Thigh And Leg
The column of the thigh and leg diminishes in thickness as it descends to the foot. From any view it also has a reverse curve that extends its entire length. On either side a descending wedge overlaps the rounded form of the thighs and this again overlaps the square form above and below the knee joint, which is also square. The leg at the calf is triangular at the ankle it is square. Gastrocnemius From tuberosities of femur to tendon of Achilles. Action Extends foot, raises body in walking....
Round Forms Of The Head
The skull is rounded on both sides of the head directly on a line above the two ears. Part of this formation is the parietal bone, a thick spongy shock absorber at the side of the head, at its widest and most exposed portion. Below this, cylindrical in shape, comes the rounded portion of the face. This rounded portion corresponds to the lower portion of the face inasmuch as it has front and receding sides. The upper portion, known as the superior maxillary, is irregular in shape and descends...
Construction Of The Hand
In the hand, as in the figure, there is an action and an inaction side. The side with the greatest angle is the action side, the opposite is the inaction or straight side. With the hand turned down prone and drawn toward the body, the thumb side is the action side, the little finger the inaction side. The inaction side is straight with the arm, while the thumb is almost at right angles with it. The inaction construction line runs straight down the arm to the base of the little finger. The...
The Lower Limbs 1
Rectus femoris Vastus internus Sartorius Gracilis Semi-tendinosus Semi-membranosus Gastrocnemius Sole us Soleus From upper part of fibula and back of tibia to tendon of Achilles. Action Extends foot and lifts body in walking. Extensor Digitorum Communis extensor longus digitorum pedis From tibia and front of fibula to second and third phalanges of toes. Action Extends toes.
The Head In Light And Shade
There is light and shade on any object on which light falls. There are light, shade, and cast shadows. The light blends into half light which again blends into a halftone, which again blends into a shadow. A cast shadow is the shadow of some object falling on some other object or form and bears a resemblance to the object from which it is cast. In the parlance of Art the variations of light and shade are in a sense numbered, catalogued and called values. Light, halftone and shade, making three...
Turning
In a human figure there are the masses of head, chest and pelvis. Each of these has a certain height, breadth and thickness. Considered as blocks, these masses balance, tilt and twist, held together in their different movements by the spinal column. As they twist and turn, the spaces between them become long, short or spiral. We might liken these movements and the spaces between the masses or blocks, to an accordion when it is being played. Here we have an angular, virile, active side, the...
Mechanism Of The Arm
The muscles of the human body not only bend the body by muscular force, but also serve as brakes, slowing the reactions. For instance, the biceps and the brachialis anticus muscles are placed in the front of the upper arm and, by their contraction, they bend the elbow. If power ceased altogether, the forearm would drop down. But the opposing muscle slows the otherwise uncontrolled movement after the manner of a brake. This mechanism of slow motion pervades all the limbs and every movement of...
MASSES of the SHOULDER and ARMS
The masses of the shoulder, arm, forearm and hand do not join directly end to end with each other, but overlap and lie at various angles. They are joined by wedges and wedging movements. Constructing these masses first as blocks, we will have the mass of the shoulder, or deltoid muscle, with its long diameter sloping down and out, beveled off at the end its broad side facing up and out its narrow edge straight forward. This mass lies diagonally across and overlaps the mass of the arm, whose...
Abduction And Adduction
Turning the foot inward toward the body is called adduction. Abduction means turning away. Abduction and adduction are controlled by the tendons that pass round the inner and outer ankles. The tendons that pass round the outer ankle bone pull the foot in an outward direction. The tendons that pass round the inner ankle bone turn the foot in. The foot is also capable of turning and elevating its inner border. The muscle that causes this movement passes from the outer to the inner side of the...
The Skull
The skeleton of the head, like the cube, has six surfaces top, base, two sides or cheeks, front and back. Its bony framework is immovable, except the lower jaw, which articulates. There are twenty-two bones in the head. Eight of these bones compose the brain case and fourteen bones compose the face. The brain case is bounded in front by the frontal bone or forehead, which extends from the root of the nose to the crown of the head and laterally to the sides of the temples. The two malar bones,...
