When you're referring to anatomy, I'm going to assume you're talking about
the human musculosketal system (locomotor system). I don't know of any
tutorials, but I definitely would suggest taking a look on Wikipedia.

The best thing to learn first would be the bones of the human body. If
Wikipedia likes to play hard and won't tell you, just Google 'bones of the arm'

or whatever area you're interested in. Work your way through the body in
parts. Once you can successfully recognise and identify bones of the body

when shown to you, it's time to move onto the muscles.

Again, it's the same story from there. All you have to do is work in groups and
once you nail it work your way through the body. Learning the anatomy of

the locomotor system takes a LONG time as I've been studying it for quite

a while myself. I also study the muscles origin and insertion, and what their

functions are, which slows me down tremendously.. but the most important

thing to learn in your case would be the location of the bones and muscles.

Good luck.

PS:
It would be a good idea to draw lots of diagrams for future reference, and
remember, there is no half assing it in anatomy.

Edited by ChrisButton - 01 August 2011 at 12:44am

if you don't understand what you're drawing, how can you draw it accurately? there aren't any short cuts. If you want to learn anatomy, you have to learn... anatomy. I don't know what you mean 'learning anatomy would be harder than learning the technique to draw it'. there's no magic tricks here. You understand the underlying bones, the shape/sizes/relationships of the muscles, and your knowledge informs your art. You can't draw an arm without knowing what an arm really is. How could you fake it?

If the problems is more fundamental than anatomical knowledge, then you need to build up your drawing/rendering skills through lots of practice. I'd recommend sketching daily from life. Contour line sketches are quick and useful, but also try to work in shading, as understanding the behavior of light is important. Set up a still life on your desk using a lamp as a light source.

If you want to know how to draw (manipulate line/form/light/etc), then practice that. If you want to know how to draw particular things (like human anatomy) then practice applying this knowledge to further knowledge you must possess- knowledge of anatomy.

Practice. I loathe that word for it's very abstract guideline.

How could I possibly get any better if I apply the same method I always do? Appearntly there are no guidelines in that set of mind, there is no set of steps to be taken. All you have to do is look at a picture enough and eventually you'll be better.

I already came to hate hearing that for the very reason it just did not seem to work. I am 19, I drew almost everyday; whenever it was in-depth or not.
I can look at a picture and understand everything I see. The face's bone-structure, the wrinkles at the forehead caused by an emotional gaze, the height of the lips..
All of that and I feel that uncanny 'practice' does no justice.

Which brings me to my main conclusion: I need drawing methods, Guidelines. Something from A to Z. I cannot draw what I see if I do not understand how to correctly draw it.

I'm tired from trying to create methods by experience, there are people that came up with the correct form of drawing, I want to see them.
Knowing in-depth anatomy would do me no justice if I do not know how to control the tool I am using to imprint my knowladge; I doubt every single doctor knows how to draw just because of his education of the human body.

What I am asking, in the most unmanipulative way I can think of:
Is how can I take what I clearly can see and be able to, after a set of steps, draw it on paper.

'Excuse the scroll, but I find it hard to believe you guys are actually suggesting that I will simply get better if I try to teach myself by looking hard enough and if I would draw long enough. That phase has since a long time been over.

And if you do not understand why I am asking something so  specific that it seems uncomprehensible or vague, it's derived from my long frustartion of the said subject; I, now, really don't believe an answer for my conundrum would be presented. This is just a desperate attempt to aquire that lil' piece of information that has eluded me all these years.


P.S: Any grammer / spelling error caused due to the late hour I am writing this garbage.

Frustration is inheretly a psychological protective construct of the ego, it shelters us from investing any time in something that ain't working.

The lost hope within myself has effectively forced myself to ask for help through this forum; 'being able to understand but not to draw;
to be a critic but not being able to act.

I'll check that blog, and for the rest of the comments: when the time will come, I shall try studying anatomy by the book. I mean, currently I can beraly create a comic-style doodle! not to talk about actually drawing a realistic human body.

Thanks for the tips and help, although more will always be welcome.
Cheers.


Edited by TrojanMonkey - 05 August 2011 at 2:23am

Well first of all, I want to say that the first problem within this thread is that I forgot to mention I am not looking towards drawing professionally, which seems what most people aimed to (With in-depth study of..Everything)

ni'way;
Things I drew...Moment.
L4D2 jockey - From head
A friend - From life
A doodle - Example

And these are not the horrible results I had.
There are better, there are worse..That's how it's in life.

