As someone who works with anatomy daily, I see the same issues pop up again and again in art portfolios. What anatomy feedback do you find yourself giving most frequently? I'm talking about things like proportion errors, perspective problems with limbs, or misunderstanding muscle groups. What specific exercises or resources have helped you or your students improve anatomical accuracy while maintaining artistic style?
The most common issue I see is artists drawing what they think they know rather than what they actually see. Like drawing a generic eye" shape instead of observing how eyes actually look from different angles. My favorite exercise for this is timed gesture drawing from life or photo references. 30 seconds to capture the essence of a pose forces you to see the big shapes and relationships rather than getting stuck on details. It's done wonders for my own anatomy understanding.
Hands and feet are where I see the most consistent problems. Artists tend to draw them too small or simplify them into mittens. My advice is to draw your own non-dominant hand in various positions every day for a month. Just quick sketches, 5-10 minutes each. By the end, you'll have a much better understanding of how hands actually work. The same goes for feet. This kind of focused practice is one of the best artwork improvement tips I can give for anatomy.
I think perspective issues with anatomy are often overlooked. An arm that's foreshortened incorrectly can throw off an entire figure. I recommend studying cylinders and boxes in perspective, then applying that knowledge to body parts. An arm is essentially a cylinder, a head is a sphere, etc. Understanding basic forms in space makes complex anatomy much more manageable. This has been crucial feedback I give during art portfolio reviews.
One mistake I made for years was drawing muscles as separate entities rather than understanding how they work together. Like drawing each ab muscle individually instead of understanding the abdominal group as a whole. Studying anatomy books that show muscle groups in action, not just isolated, helped tremendously. Also, drawing from skeletons and then building up muscles on top gives you a much better understanding of structure. This approach really improved my technical skills.
In workshop critiques, I often see artists getting proportions wrong because they're working from the outside in. They draw the outline and then try to fit everything inside. I teach working from the inside out: establish the skeletal structure first, then add muscle masses, then skin. Even if you're doing a stylized piece, understanding the underlying structure makes the stylization more convincing. This is fundamental feedback I give in every anatomy session.