Is muscle anatomy of the head/face knowledge really necessary?
2yr
@nahgul
This might come off as a bit naive but I do not see the point of knowing the muscle groups in the face when you can just rely on the plains of the face. The only reason it might be helpful to be mindful of the muscles rather than the plains when drawing/painting a face that I can think of (I'm not an expert) is when you are drawing them in action (when the face you are drawing is making an expression), but I do not know. I would like to know your thoughts on this.
I think it depends on what youre're after, if you plan on doing concept art you'll probably mostly deal with neutral faces as you said so I don't think it's necesarry. However if you plan on doing something like animation or illustration I think it's quite essential
Can't respond to all comments so I'll just do it here, thanks for the clarification! I always knew it was important somehow but I had never really heard why so i guessed it was for more complex face expressions and it seems i was right in that regard. Thanks!
Almost every figurative artist from old masters to Disney/ Pixar has benefitted greatly from committed study of all of artistic anatomy, so the effort clearly shows in their artwork. If i understand the motivation behind the question, then perhaps it is really question of what is good return on investment of time studying face muscles anatomy. Of course knowing planes of skull is super important to begin as foundation. As to muscles of face, perhaps study first with characteristics of eyes and eyebrow subtle variations associated with different classic emotions. That has potential for huge return on time invested. Artistic anatomy is a lifetime study worthy of some time each day, and more you know the more enjoyable rewarding it becomes. I hope that helps.
That's an interesting question and I believe it's not that important if you only plan to draw neutral faces but when you go further to drawing more extreme expressions both skull anatomy and muscles are of importance. I guess it's similar with the whole body.. Depending on how tricky poses you want, the more anatomy knowledge is needed.
