Planes of the Head

In the Portrait in Clay class at the Woodstock School of Art we are exploring the most basic of all concepts when studying the structure of the skull and tha tis ..... The Planes of the Head!
Here are a few examples of skull to planes and conversely life head to planes.

Isonomia and the Gravitational Vector

.... In terms of artistic anatomy, understanding where the muscles originate and insert on the bone and how these muscles exert their influence on surface anatomy, is important for communicating how the veiwer "reads" the drawing. The nervous system is constantly firing off electrical impulses to the muscles to initiate flexion, as a way to counteract gravitational forces exerted down through the physical body.These forces are expressed as vectors which are channeled down through the skeleton to the earth's core or more specifically through whatever surface the body is resting on. In every movement there is a coordinated series of muscle flexion, all utilizing to various degrees the three types of levers, mechanisms of physics which describe how soft tissue can exert force across bone to achieve movement.To initiate movement through an invisible gravitational field means that the physical body,( or brain more accurately) has to coordinate how multiple muscles and groups of muscles must inititate flexion at precisely the right moment to achieve the desired movement. Very much like how retro rockets on a space craft  initiate movement along a path with the precise directional pulses of rockets.

"From the time a child leaves its mother's arms and begins to stand and walk alone, there is a force with which it, in common with the rest of mankind, is always contending; this force is gravity. We are battling with this force from morning till night, yielding to it partially as opportunity offers to assume a sitting position, and finally yielding to it completely, as we do each night when we sink to rest in a horizontal position. But this force not only acts upon the body as a whole throughout the day, but upon each individual part of the body. Thus the head tends to drop forward, the shoulders to round over and droop forward, the back to curve, the chest to become flattened and compressed, the knees to bend, the arch of the foot to break down, etc. This is nature's attempt to seek an equilibrium . . . and the only way that this downward tendency can be overcome is by the constant exertion of muscular force." l Sargent, 122, 

Jean-Antoine Houdon's Ecorche .

The revered icon of artistic anatomy, Jean-Antoine Houdon's Ecorche .

Asaro Planes of the Head

Brilliant and troubled master of the figure, John Asaro created this planes of the head more than 30 years ago, and as such it's become an icon of artistic anatomy alongside it predesessor, Jean-Antoine Houdon's Ecorche .

Planes of the Head

After not a small bit of research it has become apparent that there is not a lot of good planes of the head reference, and surprisingly, some references that you would think would have great material are frankly dreadful- The Hogarth Dynamic Anatomy series are terribly inaccurate and overly stylized, the Famous Artists Course planes of the head offerings are meager and poorly drawn, Joseph Sheppard's classic anatomy books are totally lacking in the planes of the head, and nothing at all from Richer. What little I could locate appears solidly in  Bridgeman and Loomis. Here's a complilation of the two:

Plein Aire class at Dockside Cold Spring on the Hudson

Hey All- getting a little carried away with videos tonight.. Here's a vid of today's class at Dockside at Cold Spring on the Hudson.

Artistic Anatomy and the Portrait in Clay at the Woodstock School of Art

No really this time is for real. I perfected the last little teaser vid and used the entire War track Low Rider.

Spliced in footage from last week's Portrait in Clay class along with some cool vid of frank, Carol, and Pat drawing with the long stick.