ILLUS-3108

ARTISTIC ANATOMY

Faculty: Fritz Drury

Course Level: Junior, Senior, 5th Year

3 CREDITS

Students in this course will investigate the specific physical structure of the human body, with the aim of producing drawings of greater structural and visual integrity and more fluid descriptions of movement and weight in the figure. We will proceed through the skeletal and muscular systems at a brisk but reasonable pace, learning names, points of articulation and the dynamic functions of each component of the body. Each weekly assignment will consist of a careful, descriptive drawing of an element of the skeletal or muscular system, and a “dynamic” drawing in which that same element is shown in action in the living figure.

We will also review the work of artists, both contemporary and historical, who have made vital artistic use of the elements of anatomical study. The course includes an optional field trip to the Brown University Evolutionary Biology Lab to draw from cadavers. There will be at least one written test on anatomical facts and terminology. The course culminates in a final project on the theme of “A Human Ideal,” exploring past concepts of idealized form in the figure in relation to anatomical reality and contemporary cultural perspectives.