An Artistic Study of Human Anatomy

This blog will document the progress of my 'final year project'.

My project, as the title suggests, is an in-depth study of human anatomy. Although this project will involve the research in medical field, the main aim of the project isn't to research every single aspect of the body, but to research the elements which affect the surface anatomy of a human; the elements which make the form the human.

As a character artist, knowledge of human anatomy is important as it is frequently represented ... and an artist can only accurately represent it if they have a knowledge of the forms. Learning about what lies under the skin, and how it all conforms to each other will help me to not only understand the forms, but allow me to recreate them confidently and accurately.

For the 'artifact' I am required to produce, I will recreate the human body in different layers. These layers will take components from the skeletal, muscular and integumentary systems. After this has been created, the muscular and integumentary components will be adapted around the same skeleton to explore the forms of multiple body types. The base will be an 'average' male, and this will be adapted to an anorexic and obese male.

ZBrush, 3ds Max and Photoshop will be the main tools of use. I will use 3ds Max so I could fine tune the topology of each piece before I start sculpting each one in ZBrush to look natural. I will also attempt to hand paint each part using ZBrush's polypaint and Photoshop

The only way to create the components will be to have knowledge of them, thus necessitating the in depth study of human anatomy. In addition to this, I hope this project will serve as a decent reference for me in the future, and hopefully for other artists too.