Hello all!
I was curious if there are any particular resources that the ZBC members keep close at hand when sculpting human anatomy/physiology.
Whether that reference material come from the internet, a book, an actual physical sculpture I don’t care. I would just simply love to know the best “go to resources” the community has found for anatomical reference.
Thank you all, I can’t wait to read the responses!
I would have to say all of the above. I have a Freedom of Teach male anatomy figurine. Books too are helpful such as “Dynamic Figure Drawing”, “Dynamic Anatomy”, “Drawing the Human Head”, “Drawing Dynamic Hands” all by Burne Hogarth. I will search images on the web for reference as well. This site http://www.human-anatomy-for-artist.com/photos/freeSample has high rez images with a subscription but there are some fee samples available too.
Any resource which reveals new information to you in a way that is not too complicated to digest is a good one. However - I would stress that the best learning resource you have available to develop your artistic eye for anatomy is your own body and observing people in the world. Keep a notebook of observations you make - writing it down is important to help you remember the information, even if you don’t read it again, I’ve found. You should combine these observations with studying anatomy in resources like the ones you are seeking.
For example, some of the things that really stick are self made observations like: The length of the Femur from its outter extreme edge (not the socket) is approximately the same length from the bottom of the femur to the heel, and is also very close to the distance between the top of the shoulder joint (not muscle) to the forward tip of the Illiac crest when the arm is down and relaxed. A simple landmark measurement for the face is that distance from the hairline to the eyebrow is the same as the eyebrow to the bottom of the nose, and from the bottom of the nose to the point of the chin. Generally - the distance between eyes is the width of one eye - things like this. I’m beginning a list of observations like this that I know will help me in my mind as I work.
Watch people in the world walking when you are out and about, make mental note of the large and small angles and forms - you’ll begin to see patterns and regularities as well as variations. All of it helps. 
While we all vary as humans we all also have the same structure - knowing how to build that will give you ways and ideas of how to stretch it to make the uniqueness of a character.
Separate from that, its rather dated now in terms of video but I’ve found the Acland’s DVD atlas of human anatomy to be hugely informative. Its not built for artists but for people in a medical or surgical field, and teaches you in extreeme detail the body from the inside out using actual cadavers (which may gross you out - so be careful if that will make you uncomfortable). Its true that you certainly don’t need to know all the things in there, but in my view the more you know the better - it doesn’t hurt to be more detailed in your study.
Apologies for the double post, but some more things occurred to me while I was out and about as I am also in the process (and likely will never NOT be in the process) of deepening my anatomy knowledge as well.
I have this old laminated paper sized fold out study sheet that is fairly useful. Lately I’ve been taking it around with me and studying it in lull moments; waiting for something, standing in a line, riding as a passenger in a car, etc. There are A LOT of names to things, and around the time you start remembering some of them pretty well others start fading out of memory so its always good to go back to them a bit. I’ve also drawn over it in a marker with various landmarks I want my mind to be familiar with unconciously - bony landmarks, etc. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn in 5 minutes here, 2 minutes there, 10 minutes here over the course of even a few days.
You certainly don’t need to know the name of everything, but a point Ryan Kingslien makes is that if you don’t even know the name of something, its likely the rest of your knowledge about it and how it functions may be lacking. Naming does another thing cognitively, creating small bite sized chunks of information you can focus in on and be sure you are placing what you want in your sculpt at each appropriate sub div. Rather than “I’m working on the head” in your mind, you are working on lots of connective parts of the head which ultimately compose the whole thing, always developing them together and checking them against each other - but knowing what part you are working on at any time. Part of that is knowing its name - so I feel both ways about it. We don’t need to be doctors, but our medium involves creating something believable (which also applies to all non-realistic characters). Admittedly that was a bit of a rant - but I suppose just something to bear in mind as you search for your sources.
Thank you both for the replies.
Lots of wonderful suggestions in regard to observations FigmentPigment, thank you very much. Good materiel to stew over.
Thanks again!
Josh
After a bit of searching I found this wonderful site for anatomical study.
http://www.anatomy4sculptors.com/
It lays out a full complement of human anatomy break downs. It’s an amazing resource! I highly recommend everyone checking it out!
Thanks!
Joshua
Great find. Thanks for sharing!
This site is really interesting and completly free :
http://inspirationalartworks.blogspot.ca/p/anatomy-images.html
For me it is very useful.
JB
Wonderful! Thank you for sharing, such a wealth of wonderful illustrations.
Thank you for sharing! I think I have run across this one in the past but had completely forgotten about it.
Thanks!
Josh
Hi everyone,
I have been trying to organize the existing open source 3D models of anatomy inside Blender (sorry, I’m not really a Z-brusher). It is a collaborative project that starts having solid arguments.
I would like to invite you to join our efforts to develop it further:
There is no money involved.