Spinal Study

The second addition to my Bone Anatomy Studies is the Spinal Column.

This was a difficult study as there are so many bones to the spine!

There are 3 groups of bones that make up the majority of the spine.

1. Cervical Vertebrae
2. Thoracic Vertebrae
3. Lumber Vertebrae

At the bottom of the spinal column it finishes with the Sacrum and Coccyx. It is the Sacrum that connects the hips to the spine.

There are 7 Cervical Vertebrae, 12 Thoracic Vertebrae, and 5 Lumber. Within each section the bones follow the same sort of shape; varying only slightly in size (mainly), getting larger as they go down.

The Cervical Vertebrae make up the neck, Thoracic Vertebrae holds the rib cage, and the Lumber Vertebrae are the largest supporting the bottom of the spine.

In terms of drawing the spine these are the tips I picked up: 

• rough out the spine with 3 lines; The centre line, and the edges where it makes connections to the ribs.
• It is roughly the shape of an 'S' with a small flick at the bottom for the Sacrum and Coccyx.
• Until the Lumber Vertebrae the Spinal Process (the bits that follow stick out of the centre line) are the main bits to draw, as the Transverse Process (the bits that stick out the side) connect to the ribs along the Thoracic Vertebrae.

Finally, I learnt how to spell vert-E-brae...

Skull Study

First step to skeletal anatomy study. The Skull:

This sketch was produced with the normal 2H and 3B pencils that I like to use.

The first skull I drew (top left, small) went wrong because I got the proportions wrong on the eye and nose! Whoops.

Whilst studying the skull I tried to pick up shapes I could use to draw it again without reference (hence the middle strip).

Certain things I discovered that were useful to know about the skull are as follows:

• The mouth is curved, not flat/straight.
• The cheek bones (Zygomaticus [?]) flow out the the same width as the cranium.
• The Jaw + bottom row of teeth (this group is otherwise is known as the Mandible) are separate bones.
• The inward cave on the side of the skull are to house the Temporal, a muscle that is used to move the jaw sideways as well as up and down.
• The eye socket from the front view, can be drawn as a pinched rectangle with rounded corners. One must remember that the eye socket is where the bone bends round into the skull. It is not just a hole in the Frontal.
• The technique of starting with a ball for the cranium and not just a standard egg shape works well. However to help with the direction, a box is useful to establish perspective.

Sketch Dump

So this post is mainly a dump of sketches which I've been meaning to post up for about a 2 weeks now... oops.

I'll start with life drawing:

(Left handed)

(An experiment with felt tip)

(Drawn using more shading, mainly drawing from the inside out!)

(Left Handed)

The following are a few doodles, more coming soon (planning to do some more drawing right now :) )

(Hand/Arm study)

(Elf, 9 heads tall)

(Dwarf (4 heads tall)

Mudbox

So far we've had 2 Mudbox lesson, and these are the two turntable's I have produced.

The first lesson was getting used to the tools in mudbox:

The second lesson was about using reference, and then applying the texture to the face. We had a fun little twist where we did something different on the back - my Old guy was a robot all along! :o