I almost hear you saying why do we even have to learn skeletal system. So let’s take a look why.
I realized that lately I have been listening to a song called ‘Skeletons‘ a lot. Then it was the week for skeleton tutorial already. At the same time writing here (in loop) I hear the singer saying:
“Have my skeletons, have lungs, my milliooons“
Skeletal structure has some functions like support, protection, and movement which is that what makes us intertest about. At this point the important thing is not to lose the point of studying skeletal system; we don’t want to lose ourselves learning things which don’t combine with drawing at all. It is about applying this knowledge to your drawings and/or paintings and being able to draw human in various positions; like -let’s create a scene-, a crouching little girl at the beach, playing with sand, we see her from her back, she is so skinny that we see her shoulder bones. Another one; a standing guy crosses his arms and we know how to draw elbow and there are also landmarks like clavicle, adam’s apple etc.
The best way is, if you don’t have a chance to examine a 3D skeleton model, checking your own body for understanding. If you get things too complicated in the middle of a drawing of a human figure, touch and feel yourself, I mean really, you can do it.
Here I have two skeleton drawings from front and back sides; furthermore we are going to examine skeletons of hands, feet and skull detailed in the next tutorials.
I noted down some interesting facts I read on Wikipedia about skeleton; like babies have more bones than adults, by aging some bones fuse together; like it is believed that reduction of human bone density in prehistoric times has changed when human shifted from hunting to agriculture etc.
See the arrow in the drawing which shows the direction of a rib; you can touch one of them on your body and feel that under your skin it goes up and back; I was suprised when I realized that.
General feature of skeleton is basically the same for every human; but we are all different actually; a very simple example is that I have a small jaw and round skull. Beside that, Wikipedia explains it with real cool words, female skeletal elements tend to be smaller and less robust and male doesn’t have penile bones which are about childbirth.
Too complicated, isn’t it? But don’t worry and keep drawing. It is easier to draw with knowledge and repeating will make you see that you have better results.
I love telling you interesting facts or stories about the topics I share. This one is from one of my travels: Bone Church!
Sedlec Ossuary in Czech Republic is a church decorated with bones.
In the year 1278, Abbott of the Sedlec Monastery is on a mission in Jerusalem and on his way back he brings some earth with him from there and scatters that earth over a cemetary in Sedlec. By that reason this cemetery becomes a holy and popular place to be buried. Around these years black death causes many people die. After years those bones rise to the top of the earth, then they are taken to the church then in the 19th century they are used for decoration.
In the year 1278, Abbott of the Sedlec Monastery is on a mission in Jerusalem and on his way back he brings some earth with him from there and scatters that earth over a cemetary in Sedlec. By that reason this cemetery becomes a holy and popular place to be buried. Around these years black death causes many people die. After years those bones rise to the top of the earth, then they are taken to the church then in the 19th century they are used for decoration.
I captured these photos, but I should add that crowd doesn’t always allow you to take good photos. Google ‘Sedlec Ossuary’ and I am almost sure that that location -Kutna Hora- already will be in your travel list 😉
PEYŁ ink&oil 
[…] Link of skeleton drawing: https://stretchedpaw.com/2017/08/06/skeleton/ […]
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