Arm Studies at the U of Guelph Anatomy Lab Today

For a hot summer day, it was a chilly but very productive day  inside at the U of Guelph Gross Human Anatomy Lab.

I was in for a day of studies for my own personal enjoyment, and enjoyment it was.  The great staff there gave me lots to chose from but I focused on the arm today.  I was particularly interested in the beautiful way the forms of the muscles weave and intertwine  from clavicle and scapula down to the finger tips.

IT’s fascinating to see the way the muscles intertwine as they move in sequence from the shoulder to the hand.

I took this opportunity to bring in my watercolours and a stretched board to give it a first ever attempt to paint in the lab.  I’ll leave it to you to decide how successful it was.

Between washes on the watercolor study, I did some studies of the same arm in a foreshortened rotation looking from the fingers towards the shoulder.

The chance to draw the arm from the fingers up to the shoulder in a foreshortened view gave me the opportunity to see how the muscles lie within the form of the arm.

I return in a few days with my students and then have another day to myself the day after.  As always, I am looking forward to the return and more work. It goes without saying that the body is endlessly fascinating no matter how you study it.