A 1
figure must first be outlined, drawn or suggested before it can be properly clothed. Clothes are supported from the shoulder, the waistband and at the hips in the costumes of both men and women. The principles of suspension are always the same. Clothes are made loose enough so that the body can have great freedom of action, allowing the limbs to move freely in every possible way. These different actions in drapery are represented by lines radiating from the points of support terminating in...
Torsoprofile
The erect torso presents in profile the long curve of the front, broken by depressions at the border of the breast muscle and at the umbilicus or navel into three lesser curves, almost equal in length. The back presents the sharp anterior curve of the waist, opposite the umbilicus, bending into the long posterior curve of the chest, and the shorter curve of the buttocks. The curve of the chest is broken by the almost vertical shoulder blade and the slight bulge of the latissimus below it. In...
The Foot
A s the little finger side is the heel side of the hand, so the outside of the foot is the heel side. It is flat upon the ground, continuous with the heel it is lower than the inside even the outer ankle bone is lower and it is shorter. The inside, as though raised by the greater power of the great toe and the tendons of all the toes, is higher. To the front of the ankle is the knob that corresponds with the base of the thumb. Opposite it, on the outside, is a similar knob corresponding with...
Spiral Folds
No matter how complicated the fold appears, it can be traced to a few basic principles. These few principles should be catalogued and kept as far apart in the mind as possible. One should be able to draw at all times, any one of these seven distinctive characters without notes or a model. Think of the part they play so that when confronted by the costumed model, you are less liable to get lost in depicting these ever changing folds. The arrangements of curved and diagonal lines fit the rounded...
The Neck
i. he neck is cylindrical in shape, following the curve of the spinal column even when the head is thrown back the neck curves slightly forward. In front, it is rooted at the chest and canopied above by the chin. In back it is somewhat flattened and the back of the head overhangs it. The neck is buttressed on each side by the shoulders. From behind each ear a muscle descends inward to the root of the neck. These muscles almost meet each other, making a point at the pit. They form, in fact, on...
Distribution of the Masses
It is not granted many of us to remember complex forms. So in considering the human figure it is better, at first, to think only of those major forms of which it is composed, and these may be thought of and more easily remembered by a simple formula such as the following Considering the Wedging and Passing of Forms from the Front of the Figure The square ankle passes into the triangular calf of the leg and this in turn passes into the square knee. The square knee passes into the round thigh and...
Little Finger Side Of The Hand
The little finger side of the hand is the pushing side the little finger side of the wrist is the heel side. The thumb side of the hand is the pulling side. Since pulling is so much more important a function of the hand, the thumb side of hand and wrist and all the bones of that side, with the first two fingers, are larger. The little finger side of the hand sets across the end of the forearm at a sharper angle than does the thumb side. It is narrower and never wholly conceals the rest of the...
w U vJ
In looking down on an object you will see more or less the top of the object. If the object is a head, you will see the top of the head. The higher above the head you are, the more top you see, the lower you are, the less you see. The top is nearest the level of the eye and the lower part further away. In profile at eye level the center of an adult's head will be a little below where the hook of a pair of spectacles curl around the top of the ears. If this line were continuous, it would pass...
The Head In Profile
In profile the masses of the head are the same the cranium, the skeleton of the face, and the jaw. The front border of the temple is seen to be a long curve, almost parallel to the curve of the cranium. The top of the cheek bone is seen to be prolonged backward toward the ear as a ridge zygoma or yoke which also marks the base of the temple. It slopes slightly down in front. From cheek bone and zygoma, where they meet, a lesser ridge is seen rising between the temple and the orbit, marking the...
The Hand Of The Baby
In the hand of the baby, neither anatomical nor mechanical features are in evidence, but are alike concealed under the soft flesh and smooth skin. In fact, neither anatomical nor mechanical features are sharply defined as yet the bone is still partly cartilage, the joints still small, the muscles have not taken shape nor given shape to the skin. The wrist is quite large in comparison with its size in mature hands, and the fingers quite short and symmetrically tapering in the same comparison....
