ANATOMY: Going Pro

Steven Pressfield. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles

ANATOMY: The Bicep & Shoulder

Here is a couple of videos from Ryan Kingslein, founder of ZBrush Workshops.

Ryan is a pro at the approach to understanding anatomy and the work flow involved, using ZBrush, in acheiving perfect results with your sculpt.

http://www.visualarium.com/

http://www.zbrushworkshops.com/

http://www.anatomy-for-artists.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/rkingslien

Classical Anatomy for Artists: Anatomy App

Looking forward to the release of this Anatomy app:

Zack Petroc

Gnomonology.com have just released Part One of Zack Petroc's 'The Form Of Anatomy Series'.

The One Hour lecture discusses issues of anatomical structure, demonstrated on Zacks own multi-part maquette of skeleton and muscle groups. Zack starts by covering landmarks on the skeleton and the rhythms of it's gesture, then group by group he introduces the muscles, their origins and insertions.

The whole lecture is fascinating and nods towards an excellent series. The lecture is demonstrated with ZBrush but strictly sticks to anatomical discussion so is approachable from any artist interested in Mastering the Human Form.

This first Chapter covers:

• Skeleton Landmarks
• Muscle Origins and Insertions
• Muscle Group Gestures
• Rhythms of the Muscle Groups
• Weight and Balance
• Reading Form through Silhouette

Can't wait for the next chapter, Zack has mastered the anatomy and it fantastic listening to his lectures. The model used in this series is also available for download at Zack's website here://www.zackpetroc.com/

I first learned of Zack when Gnomon released Digital Sculpting - Human Anatomy - a lecture which covers the 'outer' Human Form working in Maya then moving on to surface details in ZBrush.  There are several other available videos from Zack here://gnomonology.com/inst/17 including the 'Making of Ramboillet' and 'Female Anatomy' Tutorials.

 

Also there is an interesting tutorial written by Zack over at://www.computerarts.co.uk/

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Skull Sculpt

I have began a sculpt, in wax of a human skull which I’ll document through the sculpting, moulding and casting process.

The first duty was gathering reference. I scanned the below image from ‘Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist’ by Stephen Rogers Peck. An excellent book which I highly recommend as one of THE anatomy books worth buying.

I arranged the scans in Photoshop and printed out, in correct scale, as a template for my sculpt.

Using my Verniers (below) I can take measurements direct from the drawing to check against the sculpt. This helps keep to scale and check accuracy faster than using the eye.

The sculpt was begun by applying ‘wet’ wax to a component which broke from an old camera tripod. The handle sticking from the base of the skull can be unscrewed from the broken part which is buried inside the sculpt. Handy for holding up the skull during sculpting and removable for photographing and when it comes to casting.

The lower jawbone (mandible) is a separate component which I’ll make so that it can be hinged onto the cast and swung open/closed.

One annoyance I now have, having worked digitally is the fact I have to work on both sides of the model! In ZBrush you work with symmetry switched on so you can happily work away on one side of the head, for instance, and the other side is automatically replicated as you work. No such joy with wax. It takes twice as long and you have to match the symmetry of the work as you go. Huh.

I find I progress one side more rapidly than the other and replicate the work across when I’m happy with what I’ve done.

to be continued…

Pan and Daphnis

In Greek mythology, Daphnis (from Gk. daphne, "laurel" or "bay-tree") was a son of Hermes and a Sicilian nymph. A shepherd and flutist, he was the inventor of pastoral poetry. A naiad (possibly Echenais or Nomia) fell in love with him, but he was not faithful to her. In revenge, she either blinded him or turned him to stone. Pan also fell in love with him and taught him to play the pan pipes.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphnis)

(Above)
Marble statue of Pan teaching Daphnis to play the pipes.
2nd century CE. Roman copy of a 2nd century BCE Greek original.
Archeological Museum, Naples.

(Above) Pan Seducing Daphne - looks like he's about to get a sandal wrapped around his chops.

Pan and Maenad ( http://www.ancientsculpturegallery.com/ )

(Above) Pan Raping Goat - He gets himself about (No information found)

“I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend

Everlasting world without end!

Mannikin, maiden, maenad, man,

In the might of Pan.”

– Hymns to Pan (1929)  Aleister Crowley

What Next...

The course ended a couple of weeks back and since I have stepped away to get some perspective on the past months.

I started this digital journey in September and have fallen for the process. The control over the character is the greatest asset of ZBrush. Utilising Layers many alternate versions of the character can be contained within a single tool.

ZBrush still has many features which remain either unused or barely explored. ZBrush combines the disciplines of drawing, painting, modelling and sculpting... and it does all well. Very well.

For now I will continue with the Minotroll, making his arm in Maya. The next step is to begin to build a libary or 'graveyard' of characters and tools. When you have many assets it is easy to steal parts from each... hands from this guy, legs from here, this old head... Frankenstein modeling, or kit bashing it is known as - it basically helps get the base mesh of your character together quicker.

So I plan to:

1) build a base mesh.

2) Adapt this to get a male and female form.

3) From these two meshes adapt each further to make three specific but still basic body shapes. Which will represent the athletic, thin and obese forms. From these I could develop any amount of humanoid characters. These will give a good base of assets to begin with for further projects.

The three ideal forms are based upon the somatotypes (endomorphic, mesomorphic, and ectomorphic) a simplistic classification of body types, developed in the 1940s by American psychologist William Sheldon.

Below is an example of somatotypes from the book: Figure Drawing without a Model, Ron Tiner. David&Charles (27 Feb 1992)

Available from: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Figure-Drawing-Without-Model-Tiner/dp/0715397850/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1204412976&sr=8-3

Takara Microman

I bought a few of these Micromen from ebay about a year ago, (two sizes of Male body and one Female.) . The 100mm articulated figures have good form and are easily manipulated to mimic 'natural' human attitudes. Great for quickly posing and sketching from or visually checking proportions, balance and flow. -

Much better than those wooden pieces of crap you get from art shops or Ikea.

Freedom of Teach

I have just purchased this anatomical model from freedom-of-teach.com. I plan on doing some serious study of the anatomy and I'm looking for a decent Life Drawing class in my area.

Anatomical Resin Figure.

Cast polyurethane male figure with ecorche muscle and partly revealed skeleton.

Highest quality sculpt, hand-painted and cast.

Dimensions: 24" x 5" x 10".

By sculptor & VFX artist: Andrew Cawrse

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My plan is to develop a few 'basic' maquettes to be used for the basis of anatomically precise characters and creatures.
My first move was to grab a basic skeleton from Poser (standing in symmetrical pose) which I will export into 3Ds Max and build upon with 'correct' topology of body mass and form. This will then be taken into ZBrush or Mudbox (I'm gonna try both applications) for detailing, and exported (hopefully) as a workable model.