Objects At Rest

These are the anatomy pattern sheets that I have been using for my wire armature development. I looked through some “anatomy for artists” books and made the figure design based on 1″ units for the male pattern and 15/16″ units for the female pattern. The nice thing is that I can just pick any size unit and then by applying that unit of measurement from dot to dot I can create armatures of any size and keep the proportions in the anatomically correct relationships (or at least close enough). It turns out that each measure is made up of equal units or halving the units at the point where I make a mark or dot. Very much like connect the dots. When finished, I know how long to make a piece of armature wire for the arms, legs, back and so forth.

The female armature is constructed in a similar manner to the male but the unit of measurement is 15/16″ and some adjustments are made in the measurements at the chest and the pelvis. I start with the 1 position like the male pattern but when I get past the 4th dot and enter the chest area I measure 1 unit then move back 1/2 space then move forward 1/2 of the remaining space. That marks the center of the upper chest. It results in a smaller shoulder width than the male pattern. In my pattern sheet you can see the tiny dots flanking the center dot. Once I have the upper chest marked I continue down marking the spaces like the male pattern and continue down to the end. At the number 3 position I halve the unit of measurement and work my way back up through the head. For the female pattern I used a full unit of measurement to the left and right of the pelvis section which makes the pelvic area wider than the male pattern which uses a total of only 1 unit of measurement.

I can’t say that these patterns are biologically correct but at least this method helps get the armature construction moving and I can do slight tweaks to the puppet until it looks right.