what we see into a drawing.

Before we start looking the muscles we need to look at the skeletal structure that supports them.  

Today we will identify the major components that make up the skeleton of the torso as seen from the back.

Drawing Basics: Proportions of the Arm

Proportion is it is all about the relative relationships of the parts to each other and to the whole form. When drawing the human figure, we can use one part of the figure  as a guiding measurement to compare the size relationships of the other forms found in the figure.

There are many approaches to this and artists have used different parts of the body as guides for figure proportions. The guide I was taught and use, is to compare distances between points on the body with the length of the head as the standard of measurement. You may often see the figure height described in head lengths when artists discuss proportion of the human form. This simplifies the process of evaluating the relative sizes of the figure and its parts by allowing us to work from one reference point.

Today, we will look at the proportions of the arm as it compares to the measurement of a head.

Drawing Basics: How to draw a pineapple, part 1

Detail of pineapple leaves

Using shape is one way to simplify complex forms into more manageable information that we can use to build on to create that form. Looking for the large simple shapes in an object first, then working down to the smaller ones, we can find a starting point to build up the structures.

Today, we are going to draw a pineapple to break down the process of drawing realistic form by using two dimensional shape information. We will  look at how to manage the information in order to make it easier to draw as we evaluate the size and location of the shapes in the pineapple.

I thought it would be a good exercise to show the process of drawing something with plenty of forms interlocking and texture on the surface. The drawing process below is only one approach to doing this. There are other ways to handle the same problems this form presents, but you may find this particular approach useful.

How the process is broken down into steps is somewhat arbitrary, as well. We could combine steps to make less or separate steps into more. I want include as much information as possible without making this process seem overwhelming. My goal here is to provide one technique useful in dividing the information we see into steps that make seeing and drawing easier.

Let's begin.

Drawing Basics: 3 point perspective

After reviewing one point and two point perspective we can now look at three point perspective.

Today we use a box drawn in three point perspective to better understand how to construct a scene using three point perspective.