Free-Hand Drawing

The experience which I have had as a teacher and my acquaintance and sympathy with the requirements of students of Art have led me to the conclusion that hitherto too much stress has been laid on the nomenclature and technical details of Human Anatomy, and too little emphasis placed on the relation of these details to the surface forms. What the student requires is not a minute description of every bone, muscle, and joint, but only such an account as will enable him to appreciate their influence on the modelling of the figure. Names convey little to his mind, forms alone interest him. In the following pages, which are based on the lectures which I have had the honour of giving at the Royal College of Art, South Kensington, I have endeavoured to carry out as far as possible these principles. With this intention every effort has been made to avoid unnecessary detail, and to rid the text as far as possible of technicalities. Where there are English equivalents for the scientific terms more commonly employed, they have been made use of; but unfortunately their number is limited, and the student is left with no other alternative than to accept the scientific nomenclature. In place of adopting, as is usual, the method of furnishing a complete description of the bones, succeeded by an equally detailed account of the joints and muscles, I have incorporated them in the description of regions. AUTHOR / A. Thomson