• A collection of notes on drawing anatomies, with art style and medium abstracted away as much as possible.

General Guide

  • The three anatomical planes are useful as a reference for construction lines. Directional modifiers are also included. In parentheses are the “common” terms that will be used for convenience.

    • Transverse plane - the plane that separates the head from the feet
      • A view from the bottom or top is taken to be a slice of the coronal plane
      • Superior (Above) - closer to the top
      • Inferior (Below) - closer to the bottom.
    • Coronal Plane - the plane that separates the front and the back
      • A full frontal or back view is taken to be a slice of the coronal plane
      • Ventral - the belly or lower side.
      • Dorsal - the back or upper side
      • Anterior (Back) - pertaining to the back
      • Posterior (Front) - pertaining to the front.
    • Sagittal Plane - the plane that separates the left half from the right half
      • A side view is taken to be a slice of a sagittal plane .
      • Lateral (Side) - closer the left or right side
      • Medial (Middle) - closer to the middle
  • Notation: For convenience, lines that pass through the transverse, coronal, and sagittal plane will be referred to as frontal, longitudinal and sagittal lines. 1

  • Masses are decomposed into fundamental shapes that are easier to draw and capture the general shape. Corresponding anatomical parts are also provided.

    • In general remember that the masses exist in 3D. Applying principles of Perspective Drawing help. The depth of each mass is, ideally, apparent.
    • Lines that are drawn should follow the curvature of the body.

Topics

Links

Footnotes

  1. Technically these should be seen as axes of the body, but lines that are “close enough to being parallel” to these lines are also counted together.