The only way you can study life and go wrong drawing it is if you rely on your brain and not your eye. All drawing from life really is is training yourself not to rely on symbols or allow your brain to fill in the gaps, but to observe and record accurately from life by relying on your eyes.

And I wouldn’t recommend ‘looking at pictures’ as your foundation, drawing from life is translating 3d to 2d, drawing from pictures is translating 2d into 2d again, so you’re not really building the same skill.

Doctors are different than artists, they aren’t interested in the formal elements of the body part they’re observing. Both artists and scientists/doctors observe, but artists are different in that they translate their observations through a medium.

There really, really isn’t a secret method passed along underground between great artists. It’s all a game of observation and application. Perhaps the problem with it is the ‘this isn’t working’ attitude. Or the attitude that only 'professionals' have to study (drawing well is drawing well, regardless of whether or not you're being paid).

Can't critique the images you posted because they're all very abstracted forms, I can't critique the anatomy of distorted cartoon figures, it's too difficult to tell where you were trying to replicate reality and where you were making purposeful abstraction.

oh, and you might find this thread useful



Edited by cure - 05 August 2011 at 8:06am

Less talk, more action!

You can find it in your local bookshop - it's old, but still pretty popular book. I love it because it's very useful and to the point and also I like the style of artist - in many other tutorials pictures look like author can't really draw well himself.
Of couse it is not overnight work - I have it for several years and still haven't got it full, but I notice constant progress - I draw a lot better than a year ago, and stuff of five years ago makes me hide in shame. The key is to open a page, read and redraw some examples, then search for examples online, use your experience.
It's not the book reading working, it's your drawing guided by it.

Edited by A.B. Lazer - 09 August 2011 at 1:36am

Now so how much time, more how frequent. Make it an everyday habit, at the start it will be tough, then it should go on by itself.

Whoa! I forgot about this thread. I'm glad to see everyone's additions. You probably won't need to know anatomy as in depth as I've been studying

As the saying goes "If you lift a pig every day, one day you'll be able to lift a pig".
The idea being if you start when it is born, and every day you lift it up, everyday you are building a tiny bit of muscle, adjusting to the slight increase in weight the pig has compared to the day before. So one day when the pig is full grown, you will be able to lift it.

The same applies to drawing, or any skill(I teach this most when people ask about writing). If you draw a person everyday, one day you'll be able to draw a person.
As long as you do it consistently, constructively, and concretely (as an art teacher of mine once said), the skill will form.

Consistency: Practice the skill for a period every day.
Put aside a period of time every day to make something new. This is your 'first draft', as in writing. Don't edit as you go, just do. Turn off the internal critic (use your eyes, not your brain, as cure said.)

Constructively: use what you've learned up until that point. All skills use building blocks. Remember how yesterday you realised that the neck should be shorter? Add that to what you're doing now.

Concretely: If you are going to do something, do it. Being wishy-washy ruins all things. If you feel that something should be a certain way, make it that way. Don't try to compromise. (This is part of turning off the inner critic). It will either work, or it won't, but it will be done. And then you will be able to learn from it.


The idea isn't to make something perfect, or even all that great. It is to make something stronger or better than it was before.

(To use another analogy, imagine a wall made out of jello bricks. You are going through and replacing those bricks with boxes, then with stone. You have the wobbly idea of a wall. Now you have to make it stand up better, then make it permanent.)

I hope this helps on the idea of practice...


Also, since you asked for a website, this website is for gesture drawings. They have another for animals, but this is the human one.

Set the interval of time, whether you want clothed/unclothed/both models, and male/female/either.
It will then flash pictures up for that amount of time for you to draw. I find it very helpful.

(Alsoalso, Do you live in a city/town? (or are you like me, in the middle of no where?) because just sitting on a park bench is a good way to find people, or on a street corner.)

It's quite normal - these are demons who were disturbed.
Measurements are necessary to draw right proportions. In Moscow sometimes I see people with easel in one hand and other arm extended with a pen(-cil) towards a church or a mansion. One can draw building with proportions distorted a bit, and get a passable result, but they still measure building by one of it's parts. And if proportions of human are distorted it is a lot easier to notice.
Resolution: continue exorcism.

I don't think that Ekobor said that learning will get one nowhere.

I've decided to drop the book A.B directed me to; appearntly there are fields of study I simply cannot use as a guideline to go by.

Instead, I use references of bone structure. I started with the hand and the skull, since the head is my favourite part of the human body and the hand is my least.

Edit: going to update with a few images in a jiffy...
Edit: Ding.


Edited by TrojanMonkey - 13 September 2011 at 6:19am