Ricky Mujica: Anatomy Practice.

I get asked about anatomy all the time so I figured I'd start this thread. When I first got out of college, I was like a med student, I could rattle off the names of all the muscles and bones. Well it's been many, many years since I've gotten out of
college and I'm a little rusty when it comes to remembering names. So I figured, I'd start this thread, partly to give back to this community and partly jog my memory.
When I was in school, I spent one hour a day on my anatomy training. I would take one small part of the body at a time and learn the names of the bones, muscles and tendons that are visible to the naked eye in that area.

At one hour a day, here is how I broke up my week.

Day one, I would spend the hour gathering as much reference for that part of the body as I could find.
Day two, would be spent copying as many as possible, trying to be as faithful to the reference as possible, and naming the parts out loud as I worked.
Day three, would be spent trying to redraw the previous day's images from memory.
Day four was a repeat of day two.
Day five was a repeat of day three.
Day six was spent trying to make it up out of my head, carefully naming the parts. This is where you realize the places that your knowledge is deficient. What ever isn't clear to you will show itself at this stage. I would end this session with a quick review of the parts that were unclear to me.
Day seven was spent drawing that drawing that part of the body. Sometimes from memory, sometimes out of my head, sometimes from ref. This was just the fun day. I would do monsters and cartoons, caricatures and realist drawings with the emphasis placed on that part of the body.

To remember the names, I would constantly look at people in the street, on the train, in class, etc.. and try to recall the names of the anatomical parts I've learning at that week. Using this technique, it's possible to acquire a great deal of anatomical knowledge in a relatively short time.

I have a strong belief that one should work from reference or from life as much as possible. I don't mean one should become a slave to the reference, but observation is the key and is most important. Too many artists learn their anatomy solely from books. The problem with this is that they never learn the incredible amount of variation that is possible when it comes to the human form. It's like they take the whole of the human race and press the "normalize" button and come up with something similar to Da Vinci's drawing of the human proportions. So much variation is possible and unless you are constantly observing, you will miss a lot.

Here is what I'm gonna do, every Monday evening, I'm gonna post a new part of the body, starting with the parts of the head and working our way down. I will post reference shots and drawing or photo with the anatomical names and a brief description. Memorizing the names isn't important, but it helps. the most important thing is to know. I recommend that you do a couple of quick roughs using your own ref or my ref, naming the parts as you do them. Then after you feel you feel a little comfortable, I think you should do one either from memory or out of your head. Remember that observation is the key, and feel free to keep my ref fro your files.

I will keep adding to this thread as long as there seems to be interest.

I figure we can start with the ears, because ears are relatively simple once you know the parts and it is the part of the body that is most often done badly even by fantastic artists. I've seen breathtaking pieces or art only to be let down by the ears. Once you know al the parts of the outer ear, you will never have problems again.

Here is a diagram I drew.

1, Helix- is the outer ring of the upper ear. It starts at the bottom of the concha, splitting it in two. The upper half of the split is usually smaller than the bottom. It curves around and blends into the earlobe. There is usually a notch where they blend.
2. Anti-helix- This is the upper rim of the concha. The inner curve of the ear. It usually, sticks out farther than the helix from the front, but not always
3. Fossa Triangularis- The triangular depression on the top of the anti-helix where it meets with the helix. This is the part of the ear I usually see most bably done.
4. Tragus- This is a piece of cartilage that sticks out in front of the earhole. It usually has two bumps with the lower one almost always being bigger. Sometimes the upper bump is extremely subtle. It is directly behind the joint where the mandible (jaw bone) and the zygomatic arch (cheek bone) meet.
5. Anti-tragus- is the liittle projection above the earlobe and directly opposite the tragus. A bump or notch seperates the antitragus from the helix.
6. The Concha- is a bowl of cartilage around the ear hole. It attaches directly to the head in front of the mastoids and can be seen clearly from behind.
7. Lobule (earlobe) – fatty skin sometimes attached sometimes not.
8. Darwin's tubercle- This is a little bump or thickening on the upper back inside corner of the helix. Sometimes it's very prominent and sometimes it's very subtle and imperceptable.. This bump is the human equivalent of the pointed part of an animals ears.
9. Scapha- this is the indentation or flat area of skin between the helix and the anti-helix.
10. Earhole, the entry to the ear canal.
11. Intertragic notch- the hole created by cartilage between the tragus and the antitragus

Here is some reference for you from my personal files, courtesy of http://www.3d.sk

Here is my practice for the week using 3d sculpture tools, mudbox, maya, and topogun.

This is a quick sculpt starting from a box in Mudbox. This is done very quickly as a speed sculpt from memory.