So you've decided to finally put on your BIG BOY pants and learn skull anatomy? Well, seek no further as this beginners guide will kick you into gear with the basic names and also have you using new memory techniques to get those names into your skull faster...
content:
how to actually learn stuff the easy way...
Now, before we actually get to the names i want to take a moment to show you how to actually making learning "stuff" easier and more fun!
WAIT, DONT ZONE OUT YET!! If you want to just skip ahead to the actual skull stuff be my guest (CLICK HERE) but i guarantee this section will help you out with future endeavors when it comes to learning and remembering things.
All right, your're still here, nice! So whats the big deal with this anyway? Well first you need to know that i think the general schools method for structuring and executing any curriculum SUCKS! BIG TIME! Secondly, i like to rant about slightly off topic subjects because im pretty sure i have narcissistic tendencies...
Anyway, the school method of learning is basically this: Heres a bunch of useless information and make sure to learn it by Tuesday just so you can forget all about it in two weeks time! After which you usually think, "But how do i learn all this?" Uhhh, just write it down a bunch of times, highlight it, read it over and over again, DUHHH!!! This right here is one of my major issues with school; they never gave you a concrete fool proof way of learning something! Or maybe i just wasnt paying attention...
Either way heres how we solve it:
The big picture is this: combine LONG TERM MEMORY (your knowledge of cars for example) with SHORT TERM MEMORY (that stupid set of collective nouns your teacher "needs" you to learn). This will create MEDIUM TERM MEMORY. Another way is to create STORIES or CREATIVE DIAGRAMS with the information you want to learn using information you already have like maybe all the lyrics to your favourite Justin Bie- I mean Tupac album.
Other ways include using a shopping mall to learn the entirety of the bodies muscles: you would do this by taking the muscles names and assigning each group to a store and since each store sells and has a bunch of products (which you probably already memorised) you can assign the muscles to those products... Another example would be: maybe you really like BMW cars and you know what makes each model different and unique. Well then you could take all the 1 series BMs and use them to memorise the parts of the skull, all the 3 series BMs to memorise the torso, all the 5 series to memorise parts of the legs etc etc.... So like i said you are taking LONG TERM MEMORY (your knowledge of cars in this case) and combing it with SHORT TERM MEMORY (the muscle names and locations) to create MEDIUM TERM MEMORY... Over time this Medium Term Memory (MTM) can become LTM or go back to being STM; this depends on you actually regularly updating your knowledge.
BTW all this, and more, is covered in the book: Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley (LINK) if you are interested in learning more and going in depth, which i suggest you do since its memory techniques in general which is helpful!
example:
All right so lets actually use that knowledge to our advantage so we (you) can learn the bones of the skull. Lets say that you need to learn these parts of the skull within the next 30 minutes because thats when your exam starts... Ordinarily this would be a lost cause unless you're a genius: if you were a genius btw you wouldnt be reading this...
Anyway, here are the terms you need to learn:
I'll make use of a creative story this time around and use that story to quickly memorise the parts of the skull. Lets start with the number of bones we need to learn. In this case its 10; you can remember "ten" as everyone always wants a top ten list of something so here we'll have the top ten most important bones for you to remember... I know theres thirteen bones listed here but three of them arent that important to artists but if you do want to remember thrirteen you can think of it as: thirteen is usually considered bad luck so we can remember that as, "if we dont get all 13 we will have some bad luck with the exam"... I usually remember the number as a sanity check... Ill reacap everything we learn with a creative story to summarise and help you remember the names at the END of the article (CLICK HERE to skip to the summary).
Next lets actually learn the bones!
bones:
FRONTAL BONE
First up is the FRONTAL BONE (1). This is one of the easier bones: its on the front and its called the FRONTAL BONE theres really no need for any memory tricks here...
NASAL BONE
Up next is the NASAL BONE (2), again no need for fancy tricks as its the bone on your nose; nose, nasal, simple... Also its second on our list so you can think of two (2) nostrils
make up your nasal area.
MAXILLA
After that we have the MAXILLA (3): this bone is apparently important for your looks so a maximum development here is crucial lest you look like Godzilla: MAXILLA (maximum and Godzilla).
MAXIMUM GODZILLA: MAXILLA (haha)
Up next is the TEETH (4), you know just the teeth...
MANDIBLE
After that is the MANDIBLE (5) aka the jaw and if you have to pay an expensive bill you would exclaim with an open jaw, "Man that bill" was expensive (man that bill, MANDIBLE). Yeah i know im pushing it with some of these but we only have 25 minutes left!! Another way i use to remember this is "HAIRY MANDIBLES" theres a dude on one of my groups with that name and it sounds like something else but really all it means is hairy jaw (hairy mandible).
