Rhesus Macaque Monkey Skull: 3-Point Perspective Illustration

As part of my on-going celebration and honouring of Nature and my artistic apprenticeship and hobby (drawing/sketching, illustration, watercolour painting, woodcarving, and photography), I'm taking a "Medical/Anatomical Illustration" course now.

For the Final Project, I have chosen a perspective illustration, rather than a standard view, of a Rhesus Macacque Monkey Skull (Macaca mulata), which I have in my skull collection from early biology days)...It was easier then to buy such specimens and the ethics weren't considered at that time.

The initial sketches of the skull are straight forward ventral (frontal) and lateral views. The final illustration perspective, complete with the tonal values in the fully-rendered drawing, is more challenging since the viewing angles of the specimen are tapered and deal with a triple-point perspective. The faint geometric lines of this 3-point perspective are visible since I am treating this illustration as an art piece.

Doing this project brings back the fond days in Chordate Anatomy as an under-grad in 1966 to 1969, both as a student and then as a lab demonstrator/instructor.

Graphite illustration, watercolour painting, and woodcarving are very low-tech hobbies/passions...are very portable...increase one's powers of observation...link right-brain with left-brain ways of looking at the world, problem-solving, and making decisions...don't require plugged-in electronic devices...are educational, with the background research which is involved...have negligible carbon and ecological footprints (i.e., environmental impact or fossil fuel consumption)...are self-satisfying...can lead to a "career", if started early enough...and are relaxing and very good mindfulness activities.

I am 74 and a life-long learner.

© Brad Atchison 2023