Human Anatomy for Artists

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Artists often experiment with abstracting the human figure: either simplifying it or depicting it in a way that isn’t necessarily straightforward, often distorting elements of the body.

Practice regularly: The more you draw varied subjects, the better you’ll be at adapting shapes to fit their unique build. Francis Bacon's twisted figures express a powerful sense of the psychological pain and anguish that people sometimes experience. With time, this skill will become second nature, allowing you to draw figures with mass and volume effortlessly. Our options are designed to give you the broadest range of anatomy models so you can choose the one that’s right for you. This male anatomy figure is a blue-gray in color, but you can still easily see the planes of the body and the way the light and shadows play in the contours and curves.

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I also spotted a comment from an artist that uses illustrations from this book as a reference when digitally sculpting realistic characters –“it’s all hand drawings that helps to focus on form, rather than getting drawn in to detail”. When drawing a body, it's good to be aware of that and not to attach the torso and pelvis together like two blocks, as that would "block" your body drawing’s range of motion. Life drawing helps young artists to look closely and understand proportions, as well as experiment with techniques.If you’re going to use your anatomy model to really understand the inner workings of the human body before you draw one, then it’s important to have a comprehensive view.