[flow_default] Transcription: 02_Anatomy101_ Part2_HowToStudyAnatomy.json

transcriptions/02_Anatomy101_ Part2_HowToStudyAnatomy.json

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+{
+  "audio_file": "02_Anatomy101_ Part2_HowToStudyAnatomy.wav",
+  "text": "In the previous video, we considered a question that seems obvious, but might not be when you really try and dig deep. And that's why we're here, or specifically why studying anatomy. In this video, I think it's the same kind of idea. We're going to talk about how to study anatomy. And again, the team super obvious, you've got your reference in and go, but it might not be that obvious. And let's start this by considering the use of reference. And from a teaching perspective, I find that the battle is always the first battle is to go remember to use reference. And then once you've got someone over that hurdle and they instinctively start to use reference, then the battle might be remember to stop using reference. And this influenced a couple of videos that I did with ProCo called the reference sandwich. And I recommend you check those out if you want to go deep into my approach on using and not using reference. There are two demonstrations, one doing it on a concept, the other doing it on a torso sculpt similar to what we do in this course and they're both investigating that same idea of when to use reference and when not to use reference. Of course, when you're trying to teach yourself about the human body and you want to learn what the muscles are, what they do, where they go, what the bones are, all of that stuff, you need reliable reference that you can trust and luckily there's a ton of that. So here's the thing, there are two things that you need to master if you want to be a high level creature artist or high level character artist that aren't necessarily overlapping too much. One is the ability to look at nature, to look at reference and depict it accurately. It's a very difficult skill to master and it takes a long time. But the other thing is thinking about the thing that you're creating, in this case the human body, thinking about it as a machine, as a living, breathing thing and being in control of that, being able to move it faithfully and realistically and descriptively to get the results that you want. So that's what I'm focusing on when I'm teaching anatomy, which means that I'm thinking more about the concepts and less about the reference. And just to finish this thought with this way of learning when you're learning to train your eye accurately, look at the academic tradition. What I studied when I was at the Foreign Academy of Art and what I teach now at the Barcelona Academy of Art, this is the Atelier or Academic Realist tradition and it's based in being able to look at nature and faithfully depict that in your work with very little discrepancy. And it's very powerful and it's very useful as a character artist because you might be working from a concept or you might be given a reference of an actor and you have to render that exactly as it looks. And in order to do that, you need a set of skills that don't necessarily overlap with anatomy at all. Students from these traditions can often create breathtakingly beautiful, breathtakingly realistic depictions of the human body that require no ability to understand it. In the same way that if I take a photo, I get a very realistic depiction of the body, but the camera doesn't understand what's going on there. You know, I could open up the hood of a car and using these techniques faithfully draw out exactly what's happening there and show you that but I can't fix the car if it breaks down. I can't tweak the car. I can't design a car from the ground up. I can't do anything other than copy it. So that skill, like I say, is something you need to master but that's not what we're focusing on here. What we're focusing on here is thinking about the body as a machine and learning to be in control of that and learn to drive that and be able to adapt it and make it what we want it to be. So everything that we talk about in the course are these important concepts that are going to allow you to be in the driving seat. But just be aware that if you haven't trained your eye to work accurately from reference, then that will always be a stumbling block and at some point you'll have to kind of make that transition. I would recommend looking into the Charles Bogg book, which is the foundation of the academic drawing program. It's basically a way of learning to draw accurately. There is the New Masters Academy online that teaches methods to work accurately. My friend Dorian Eiten has a course I think called the Accuracy Guide that's literally just focusing on that. So that's its whole thing that like I say is outside of the scope of the course. The skill set is different to what we're talking about here, but at some point you will want to master that. So with that caveat covered, what would I actually recommend for you to use as reference? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, the thing is we all see the world differently and we all, because of that approach, our studies differently. So it's very difficult to choose a thing for you, but I'm not gonna say go out and buy all the anatomy books you can find and see what's gonna work because you'll be broke. So I recommend two. One is Artistic Anatomy by Paul Rocher, which is generally seen as the Bible for students, art students studying anatomy because Paul Rochère was an artist himself, a very accomplished artist and a very accomplished teacher of artists but also came from a medical background. So his drawings, his depictions are very precise, very clean. And about half of that book is text and that's the part that most people skip. But there's a lot there in terms of the way fat is stored, in terms of how skin works, how skin depicts itself on the body. So if you have the patience, that text half is really going to pay off for you. But it's a very dry book. And so to counterbalance that, I recommend the Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Stephen Rogers Peck. All the anatomy books are kind of called the same, you know, and Atlas of this, Human that, Anatomy that, but Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist by Stephen Rogers Peck because he approaches it in a very fun way. He'll have different ways to break down the form, to think about the form, and because he gives it so much character, like he's looking at these clavicles as the bow of Cupid and once you see that drawing you can never forget the shape of the clavicles it just sticks in a way that Paul Rochelle won't so they're two extremes and I would say use that as your basis and then if you find that you need more study or you're just interested and you want to go further after that then start to look elsewhere but between those two I think there's as much as you could ever need in terms actual reference, that 3D reference that you can hold in your hands, these skeletons are not so expensive. In this part of the world, about 100 euros, I'm not sure how much that varies across the world. The way that they're assembled is a little bit weird, meaning that the proportions are a little bit weird. So as a whole, I don't find it that useful, but each of these bones are cast from real bones, meaning that you can trust everything about them. So for understanding the individual bones and as we move on with the course, you're going to see that I am fanatical about the bones. This is a worthwhile investment. If you're looking for an equa-she model, a model with the bones and muscles that you can look at in the round, I recommend the Andrew Kors one on anatomyomy Tools. He was the first one to release it. The one that I have is the first edition that he released and has some mistakes in it, but I think they've iterated on that and improved it since then. And there's a whole range that you can get, but don't buy it now. Wait till you've done this course and then see what you think. Because ultimately, with the concepts that we're going to be talking about in this course, I don't think that you need a male one and a female one and one that's got the bones and one that's got this and that and whatever. Just one will be fine. But it is very useful to have something in a round because as good as Paul Rechers book is, often you just kind of want to see that at the three quarter view. And that's where having something you can rotate around is very useful. There are apps as well that are a much cheaper option for being able to rotate around the figure. Honestly, I don't use them, so I don't feel comfortable recommending one over another one, but it's a relatively inexpensive resource. And what I would take into account when you're looking at the references is take a step back and go, does this thing look like a human body? So a lot of the resources made for medical students, for example, allow you to look at every bit of vein, every small detail in the body. But when you step back and look at it, it doesn't really look like a body. And when that's the case, it's going to be of limited use. You're going to be able to look at the origin and insertion points of the muscles. You're going to know what they're called. But just be aware of that. I think we can really lose sight of does this thing look like a human? The body world's exhibition, Gunther von Hargan's body world exhibitions are a good example of that. While you go and like, this is great reference. Look, it's all real people with their skin peeled off. What could be better? Well, they don't look like people. They look like bacon. They don't smell as good. So it's really a limited use in that capacity. It literally just shows you where the muscle start and finish. So that's a caveat. Be aware of that and keep an eye out for just does this thing look like a human as you're using apps or as you're using Equashay. Last but not least by any stretch is 3D scans. I'm using 3D scans constantly in my work as reference. 3D scan store is the main place that I will go to for that. 3D SK, the quality is not so good, but it's pretty cheap and they have some interesting varied body types on there. I'm sure there are other places, but those two places get me everything that I need. And once you're starting to get a feeling for the anatomy, scans are so useful because they're a constant reminder of this is what a human body looks like. Right at the start, they might be of limited use because you've got the skin and the fat on top of the muscles so you can't see exactly what's going on, but that's also the strength of scans. That they've got the skin and the fat, they're real people, and that if you want to create forms that are naturalistic, you have to be studying from real people. The absolute best reference you can do is getting a natural naked person. And you have access to at least one of those. So don't forget to use that. You have a body, right? You can look at it, you can investigate it. When we talk about anatomy, the typical body that we study, an athletic male like this, that's one depiction of the human body. That's not correct anatomy, that's one manifestation of anatomy. But anatomy is any human body, including yours. So that's probably the cheapest resource you have. Don't forget to use it. Outside of that, make sure that you get a hold of scans as and when you can. And then if you want to go a level deeper to look into the actual bones and things and muscles, books should be enough. Apps, cheaper alternative to looking in 3D. And if you've got the cash to splash, then get eco-share model but I don't think that it's an absolute necessity for studying anatomy.",
+  "language": "en",
+  "confidence": null,
+  "duration": 704.13
+}