Anatomy: Skeleton

For this assignment, we had to study the human skeleton, specifically looking at the major bones and the different types of joints those bones have. 

We were given a link to a video by Proko about the 6 types of joints. I learnt that he was specifically talking about synovial joints. These are the most common and most movable types of joints in the body. They are hinge, pivot, ball and socket, ellipsoid, saddle, and plane joints. I watched this video a few times, the last time pausing it in places to make some detailed notes (below). 

As part of the brief, we had to draw or paint the skeleton in the front, back and side views, and make two labelled copies; one with the bones pointed out and one naming the joints. 

I used my notes and began blocking in some basic shapes to start with, refining the image as I went along. I used a head guide on the left to make sure the skeleton was 8 heads tall, which we learnt in a previous class is the average height of an adult male. 

After this, I copy and pasted the image and flipped it so that I could use it as the back view, and began painting over it, changing the background back to white.

 Above is my final image and below are the two labelled versions we had to make; one with major bones and one with major joints.

I learnt a lot during this assignment. I've never studied a skeleton before and originally thought it would be a lot harder to draw one. However, after studying it and first drawing all the bones separately, I found it a lot easier and more enjoyable than I thought. It was very interesting finding out about the different joints. For example, I had no idea that the elbow had two joints that were in charge of two completely different types of movement. I really feel like this extra knowledge will help me during my own illustrations of people and humanoid creatures because I will be able to tell what the limitations of the characters' movements are. I will have a better idea of how an arm might look if I know that the radius should be crossing over the ulna. 

I only did the front and back view as I struggled with the side view a lot and within the time I left myself, I felt it better to leave it. In future, I'll improve on my time management so that I can get things done thoroughly and on time.