MORE ANATOMY

WARNING: Pictures of naked artist models below.


I wish I could recommend a book of anatomy for artists but I can't. There are a few passable books on the subject but no great ones. Some of the manga books are good for cartoony girls' anatomy, some of the older books are good for illustration reference, but no book I know of discusses the human body the way it really is.

Where a lot of books fail is that they rely on simplified muscle charts like the one above. Nobody has a split calf like the one in the drawing above. I'm sure the drawing is accurate but in real life some additional muscles, ligaments or fat must cover the two parts of the calf and make them seem like one.


Look at the drawing of the sternomastoid muscles on the left, above. According to the drawing charts they form a big "V" in the neck. You can only see half of them here but you know what I mean.

Now look at the photo on the right (above). The "V" is clear enough when the neck is normal but when it's strained as it is in the picture, or the face grimaces, the V becomes an "A." That's because muscles the drawing doesn't show cover the sternomastoid and they also have an influence on the way the neck looks. The muscle charts are incomplete. They leave out muscles just to have a tidy drawing.


Before I leave the subject here's a couple of photos (above) to prove that most people have long torsos in relation to their legs. You could almost say that long legs are an invention of artists.

My guess is that less than 20% of adults have long legs. A lot of women who appear to have long legs seem that way because they're wearing heels. Or maybe they have long legs but even longer torsos.

Do you disagree?

BOOK REVIEW: "EMOTIONS REVEALED"

Paul Ekman is a psychologist who's gotten a lot of attention lately for his studies of facial expressions. It's a hot issue now because of face recognition software which not only spots terrorists but is used increasingly as a kind of lie detector.

According to Ekman the long lasting expressions can be faked a lot easier than the short-lived ones which may only last for half a second. The short ones are almost involuntary and are fairly sure indicators of what the person's really thinking.

See if you agree with Ekman about how to interpret the short-lived expressions below.

Face #1 (above): Neutral mouth and drooping eyes indicate a slight sadness or tiredness. The eyes still have focus so the tiredness is mild.

Face#2 (above): If you guessed anger Ekman says you'd be wrong. This is disgust. You can tell by the wrinkled nose and narrowed eyes.

Face #3 (above): Anger or pointed sadness, but this time expressed with the lowered lips alone. Compare this to #1 where the anger is expressed with the eyes alone.

Face #4 (above): Slight enjoyment expressed with the lips alone. The eyes are neutral.


face#5 (above): Highly controlled anger. The woman's getting mad and may not be aware of it herself yet. If you see this face on a real person it means trouble is brewing.


Face #6 (above): Disgust, this time expressed with a slightly raised upper lip and not the nose and eyes as in #2.

Face #7 (above): Upset, miserable. The lowered brows and tensed lower eyelids signal anger as well.


Face#8 (above): Masked anger. Covering up anger with a happy smile. In some circumstances could be amusement at being perplexed.

I'm not recommending the book, I've only had time to skim it, but I thought you'd like to know about it. There's not really enough pictures. How can you discuss faces in a book that's mostly text?