Part 4 Project 4 Exercise 1 Structure

This exercise correlated with our being able to view the Body World Expo held in Johannesburg. It was so fascinating being able to study the musculature, tendons and bone structure of the human body. If I had not had my family along with me, I would have loved to have done sketches of the exhibits, but as I could not keep them in the exhibition for hours on end, I had to be satisfied with just study the bodies the best I could. What I found particularly interesting was how small the finger and toe bones were in relation to the overall size of the human figure. The rest of the bulk of fingers and toes are made up of muscles, tendons, and nerves. Truly fascinating!

It was also interesting to see how the muscles wrapped around the skeletal form in bulbous bundles of muscle fibres, anchored by tendons.

What was particularly horrific was to see the cross-section of an obese person. The layers of fat literally coated all of the internal organs, displacing them, creating a totally different internal structure to that of a normally proportioned adult. It also helped me to be able to see how different a muscularly well-built individual has far more defined musculature than a person who is carrying extra weight.

I found that it took a while to feel as if I was getting the structure of the feet properly portrayed. My final sketches were of my own foot and that of my 10-year old niece. Her foot enabled me to study the underneath structure of the foot. I think I managed to get the proportions of the toes correct.

Fig. 1 Feet Studies 1

Fig. 2 Feet Studies 2

My first sketch of my hand ended up appearing deformed, so I recommenced the sketch. What I found interesting was how wrinkled my hands appear when studying them up close. I then executed three overlapping contour drawings of my hand to try to force my eye to slow down and take in the contours. (fig. 4) I then did two pen drawings of my hand on top of one another. The hand holding the scissors was far better proportioned than my previous sketches.(Fig. 5) Unfortunately, I find it very difficult to buy a sketchbook in South Africa that does not allow colors to seep through the pages. When I did my first stomach study, the ink from this sketch seeped through, marking the hand drawings.

Fig. 4. Hand studies 1 - contour drawing

Fig. 5. Hand Studies 2

Fig. 6. Hand Studies 3

Fig. 7. Knees

As my mom has just had a knee replacement, I find the structure of the knee quite interesting. In studying the knees I sketched, it was interesting to see how much of the underneath structure is evident in the shadows and tonal values found around the kneecap. You can also clearly see how the muscles bunch out from their attachment on the skeletal structure. (Fig. 7)

As a result of it being the middle of winter in South Africa, and houses are not heated, I did not fancy drawing my own hips and stomach. So for the purpose of this body area, I chose some online photographs.

Stomachs and hips were more challenging to draw than I would have imagined. I found it difficult to get the woman’s hip to stomach proportions to look right. I did enjoy the way the inks reacted to the paper. The jeans were especially interesting to draw. I used watercolor fine markers with washes of water and details added after the paper dried. I used watercolor pencil for the guy’s stomach and torso. I found it interesting to see how different the musculature of the woman’s stomach was from that of the man’s. The woman’s stomach formed a more circular inverted bowl shape, whereas the muscles of the guy formed almost a V-shape as it pulled toward the groin area.

Fig. 8. Male Hips

Fig. 9. Female Hip Study

I tired to sketch the neck and arms of a man using loose 6B pencil strokes. I tried to focus on the shapes of the shadows and tonal values. It was interesting to see how the skin of the man’s left-hand side seems to ripple, despite his being well built.

Fig. 10 Torso study

I think this exercise has helped me to observe subtle changes in tone and the shifting angle of planes to analyze the shape of the areas I studied. The human form is extremely complex. Studying sections of it, in conjunction with my visit to Body World, has heightened my awareness to its intricacies