There are a lot of elements of the skull that are not as one would suppose. For example, the face only takes up 1/3 of the skull. Because we put so much importance on the face it always seems to take up a large portion of the head. But strip away all hair, skin, muscle, and tendons, and the majority of the skull is just there to hold in the gray matter.
When I think back to those nature specials, the one about how man evolved from a monkey, I remember the progression of skull sizes they loved to show. The ape's skull was always small and ball-like, but as the genes grew closer to the current homo sapiens the brain cavity increased and the face flattened and shorted.
So, I guess this whole brain thing is a pretty big deal.
I had the same problems with the hand drawings! It is so difficult to make them not look like sausages and still get the angle right. After all, fingers can't bend backwards. I think that it was a good experience though to begin to see the variation of shape in the hands instead of thinking of stumps or sausages.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the things that are often most important to draw are the hardest. (people, hands and heads and faces) keep practicing though, with every drawing I do of a face I learn something new.
ReplyDeleteHands was a pain, I ended up drawing boning looking hands. The skull was a different story, though, I was able to really get into it.
ReplyDeleteI found the hands to be very difficult as well, and unfortunately we did not get much time to practice working on them. Unless you plan on taking another life drawing class I would assume the best way to improve would be to practice during free time. The hands and skull are definitely something we could all use more work on.
ReplyDelete