Rib Cage = Breath Life, anima, breath, animation. The breastbone or sternum, meaning sword, is one of the main components to the rib cage. The angle of the sternum determines the angle of the whole rib cage. The top of the rib cage is a hole called the pit of the neck and continues down starting the sternum with the manubrium, or “handle”, a small rectangular shape. The body, or “gladiolus”, the longest part of the sternum follows and then is ended by the xyphoid process, a small raised triangular area. Coming down from the sternum are two long curved ribs followed by two short ones. The actual ribs angle down (cartlidge comes up) therefore the neck is longer in the front compared to the back. Ribs 11-12 are floating ribs and the lowest most point of the ribs is called the point of the 10th rib.
We drew egg shapes for our gesture drawings as we studied the shape of the rib cage and the direction it flowed with the body. It is cool to focus on one part of the body to really learn it. It is definelty easiest to see the rib cage at the bottom where it sticks out at its diagonal right above the belly button. There was a pose where the model’s head was leaning toward me so it was like I was looking right down her opening and had to imagine the egg. We had a girl model for the first time on Thursday; the only way you can really tell if it’s a boy or a girl just from their bone structure is from the pelvic bone.
Building the clay models proved harder than first expected. The book can be very confusing with only showing one muscle at a time and it sometimes takes a great deal of observation to place it on the mannequin and then it still usually isn’t accurate. It is much easier to look off a model that has already been built. So far we have put on the spinal erectors, the ab muscles, and now we are working on the glutes/hips.
I totally agree that the clay model is harder that I originally thought. I with the book had other muscles in the pictures so you can relate it to the muscle your building. I also found it interesting that the main way you can tell a male from female is from their pelvic bone. I had never really thought about it before.
ReplyDeleteNice description of the sternum. The gladiolus always reminds me of a gladius. I am sure that the clay modeling will get much easier as we get more used to it. Keep up the good work!
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