 |
© 1998, 1999, WetCanvas! |
[ Home: ArtSchool Online: Basic Anatomy for the Artist: Lesson 9 ]
|
|
© 1998, 1999, WetCanvas! |
 |
The SCAPULA is a very important
bone of the skeleton for the artist to understand and it's design
is complicated. It has many muscles attached to it and it also
takes many positions with the different actions involving it. It is a triangular flat bone, slightly arched from top to bottom to fit against the rib cage. With the clavicle it forms the pectoral girdle as it has a joint with the clavicle. The superior angle reaches to the second rib. The inferior angle which is strong and thickened bone due to the muscles attachment usually reaching to the level of the seventh rib. The lateral angle has a shallow socket, the glenoid fossa, with which the head of the humerus articulates. Across the back of the scapula there is a diagonal bar of bone which is called the acromion process. The acromion can be felt on your own shoulder when the arm is relaxed. The fingers can be put around the tip of it, the upper surface felt because it is just under the skin, and the bar of the spine can be felt angling downward across the back, as it too is subcutaneous. These are landmark points to look for on the surface. There is also a small finger-like process called the coracoid process which extends from the front of the scapula to provide attachment for the biceps and coracobrachialis muscles. |
|
The scapula is rather like a
raft on the back, even with it's joint with the clavicle, because
the joint can move. The scapula can be pulled in all directions
by the muscles which pull on it like ropes. It is capable of
movements up and down on the rib cage as in shrugging the shoulders,
backward and forward rotation on it's axis, and greater movements
of rotation in being pulled forward or backward, as the arms
move. In
|
|