Mushu: From the Inside Out

    For one of our first drawings in Visual Arts, we were to choose a cartoon character and then draw the skeleton for it.  We had previously drawn a human skeleton, and now we were translating those bones and the similar bone structure to an animated character.  I chose Mushu from Disney's Mulan because I thought that with his skinny, flexible body, his long tail, and his funny face, that it would be cool to see a possible skeleton of him.  For this drawing, I made sure to draw a full set of bones, and I based them off of ones you would see in a human.  My drawing features a skull, a rib cage, a pelvis, and very long vertebrae for his neck, back, and tail.  I also used my imagination to create some of my own bones for the hands, feet, arms, and legs.  They are similar to a human's, but they differ in shape and size just a bit.  I exaggerated the eye sockets because of Mushu's large eyes, and he has a large spot for his large nose.  I also thought it would be interesting to add little bones into his two whiskers and his tail because I know they have a lot of movement and flick around a lot.  This led me to believe that there must be something there to structure them.  I believed it would be fun to create a skeleton for his gong and mallet.  I know that Mushu's job depends on his job, so it is a part of him, in a way.  Thinking of this, I imagined the skeleton of his gong and let his skeleton hold it.  Another thing that is different is that for the ends of the fingers, toes, and tail, I included some long bones that seemed like nails because they give him the needed shapes.  Overall, I think my final product was an impressive one that gave me more confidence about my drawings, especially the ones of skeletons!  This was a very fun project and I think it's a great way to be introduced to drawing and to skeletons!