Visualizing Muscles: A New Ecorche Approach to Surface Anatomy FROM THE PUBLISHER
"A valuable book that every serious art student will need."—M. Stephen Doherty, Editor-in-Chief, American Artist
"This is one of the most imaginative and novel approaches to anatomical studies I have seen in over twenty years of teaching life drawing. It is a valuable resource for serious teachers of figure drawing."—Robert Brawley, Chairman, Department of Art, University of Kansas
"Visualizing Muscles is a unique and exciting approach for studying surface anatomy . . . . accomplished in a painstakingly precise and beautifully executed manner. . . . It offers a tremendous amount of accurate visual information, which helps one understand not only the form of the human figure, but also the changes in form that occur during movement. This book is a must for medical illustrators."—Gary P. Lees, Chairman and Director, Art as Applied to Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
Author Biography: John Cody, M.D., a retired psychiatrist, received his training in medical illustration at Johns Hopkins' Department of Art as Applied to Medicine and spent eleven years as a medical and scientific illustrator. His watercolor paintings of giant silk moths are currently on display at the Smithsonian Institution. Among his published books is the Atlas of Foreshortening.
SYNOPSIS
As the human body moves, muscles contract and relax, creating subtle changes in body contours and shifting patterns of light and shadow on the skin's surface. Visualizing exactly what happens beneath the skin to cause these changes on the surface is an essential skill for artists, physicians, physical therapists, and body builders-for anyone who needs to understand the body in motion.
But how do you teach this skill?
Why not paint a live model to look as though his skin had been stripped off and then photograph him in multiple poses? From that idea comes Visualizing Muscles, an innovative aid to drawing, sculpting, and learning surface anatomy.
More than one hundred static and active poses are included in Visualizing Muscles. Paired photographs—one painted and labelled, one not—show how the simulated muscles produce the subtle lights and darks, hills and valleys, on the model's unpainted skin. Captions highlight the muscles called into play by a given pose.
Dr. Cody, who experimented with techniques for two years, pioneers the use of a model on whose skin muscles, tendons, and fascial sheaths are painted with scientific accuracy. Because of the elasticity of the skin and paint, the painted musculature expands and contracts along with the underlying muscles. Thus Cody's technique enables students of anatomy to visualize the muscles beneath the skin and the changes brought about by movement.
This 8-1/2" x 11" book contains 9 full-color and 221 black-and-white photographs.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
Most anatomy books, whether designed for artists or physicians, page, with a photograph of the unpainted model in an identical pose. contain pictures of cadavers paired with pen-and-ink drawings labeling anatomical features. Cody's novel idea, remarkably executed, was to paint the muscles on a living model's (man's) skin. The model is pictured in more than 100 poses, both static and active. Because of the elasticity of both skin and paint, the painted musculature expands and contracts as the model moves, accurately reflecting the changing topography that movement creates in the real musculature below the skin. Each photograph of the painted model is paired, on the facing Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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