Does having Athlete’s Foot qualify me as being sporty ?

A short but sweet post this week highlighting the anatomy of the foot/feet (feets lol). I personally share in many others that feet are weird, especially mine since I have broken every toe. Per usual I will share in an endeavor of my life to represent the anatomy study, which is great because I feel I have just about every area covered!

I participated in Tae Kwon Do as a teenager through high school and furthered my studies until I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder which led to muscle deterioration. We were wrestling and I was learning an extreme amount of pressure resistance and body weight compensation within the exercise, well little did I know that my Sensei was participating in the other students weight distribution, at this time I was about 400 pounds and in very good shape, he was not watching his placement of himself at the time and stepped on my foot. I felt pressure but disregarded it as a minor inconvenience at the time of the instruction, well little did I know that when I went to pull my foot out of the way, the weight distribution that he was placing and mine combined pulled my ring toe and pinky in a different direction, which then shattered the bones, and the ring toe  is permanently curled, the pinky toe healed a small bone fragment out of place and its permanently pressed against my ring toe like a duck, and they both healed in a weird state overall. This was probably the most painful experience to date, it is like a Peter Griffin when you scrape your knee or another other small inconvenience, and you overreact, but well I never noticed until the next day! So now I have some weird toes/feet to accompany my disliking of feet which many others share including my wife lol! 

I started out with the Mellem book and continued my studies in drawing from reference with his direction. I sketched a few different boxes and structures, and then noticed something. The foot has many similarities to the hand in boxing in the shapes and developing the structure, but has many differences in bones, ligaments, and muscles that play a role in how we perceive the foot.

I moved on to my own techniques that I once lost in sketching and have recently come accustomed to within the last few weeks, with the help of 3D Total Publishing of course, because I have learned most of my techniques from their books. I then structured the foot in a way that was referenced in the Anatomy for 3D artists by 3D Total Publishing, it was a way to define the shapes in a rather boxy, yet defined overall shape to give structure to the foot before producing a sculpt. I sketched these ideas instead, which led to a rather interesting outcome. Then I began to study the anatomy of the foot through the guidance of the books I have been referencing this semester. The Calcaneus and Cuboid of the foot are some of the largest bones which are represented in the heel of the foot. The Talus, Navicular, and Cuneiform bones are the structure that defines the foot from the heel to where they sit on the base of Tibia, on top of the Talus bone. The weight structure and placement is distributed from the arrangement of the bones, which can vary in many different references, and can be different between someone that is flat arched/flat footed, and a female or something that displays more weight on their foot. Then the similarities between the hand and foot come into play. The Metatarsals and the Phalanges, which are structures along the ligaments of the arched placement of bones and to the Dorsal side of the foot creating the surface and knuckles that we see when we observe a foot. 

As the same reference from prior of the same male from Anatomy for artists : A visual reference guide by 3D Total publishing, I began my sculpt. I blocked out my reference points that I thought were displayed in the reference that should be more defined, rather than taking a structure of muscle which I found from my last study can be created by adding and removing clay in areas to obtain the desired structure. The only problem that I am currently facing is that It seems to have webbed the toes within the foot and I can no longer separate them. I may have made a mistake in using the program, but at the current moment I put it aside, more on the reason why I put the foot study aside.

My research and development in Anatomy and Sculpting came to halt when it was brought to my attention that I am not fully displaying the volumes and the muscle placement correctly. My proportions seemed off to me as well for my first attempt at a hand, but this was the case that continued. I took a step back and wanted to research and develop a way to structure my work instead of working in a way I thought was correct. I started to wonder if maybe I approached the entire study at the wrong position. I could not believe that after all these years it would be lost in my daily life, or lost because I would rather play music or model something from a reference that was already created. I realized then that it was time to really get my drawing skills back to par with my learning. I am in for an adventure now, because the plate has become full for this meal, and it seems that I may need a second plate (aka. buffet style, if you have two arms and two hands, you can take two plates and two drinks, lost of practice with that specific metaphor has led me to this !)

I took the time to revisit the overall of the arm and hand studies to see if I had possibly gained more knowledge and ability within the research. Here is some roughing out of volumes and shapes, to revisit the arm and hand sculpt. This will give me the ability to display muscles and rough in the anatomy to discover where I have gone wrong in my previous workings, and the ability to further my progress.

I was extremely please with taking a step back, waiting for the Anatomy for Sculptors book by Uldis Zarins with Sandis Kondrats, which was recommended to me by a fellow classmate. I also began to take advantage of observing prior streams and live events that Pixologic had to offer on their website. This led to giving me reference and techniques and ideas to use in the sculpting of the study.

I will say that I am happier with this result the second time around, I only see progress in the future.

My wife being a sculptor, and studying sculpture within her educational adventure, mentioned to me that maybe I should try to learn shape and form of actual sculpting clay or base of my choosing. It may help me consider the way a material can be used and manipulated in order to gain the desired form, because she felt that the digital style lacked in fundamental developments. I agreed so I began to explore this on the side of my studies, and created a sketch of a character that I want to try to create with sculpey polymer clay. I’ll keep it updated in the post as I go through a little at a time while exploring the anatomy studies.

I begin my exploration in the torso, let’s see what it has in store next post.