Sunday, May 22, 2011

Skeleton Model

When studying form nothing beats working from a real 3-dimensional object. For learning anatomy, a good skeleton model can be a huge help in seeing what the various bones are shaped like and how they fit together.

There are countless plastic skeletons to buy out there, but many are not very good. Fortunately a company called Workman Publishing makes a very inexpensive model that is remarkably accurate, even compared to models costing many times as much.

However, like most skeleton models (and artist manikins for that matter – I’ll discuss that in a future post), this model can’t quite do all the things a real skeleton can… without a few modifications that is. The model is produced with the shoulder blades firmly fixed to the back of the ribcage, the hips and shoulders attached with pins (not true ball and socket joints), and so on.

So I cut the shoulder blades from the back, snipped off the pins that attached the upper arm bones and thigh bones to the shoulder blades and pelvis respectively, and I also cut the collar bones from their attachments to the top of the sternum, but left them attached to the shoulder blades. Then I reattached everything using soft sculptors’ wax. This wax has the consistency of something like a kneaded eraser, but it's very sticky. It softens when warmed by the hands, then hardens a bit at room temperature.

Now he's a fully poseable skeleton that can, for example, lift his collar bone and shoulder blade when raising his arm above his head.   

 Or swivel his thigh bones out to the side. Or even stand unsupported in just about any pose. Amazing! The only thing missing is a flexible spine…

For less than $20 this little gem can be an amazing tool for studying the human skeleton. Here are some drawings I did a while back when learning the form of the pelvis.
I would not have been able to undertake this kind of analysis of the form working solely from 2-dimensional reference sources. The great thing about this little skeleton is it's small enough (about 10" tall) to hold in your hand and rotate while you draw. Here is next to my studio phone and ancient I-pod:

You can buy this guy here: Workman Publishing plastic skeleton, or from Amazon.


  1. Hi! What a great idea! I just bought this skeleton but I'm having no luck finding Sculptor's Wax. I'm trying out some putty adhesive for now. Where did you get yours?
    Also, I'm very interested in making the spine flexible -- I figured I'd have to chop it in a few places, putting putty in between the breaks and maybe adding a wire or something to keep it all together.

  2. Taranimator,
    I've often thought of doing that myself, though it is challenging. Honestly I think the right solution is to have something with a flexible wire for the spine, because really there is little value in preserving the bone structure there (unlike, say, the skull, long bones of the limbs, etc.). It's very true that without a flexible spine it's impossible to do the vast majority of naturalistic poses, but that's I think where the usefulness of the plastic skeleton breaks off and the manikin begins. Bridgman has some simple instructions for making a manikin that is somewhere between the two, basically a wire spine with a block for the chest and a block for the pelvis, because the twisting and folding relationship between these two somewhat solid masses is critical to most figure drawings.


  3. You're totally right! You could even hang on to the lovely spine for drawing and studying and just swap out a nice flexible piece of pipe cleaner or something.
    It made me think of the articulated Bambi model from the Illusion of Life --

    I built my own skeleton exactly as you instructed and I'm so pleased with it! I credited you on my blog and linked to yours --

    Thanks for the idea! Beautiful work by the way..

  4. Hey, that's really cool! I love that Bambi manikin. I really wish we (or someone) could come up with a human manikin that allowed all the extreme poses possible with a real person, even at the expense of trying to mimic surface anatomy. Just something to help with the big relationships, foreshortening, etc., not to mention allowing you to explore poses (I mean find the right one) before drawing. The various digital solutions don't cut it for me. I like a real 3d object to draw from.

  5. Maybe there's a market for something like this...You know they've sold almost 2 million of those little desktop models! There are flexible skeletons out there, but they're very expensive -- -- the budget 'Mr Thrifty' isn't well reviewed. I'm sure artists and teachers would love to have something they could use for drawing. Thanks so much for the wonderful idea! :oD

  6. Hi Chris,

    I have been looking for a solution like this! First i bought a wooden mannequin but this is more helpfull. I have reattach everything now. I am curious to know what is the name of the soft sculptors’ wax you bought to reattach everything

    1. I found Tacky Wax at an art supply store. Works great.