Underdrawing

I attended a Zoom workshop this morning from SAW in which we did a series of two-minute sketches of human anatomy. I think the intent was to internalize and simplify the skeletal and muscle structures. I don't exactly know how this will fit in with my cartooning practice, but it was an engaging exercise.

First, we drew a human torso, including as many muscles as possible, from memory: 

Then we viewed a diagram for a few minutes  and tried to recreate it (hence the different pose):

Then we drew it again while looking at the diagram:

I gotta admit, this one has a lot of life to it, compared with the others. That seems strangely counter-intuitive...

Then we did a skeleton from a diagram:

And in the next sessions starting adding more muscles:

As I say, these were interesting to do...but they seem to fly in the face of some advice I just received via email from another source, which warned about getting too fussy: 

...make cut-throat decisions about priorities, and stick to them. It demands that you prevent yourself from getting sucked into the "interesting" or "fun" details that leap out at you when you look at an image, and instead, absorb and capture the direction and energy of the complete figure as quickly as possible

 I am put in mind of this observation I had of John Porcellino. 

Anyway, ever forward.