Official Anatomy Thread

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

Thanks dennis that really helped! 

[0xDB]

I am glad, so a tiny part of the A+ you will get for that paper is mine!

[Mr. Fahrenheit]

I am glad, so a tiny part of the A+ you will get for that paper is mine!

I better hope so here is a tantalizing glimpse of my paper about the square cube law! (I didn't use that exact video, but one by the same guy):

I would've spoilered that if I could find the button, and sorry about the offtopic, I'll stop now... 

[Friend]

what do you all find to be the best approach to not just learning the anatomy but how to draw it in all kinds of poses and situations?

Secondly, as a beginner, can anyone with good proficiency suggest how to begin?  Do I emulate photos?  Do I create my own pieces?  When making my own, how can I develop an eye to see my own flaws, especially when to me it looks solid?

[Âme]

First ever attempt at a skull today. I used the loomis method for the proportions of the head, but the chin doesn't seem low enough. The face looks like it needs to be longer to be realistic. It has a more cutesie feel, but I think I might actually like that.

First anatomy post! Yay!  Hopefully I can get into the swing of things and post one of these at least once a week. Comments and critique appreciated.

Edit: the eye sockets are also much to high. The line cutting through them should be the brow line

[Night]

As you noted, the face does indeed need to be longer in order to be proportionally accurate; the forehead especially (not only the jaw).
One major problem is the connection you have drawn between the temporal and zygomatic, in reality there's a hole between the connection, which creates a tube-like bone on the side of the skull.

[Âme]

New one. Brows are in a better spot now. I tried to use a photo of a real skull instead of just images in my anatomy books, but I wasn't as focused today, so I just drew without looking at reference as much as I should have.

The red lines above and below are where I feel like the skull should be at height wise. I'm not quite ready to give up on the Loomis proportions since it seems like they should work and because everyone considers the methods in his book to be great learning tools. I just don't know why it doesnt seem to work on my skull. Obviously your skull can't be longer than your head.

Here's a sort of ok image of the proportions


I mainly followed proko's instructions in
How to Draw the Head - Front View: http://youtu.be/z4ZLkyTuX_w

Final notes for this- the Zygomatic process looks better, but maybe out to far, and the top sides of the cranium seem to angular or bumpy. Should the eye sockets be smaller?

[Night]

You can't directly apply the proportions of the face to those of the skull, lots of things are totally different; and the main proportions you're going for (the roughly 3 noses in a face rule) isn't very applicable for the skull, considering flesh adds a lot of different variables to the face.

The main problem is the width of skull. The eye sockets are far too big, and also too far out from each other. Fixing that will pretty much solve the problem with the proportions I feel (perhaps narrow down the cranial a bit too, to fit with the smaller orbit size).

[Âme]

Bleh.  little better proportion wise, but the shading I did on the last one looked waaaay cooler. Didnt get much/any sleep, so I was lazy with that and with references again. I must not have been paying very much attention to what I was doing because usually i scribble notes all over the page while I draw. Things I like, don't like, need to improve, stuff I notice I'm doing or not doing, anything that seems off, etc. None today, at least not till I was done and noticed they weren't there. Hopefully I will be more focused when drawing the next one.

You can't directly apply the proportions of the face to those of the skull, lots of things are totally different; and the main proportions you're going for (the roughly 3 noses in a face rule) isn't very applicable for the skull, considering flesh adds a lot of different variables to the face.

Shouldn't it still work as a rough guide though? I mean, muscle doesn't add anything height wise and the features remain in the same general places as a blank, emotionless face. The nose is over the nasel cavity, the teeth go in the mouth, and the eyes aren't going to leave their sockets.

The main problem is the width of skull. The eye sockets are far too big, and also too far out from each other. Fixing that will pretty much solve the problem with the proportions I feel (perhaps narrow down the cranial a bit too, to fit with the smaller orbit size).

Completely agree that the eye sockets were/are the main problem. Fixed? How else can I improve?

[Night]

You really should look up some references and analyse the skull, study it, make your observations about it, etc. And preferably real-life skulls ,as that'll give you a really good understanding of what's going on(if you look up "3D CT scans skull" or something like that, you'll find plenty of useful images I believe, aside from some regular photos of a skull).

A rough guide, perhaps.
Muscle does add height (or length rather), in a sense, especially to the chin( this is very visible from a side view). With the nose (or at least what you would mostly consider the nose) you have to keep in mind that it's all basically cartilage and fat. If you look at a skull's profile you can see that there is a small tail-like protrusion under the nasal cavity, to which the cartilage attaches; so it is basically, in most people, just below the nasal cavity.
 The opening of the mouth, from my observation, tends to be on top of the upper teeth, rather than in between the teeth.
You got me with the eyes, they're pretty much in the middle of the eye socket. 

The length of the skull vertically seems proportionally alright right now, I feel that the main issue now is the whole maxilla-zygomatic connection area. I'm not exactly sure how to describe that connection, but think of the maxilla like something in the shape of a horseshoe, to which the zygomatic connects to, from the middle of the side (of the horseshoe) and to the front (I guess that what I take issue to right now is that the connection seems to be at the edge of the mouth, right before the teeth, while in reality it is not like that).

Here is an edit I did to one side of the skull, to my point a bit more clear.