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Introduction to the Form, Gesture, Anatomy Course
The Form, Gesture, Anatomy Course combines artistic anatomy, life drawing and fundamental drawing skills training
Overview
Ultimately, the aim is to help the student to see the figure in spatial, anatomical and gestural essentials, and to deal with this information efficiently and directly.
This course is made up of eight lessons, with each lesson comprised of a section of:
Fundamentals of Form - the key knowledge of geometric form and organic form depicted in line and also in light and shadow
The Elements of Classical Figure Drawing - Life drawing, from the nude model, exploring techniques around accuracy, form, anatomical landmarks, design principles and composition, gesture and movement and exaggeration
Simplified Anatomy - a simplified, colour coded écorché (flayed anatomical figure) in which the student builds the coloured clay onto a 360mm 3D-printed skeleton armature (available for order in mid February 2020)
(If you are doing the course from home and don’t have access to a life session or life model, I have included a range of sources for photographic reference of the model that you can get started with in the resources page, available to subscribers and free trial members (though ultimately you will be better served working from life since much is lost in translation with photography - try googling your city + life drawing session, they are very common in many places)
The Elements of Classical Figure Drawing:
The life drawing component will involve methods for capturing the form, gesture and anatomy of the figure from poses ranging from 30 seconds to 2 hours. There is a series of guided activities for the student to work through, suggested extension homework.
In my in-person classes, this will be accompanied by many demonstrations, and I have a series of video demonstrations planned (subscribe for updates to stay informed about workshops and video content).
Simplified Anatomy - a colour-coded simplified écorché:
This course was designed for classroom teaching and I have produced a 360mm 3D printed skeleton, onto which students can lay in the key muscle groups in colour coded plasticine. (Available by mail order in mid February 2020, but in the meantime you can use the course notes and embedded 3D digital models to explore artistic anatomy through drawings or plasticine on an armature at home.)
Purpose:
The purpose is to give an overview of the distribution of the masses and function of the body, the bony landmarks and the ways that these elements create the characteristic appearance of the body in different poses, both for the purpose of facilitating more in depth study later, as well as offering directly the the main essentials that are taken away from even the most detailed study of anatomy .
Simplification:
Since we are attempting to simplify artistic anatomy to its broadest essentials, there are many forms to be grouped together or left out entirely. In particular, elements that not superficial or do not impact the surface forms greatly will be left out. We will focus instead on the general forms and arrangement of muscles and how they contribute to the characteristic forms of the human body, as well as the bony landmarks and the most important bony structures (such as the pelvis and ribcage) that organise the more mobile, soft tissue such as muscles and tendons.
Summary
This course aims to conceptually integrate the life drawing activities with the écorché: the student can investigate each region or aspect of the figure both through the 2D activity of drawing on a flat surface, and the tactile 3D experience of sculpting the écorché.
Ultimately, the aim is to help the student to see the figure in spatial, anatomical and gestural essentials, and to deal with this information efficiently and directly.
