Anatomy of the Body

Anatomy of the Body

Anatomy Lesson 17 – Part 1

In this video lesson, you will discover the anatomy of the body on example of reclining female figure.

Anatomy of the Body for Figurative Artists

Let us begin with the skeletal anatomy of the body.

The model is lying on her side and her spinal column is curved upward.

At the top, there is the skull. The horizontal line in the middle of the skull divides the head into two halves. This is the level for the eyes.

In anatomy of the body, the height of the face is equal, or slightly bigger, than the height of the pelvis.

The sacrum of the pelvis has a triangular shape and is located between two wide bones, which are called the ilium bones.

When drawing a pelvis, make sure you locate the hip joints on the same level as the pubic bone.

The heads of the thighbone have a spherical shape. The angle of the neck of the thighbone is different in female anatomy than in male anatomy. The neck of this bone is almost perpendicular to the thighbone shaft. However, in male anatomy, this angle will be bigger than 90 degrees, which makes a male thigh a bit longer.

At the lower end, the thighbone becomes wider. It has two condyles, which are part of the knee joint.

The triangular knee cap protects this joint, in the front.

At the top, the thighbone has projections which are places where various muscles attach to this bone.

The lower leg has two bones- the shinbone and the calf bone.

The shinbone is wider at the top and has a triangular cross-section at its shaft. The lower edge of this bone forms the inner anklebone. This bone is thicker and stronger than the calf bone, which is attached to its outer side, beneath the knee.

The bottom end of the calf bone is lower than the end of the shinbone, which makes the outer anklebone lower than the inner one.

The spine is divided into four sections- the neck, ribcage section, waist, and sacrum (the pelvis section).

Starting from the top, the neck region of the spine has seven vertebrae, the ribcage section consists of twelve vertebrae, and the waist is made of five vertebrae.

In an adult body, the vertebrae of the pelvis region are fused together into one solid structure.

The ribcage starts from the top, with the first pair of ribs, which is attached to the first vertebrae of the ribcage region. The diameter of this pair of ribs defines the width of the neck.

In the front, there is the breastbone. Its length is equal to the height of the face.

The ribcage is the widest at the eighth pair of ribs.

The first seven pairs of ribs are true ribs, the next three pairs are false ribs, and the last two ribs are floating.

The head of the upper arm bone is protected from above by the acromions of the shoulder blade. The acromion is a bony projection on the shoulder blade, which connects to the collarbone.

The upper arm bone is connected to the shoulder blade via the ball-and-socket shoulder joint.

The lower arm has two bones – the elbow bone and the radius.

The hand consists of twenty-seven bones. There are eight carpal bones (bones of the wrist), five metacarpal bones (which form the hand’s-block), and fourteen phalanges (two phalanges of the thumb and three phalanges by each finger).

The length of the hand is equal to the height of the face.

There are twenty-six bones in the foot. The toes consist of seven tarsal bones, five metatarsal bones, and fourteen phalanges.

Did you know, that together, the bones of the hands and feet are more than half of all bones in a human body?

You may ask, how many bones are in a human body. The answer depends on the person’s age. An adult body has 206 bones in total; however, at birth, a baby’s skeleton is composed of 270 bones. As a person grows, many bones fuse together…

[ The full lesson is avaibale to Anatomy Master Class members ]