School started again for me yesterday. This semester I’m teaching the Anatomy Drawing course. To be quite honest, I don’t really believe you need to know anatomy to draw the figure well. You just have to look carefully. But whatever it takes to get someone to be more observant—in this case studying bones and muscles—is fine with me.
Several years ago I co-taught an anatomy class with an anatomist. He taught the anatomy part; I taught the drawing part. I learned a fair bit but what I learned most decisively is that studying anatomy for the artist is, as I said before, not a necessity. For homework in that class, I had the students draw a part of the body (for instance, the back); then they studied the back and after that, drew the back again for homework. The first few assignments on the various parts of the body showed considerable difference in the before and after drawings. But by the fourth session, the drawings done before studying that particular part of the body were as good as those done after studying it. So I feel my point was proven.
Still, it’s an interesting subject to teach and students enjoy the learning process. So I’m spending my free time studying anatomy.