Types Of Folds
u ress materials in themselves have no form. When lying on the floor they conform to the floor thrown over a chair they take the contour of the c air on a hanger or hook, the folds descend from their support. Drapery may encircle, it may fall or it may be drawn upward. To realize this is the first step to the understanding of drapery. There is no sameness, no monotony every fold has a distinct character of its own. To show this vast difference in folds take the figure of Victory as an example....
T Ppu
Ahe arm has its base in the shoulder girdle. Its one bone, called the humerus, is cylindrical, slightly curved, with a spherical head fitting into the cup-shaped cavity of the shoulder blade. Its ball-and-socket joint is covered with a lubricating capsule and held together by strong braces of membranes and ligaments. These, crossing at different angles, brace the arm as well as allow great freedom of movement. The lower part of the arm ends at the elbow in a hinge joint, on the inner and outer...
Torso Structure
Rectus Abdominis From symphysis pubis to cartilages of ribs, from fifth to seventh. Action Flexes thorax. Serratus Magnus From eight upper ribs to scapula spinal edge, under surface. Action Draws shoulder blade forward, raises ribs. External Oblique From eight lower ribs to iliac crest and ligament to pubis. Action Flexes thorax.
The Knee
Think of the knee as a square with sides beveled forward, slightly hollowed in back and carrying the kneecap in front. When the knee is straight its bursa, or water mattress, forms a bulge on either side in the corner between the cap and its tendon, exactly opposite the joint itself. The kneecap is always above the level of the joint. The back of the knee, when bent, is hollowed by the hamstring tendons on either side. When straight, the bone becomes prominent between them, making, with these...
Zigzag Folds
A tubular fold of cloth may be bent. As it bends the outer portion becomes rigid, and underneath it becomes more slack. The excess cloth on the inner side buckles into a more or less definite pattern which must be figured out and remembered. The twisting of this fold when bent gives an entirely new design, one which might be called a zigzag pattern. Here the pull is uneven in character. It is quick and jerky. To demonstrate this, take six single sheets of newspaper, roll them into a two-inch...
The Nose
The nose is in the center of the front plane of the face. Its shape is wedgelike, its root in the forehead and its base at the center of the upper lip. As it descends from the forehead it becomes larger in width and bulk, and at its base it is held up in the middle and braced from the sides by cartilages. The bony part of the nose descends only half way from its root and is composed of two nasal bones. The lower part is composed of cartilages, five in all two upper, two lower laterals and one...
Complete Omide
For more than thirty years thousands of art students crowded into George Bridgman's classes at the Art Students' League in New York to learn at first hand the method of drawing from life which was his personal contribution to art education and which in his own lifetime had become famous. Many of the best known names in contemporary painting and sculpture and commercial art were enrolled in those classes. Bridgman's vivid and articulate personality brought lively interest to the study of...
Light and Shade
Shade with the idea that light and shade are to aid the outline you have drawn in giving the impression of solidity, breadth and depth. Keep before you the conception of a solid body of four sides composed of a few great masses, and avoid all elaborate and unnecessary tones which take away from the thought that the masses or planes on the sides must appear to be on the sides while those on the front must appear to be on the front of the body. No two tones of equal size or intensity should...
Cube Construction
When a head is built on a cube there is a sense of mass, a basis of measurement and comparison. The eye has a fixed point upon which to rest. A vertical line divides the head into two parts. These are equal, opposite, and balanced. Each side is an exact duplicate of the other. A horizontal line drawn through the lower eyelids divides the head in half. The lower portion again divided in the middle gives the base of the nose. The mouth is placed two-thirds up from the chin. Built on the form of a...
Planes Of The Head
1 n considering the distribution of the masses of the head, the thought of the masses must come first that of planes, second. Planes are the front, top and sides of the masses. It is the placing and locking of these planes or forms that gives solidity and structural symmetry to the face, and it is their relative proportion as well as the degree to which each tilts forward or backward, protrudes or recedes, that makes the more obvious differences in faces. Heads in general should be neither too...
