My Anatomy Improvement Wishlist

In an effort to improve problem areas of anatomy, I present to you My Anatomy Improvement Wishlist, or exercises I intend to do involving the following:

  • Hands – I still have problems with fingers at foreshortened angles and the joint of the thumb to hand/wrist.
  • Feet – Less troublesome than hands, but still alien to me in their funkiness.
  • Faces – Specifically various facial expressions and different facial types.  To help me draw people who look diverse instead of like myself. Also concentrating on the planes of the face for better understanding of how varying light defines facial features.
  • Arms – Mostly the construction of the bicep/tricep area. The way these muscles interact baffles me.
  • Man crotches – Don’t laugh!  The way pants and clothing drape over this…complex…area of anatomy always looks too tight or just plain flat and weird the way I draw it currently.
  • Man Waists – To help battle my bad habit of drawing men with feminine waists.

How will I fight these difficult areas of anatomy?  With practice…and chocolate (and coffee)!  I’d like to do the 100 drawings of each exercise and will probably shift my studies of life drawing towards planar breakdowns and contour exercises instead of the usual gesture and shaded drawings I’ve been doing with the Pixelovely tool.  They say you have to draw something, 10,000 times to know it completely by memory. I think I’ll just try 100, for starters.

Once this month is up, I’ll probably dump the best picks from my studies here for you all to see.  In the meanwhile, what areas of anatomy do you all have problems with?  How do you plan on combating your problem anatomy areas?

Stay creative!

2 comments

  1. Anonymous says:

    Angela,

    You’ve picked areas of anatomy which I think are difficult for most artists, whether they have have been practicing for years or just starting out! I’m impressed with your dedication to making 100 sketches each of the problem areas (I had to LOL with the “man-crotch” area because I still gloss over that space with conveniently placed items, even though fully clothed). Good luck with all your endeavors and methods to improve! I can’t wait to see what you come up with, and hopefully be inspired to improve those problem areas myself!

    Sincerely,
    Anita Gleason

    • Thanks, Anita! It’s been just as much of a learning exercise researching what KIND of exercises help my particular understanding of a subject. While contour drawings have been great for teaching me about subtle textures, planar drawings help me to think more about light and how it hits the areas of the body.

      There’s lots to do and learn, but I’m glad to hear my studies might help other people! Good luck to us both.:)

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