Exercise: Anatomy Tracing

Before teaching anything about anatomy, Stan introduced a method to practice recognizing where muscles take their courses by outlining them and trying to add in which direction the muscle fibers go. When I saw him do it in the video, I didn't doubt that it would be useful exercising like that, but I would never have thought it would be that helpful. I have to admit that it already helped me memorize a lot of muscles from the back and front of the torso.

I took on the assignments that were given in the end of course. All in all I am very content with how I could benefit from the exercise already.

The first picture was exactly the one Proko showed in his tutorial. After watching it closely I tried to do the same by myself. Rather than relying on my memory I aimed to identify the muscles.

The original image

My muscle sketch

Unfortunately, I still remembered most of the characteristics and could'nt prevent the first one to be a little bit too similiar to Proko's showing as I also had to look up some parts. I didn't get the feeling of really understanding the anatomy too, but it still was a good first step to get used to the method.

The second one entered a new terrain switching to the front torso. I wasn't too sure if this would end well because I haven't seen anything from the front view yet. Surprisingly, it turned out quite well.

Original image

My first attempt

The part around the shoulders really confused me, it's also where I did the most wrong. I didn't know where the chest muscles start or end at the top and I wasn't able to recognize any courses too, which lead to the quite nonsensical part between chest and shoulders.

Corrections

After applying adjustments to the false parts everything around the shoulders made sense. Also, I didn't expect the muscles above the chest to go as they do, so that was something like an eurika moment.

Altogether I was very happy when I saw how little red there was when I regarded the sketch. It seemed as if I had at least some sort of basic understanding before I started the study.

Next was the only image of a woman in a very deforming pose. It didn't help at all that she was very skinny with hardly any profiled muscles, I was really overwhelmed first.

Original image

I tried my knowledge for a while but eventually it became too frustrating to go on. I needed to consult Proko's solution.

My muscle sketch

Of course everything fell into place when I put the pieces together with the help of the solution and I can't say I didn't learn something during this sketch. It was extremely interesting how I began to see the muscles more when I knew the muscle courses. I had a feeling that it clicked in my head and I was able to recognize very fine outlines.

The fourth image was the next to last image and the last front view of the torso. After two practices for the front side I confidently moved on to this one, probably because the model had a very shaped body, too.

Original image

My attempt

Being able to memorize and recognize quite a lot by now I could finish this sketch faster than the previous ones. I was rather unsure with the muscle groups at the arms though.

Corrections

This time I was able to outline most of the muscles correctly by myself, even the arms. With all the red it may look like most of it was incorrect but I only had to undertake rather minor changes.

For the last sketch of the exercise I had to switch to the back again. It was like the ultimate test if I learned something from the first section.

Original image

My attempt

I think it went really well. I even tried to indicate the direction of the muscle fibers this time, which was something I didn't dare to do that much previously. The deformed body pose still made it difficult to differentiate the outer back muscles.

Corrections

Unfortunately I was unable to recognize the flatter parts that connected the inner and outer back muscles. The muscle groups aroung the arms are currently really difficult for me to see so I will definitely pay attention when that becomes the topic. But overall I was very content with how I managed to deal with the practice meanwhile.

My conclusion for this practice method is that it helps a lot as simple as it seems to be. It really is not though, if you don't have an eye for the muscle courses yet you can feel quite lost. I am considering to repeat this practice after having gone through the whole anatomy study and continue it afterwards too.