Muscles from the back

[furiana]

I felt like learning something about muscle anatomy today. Any help would be appreciated, even if it's "go back to studying proportions before you try this again."

The first sketch was drawn from a still from Dexter Jackson's "Unbreakable" DVD, which I'm including for comparison. I figured that since I'll be re-drawing it to re-position the figure, I might as well get feedback first!

The second is a diagram that I drew from memory. I'm trying to memorize the various muscle groups and their various placements. The idea is to use this knowledge when I'm working from references in the future.

[wooblood]

I'm not really sure what the best advice for you here would be, but looking at your second drawing, I can only think to recommend really going back and studying anatomy references. Muscles on the body are definitely not as geometric and random as the way you diagrammed them out. I guess maybe it might have helped to take an anatomy or kinesiology class, but when you study anatomy, try to really think about the way muscles are attached to bones, how they contract to make bones and other parts move, and how they work in coordination with other muscles to make certain movements happen.

Looking at your first drawing, you have the overall outlining down pretty well, but then if you look at the individual shapes of the muscles in the reference and compare them with what you have, they are not the same in terms of proportioning, shapes and distances. I guess you really need to just look at lots of references and copy what you see until the underlying anatomy sinks in and becomes second nature.

[Marlee.]

Right, hi
Studying anatomy is good. Doing it from memory afterwards is great, really important.
You're headed in the right direction.
Best advice? Go do it again, and a hundred times after that.

[furiana]

Thanks, Marlee! "Journey of a thousand miles begins with one step," and all that. I'm glad I'm on the right road, at least! I can't wait until it starts paying off.

Wooblood, that's exactly what I'm going to do. It's interesting that you mention kinesiology: I've been watching videos of bodybuilders, trying to figure out which muscle is what and (from there) how they move. Some knowledge about kinesiology would make that a lot easier, even more than knowing anatomy would... Although I guess that the two would generally go hand-in-hand. I'll study them both, in any case.

Thanks again, you two! Sounds like I have some work to do.