ZYGOMATIC BONE
Next we have another important bone and thats the ZYGOMATIC BONE (6) aka the cheek bone. This is important because it joins (ZYGO means to join) the maxilla and the temporal bones. I remember this one as "zygo" means join and if this doesnt join you automatically have no cheeks! zygo + automatic = zygomatic...
SPHENOID BONE
The SPHENOID BONE (7) is next and this is so small and random compared to all the other external bones almost like its wedged between them... This makes it easy to remember as SPHEN means wedge and you can think of it as wedged between all other important bones. (Pssst: This bone isnt that important, actually, so dont worry if you forget about it from time to time...)
All right just three more bones to go and they are all important so before we get to it lets take a five minute break! Yeah yeah, i know we only have 20 minutes left but breaks are important!
PARIETAL BONE
So here we have the PARIETAL BONE (8)... Parietal means of or wall related and since these bones are on the side of your skull protecting you, you can think of them as your "Parental Bones" (Parental - Parietal Bones) protecting your brain.
A Parental Wall
TEMPORAL BONE
Your Parents can only temporarily (TEMPORAL BONE (9)) protect you... This is how i remember the Temporal Bone - temporal means of or time related and your parents can only temporarily protect you - temporary - Temporal...
OCCIPITAL BONE
And Lastly we have the OCCIPITAL BONE (10) at the back - If your parents cant protect you from a blow to the back of the head you will end up in hospital - Occipital. Occiput means resting on, as in the back of the head resting on the spine...
creative story summary:
Okay, time is running out here (10 mins left) So lets recap everything we learnt with a quick, creative and somewhat cohesive (not really) story. By the way itll help a ton if you point to these points on your own skull/ head while reviewing the names... its weird i know but it will help reinforce the info:
First up at the front of the skull we have the Frontal bone (1). If we jump below that we have the Nasal bones (2). Still on the front of the face we walk past Maximum Godzilla - Maxilla (3) - this is the bone that is responsible for your looks - and just below that is our Teeth (4) and our strong and hairy jaw (Mandible (5)) which can then join (zygo) up with the Zygomatic bone (6) aka the cheek bones on the side of the skull; this bone is the joining (zygo = join) bone to the face, jaw and cranium. Standing here we feel wedged between all the bones - just like the Sphenoid bone (7) (sphen = wedge). We dont need to worry about this crazy journey as the parental bones - the Parietal bones (8) are up next; they will protect us and are on the sides of the skull. A bit of time passes but slightly below that we see the Temporal bone (9) - you can feel the bump of this bone just behind your ear - temporal = time. If we dont pass this test we might end up in hospital - Occipital Bone (10).
And here are the 3 bonus bones you can add:
All this studying and lack of play makes you want cry - Lacrimal bone (11). If you do start to cry the tears will run past your Vomer (12) and Ethmoid (13) bones in your nose. Again these three bones are pretty useless to artists so dont get too worked up with them!
Aaaand hey! Thats it! You just learnt the 10 most important bones of the skull! But if you want to complete the set you can continue reading, if not im glad you made it this far and as you can see its the creativity behind the names that enable you to better learn new terms and ideas. So get creative with the next set of muscles or bones you need to learn and of course the more you practice the easier it will become to use this method to remember things!
LACRIMAL BONE
VOMER BONE
ETHMOID BONE
Lastly we have the "Extra" bones, they are the LACRIMAL (11), VOMER (12) and ETHMOID BONEs (13). And truth be told these bones really arent important for artists (thus the 11, 12, and 13 numbers) so you can pretty much skip them... But if you want to remember them i remember them as lacrimal (lack cry mill - not pronounced this way but a way for you to remember) means tears or tear related and since this bone is right by your eyes its easy to remember tears... ETHMOID sounds like a type of mosquito insect (its bone above, flying, the vomer bone) and VOMER sounds like a mucky creature lurking within your nose (in my mind anyway) so i imagine them as some creatures within you nose as this is where the bones are...
VOMER ETHMOID
And hey Thats all 13 bones done! If youve made it this far, well done again and i know learning the names seems moot given that all you want to do is draw them but names give meaning and conjure up images because those names are specific to that thing I.E. clouds, grass, bottle caps; all of these evoke a very particular image because that name is linked to that thing. So the names really are usefull for helping to remember and draw the bones, muscles and forms of the human body!
Hey, it's me again!
Thivolan Moodley, 3d Artist from Johannesburg, SA. Currently working as a freelance character artist. Also creating free and paid tutorials for the clueless- i mean enthusiastic (yeah that sounds better) 3d artists out there!
Tutorials, socials and portfolio:
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