The Forearm
J. he muscles of the forearm move the wrist, the hand and fingers. They are muscular above and tendinous below. These tendons are strapped down to pass over and under the wrist and fingers. There is a great variety of formation and shape to the muscles of the forearm. There are muscles with tendons that are single and again double as they pass to the wrist and hand. The muscles act separately or in groups with quickness and precision as the occasion requires. 1 The front and inner side of the...
Pronator And Supinator
The two muscular forces that rotate or turn the forearm, by crossing one bone over the other, are the supinator and the pronator. 1 The supinator extends from the wrist to about a third way up the bone of the upper arm. It is a long muscle. The lower third is tendinous. It rises above the outer condyle of the humerus. The upper portion is the large fleshy mass that lies on the outer and upper third of the forearm. In action it flexes as well as supinates. 2 The opposing muscle to the supinator...
Back Of The Neck
From the sloping platform of the shoulders the neck rises. It is buttressed on the sides by the trapezius table muscle. The table shape of this muscle appears only from the back, a diamond with lower apex well down the back. Its lateral corners arise from the shoulder girdle opposite the deltoid. Rising diagonally upward it braces the back of the head. The strength of the neck is therefore at the back, which is somewhat flat and overhung by the base of the skull. Sterno-cleido-mastoid From top...
The Handpalmar View
The palm slightly overlies the wrist, and extends to the middle of the first joint of the fingers. It is made of three portions, with the hollow of the palm between them. On the thumb side is the largest of these portions, the thenar eminence opposite it is the hypothenar eminence, and across under the knuckles is the third portion, the mounds of the palm. The thenar eminence is high, fat and soft it contains the short muscles of the thumb and forms with the bone the pyramidal first segment of...
Anatomy Of The Fingers
Each of the four fingers has three bones phalanges, soldiers . Each phalanx turns on the one above, leaving exposed the end of the higher bone. There are no muscles below the knuckles but the fingers are traversed by tendons on the back, and are covered on the front by tendons and skin pads. The middle finger is the longest and largest, because in the clasped hand it is opposite the thumb and with it bears the chief burden. The little finger is the smallest and shortest and most freely movable...
Inert Folds
It is understood, of course, that cloth no matter how thick or thin has in itself no given form. A piece of cloth when thrown or dropped on the floor either flattens out or crumples up and takes on a character distinct from any other form. This crumpled up piece of cloth is not static it changes as it keeps settling in an hour's time its vigorous angles become more subdued and flattened. Still it remains a fallen piece of goods with a character distinct and apart from any other, and this...
Above Eye Level
When a cube is tilted upward in such a way that the spectator is seeing it from beneath, it is above the horizon or height of the eye. If more of one side of the cube is seen than the other, the broader side will be less in perspective than the narrower side. The narrowest side of a cube presents the more acute angle and will have its vanishing point nearest. When an object is above eye level, the lines of perspective are coming down to the level of the eye and the vanishing points will be near...
Of The Hand
Between the knuckle of the first finger and the thumb is a bulging mass. This is the first interosseous muscle, large here on account of the exposed position of the finger, also because it aids the thumb. In clasping, it is perpendicular to the thumb and diagonal to the knuckle. It attaches to the phalanx at the knuckle, to the whole side of the thumb first segment and to the base of the metacarpal bone of the finger itself. Beyond its edge is a fold of skin, alternately drawn into a half-moon...
The Handback View 1
The tendons on the back of the hand pass quite high over the wrist. It is clearly impossible to arch the wrist both ways and flexion being so much more important a function, the extensor tendons are forced far from the centre of movement backward and outward. They converge on the low outer part of the wrist arch. Thus placed they are taut in extreme flexion, so that the fingers cannot be tightly closed. The thumb side of the wrist arch is larger, higher and projects farther forward, carrying...
Muscles Of The Hand 1
9 Extensor metacarpi ossis pollicis 9 Extensor metacarpi ossis pollicis Distributed over the back are seen the extensor tendons. These represent two sets which have become blended, so have duplications and various connecting bands. Those to the thumb and little finger remain separate.