How to Draw Biceps – Anatomy for Artists

362K
Mark as Completed

How to Draw Biceps – Anatomy for Artists

362K
Mark as Completed

Assignment: Draw the Biceps

our assignment is to do quicksketch drawings of the upper arm from the model photos I’ve provided below. Start with the gesture then focus on drawing the forms of the muscles. Since we already learned about the deltoid, you can have some fun with those too.

Newest
@robot0906
29d
Can have critique please? I need to understand these muscles.
Melanie Scearce
I looks like you have all of the important muscles in your drawings, now it's just a matter of figuring out where they connect and how they change when flexed. It's a truly wonderful challenge to take on :) What helps me is to do tracings before I dive into an anatomical study. I find that I ask more questions when trying to work out what goes where beforehand than when I am in the midst of a drawing. You could print out the images and use tracing paper or do the tracings digitally. It also helps me to label the muscles. That's just what works for me, but it could work for you too! I also try to find references to have available, like Richer's Artistic Anatomy and the free app 3D Anatomy for Artists, which is a great way to learn the origins and insertions. I included my tracing of the images you included. Hope that helps!
@robot0906
1mo
Here are my assignment drawings plus some from imagination.
Alejandro
3mo
my assigment for this lesson, loved the poses
Rachel Dawn Owens
Beautiful!
Melanie Scearce
Super clean drawings!
Patrick Bosworth
Very nice work!
Ezra
7mo
Enjoyed this one! The positioning and visibility of the brachialis still confuses me a little. Any feedback is welcome :)
Melanie Scearce
The brachialis is mainly visible on the outside of the arm since there are arteries, veins, etc that cover it on the inside of the arm. It creates an oval shape when flexed and is visibile on your drawing #3 between the triceps and the biceps. Hope that helps!
Holly Laing
Here's my assignment for the biceps, any critique/feedback is welcome! :) 
Liandro
1yr
Looks awesome, @Holly Laing! Careful construction and accurate anatomy. Great work!! One suggestion I'd make (which doesn't concern anatomy directly) would be to avoid using a hasty zig-zaggy pattern when shading with a pencil-like tool, since it can create some "noise" that kind of breaks the realistic design which I believe you were going for. Instead, what I'd recommend would be to try to work with hatching and cross-hatching (something like what @David Finch shows in this video: How to Cross Hatch for Comics - David Finch) or, alternatively, to use a more "painterly" approach and have your shading rely just on broad tone marks (I'm attaching a quick paint-over). Hope this helps!
Madelyn Kuipers
Had a hard time with some of the tendons and positioning so feedback and critiques welcome and appreciated!
michael gilbert
Daniela Grippo
Any suggestions?
Demetrio Cran
Hola Daniela! Creo que entre Argentinos podemos hablar en Argentino :-) Lo que dice Steve es muy acertado, creo yo. Es posible que te entusiasme mucho la anatomia y estés usando esa energía para sentarte a dibujar, pero veo que no te vendria mal reforzar algunos fundamentos. Por ejemplo, Steve menciona el gesto. Yo sumo la forma en que usas el "sombreado" para describir el volumen. Creo que podés usar de referencia a Steve, que con gran economía (solamente dos tonos) muestra mucho volumen y con gran claridad. Por supuesto que Steve es muy avanzado, pero lo que se puede sacar de la experiencia es que tal vez sea buena idea probar con un sombreado más simple. Bueno, es un gusto encontrame con dibujantes de argentina.
Steve Lenze
Hi Daniela, There is a couple of things I see in your arm drawing that I think you could work on. To begin with, the arm has no gesture, it's very straight and stiff. Your anatomy and the way you are thinking about the flex and relaxed part of the muscles is what is contributing to the stiffness. It's easier to show then explain, so I did a quick sketch to show you what I mean. I hope this helps :)
Phattara Groodpan
Tsotne Shonia
I'm still experimenting with the shading, there's still a lot to do. I think I'm not varying my core shadows enough and need to be more willing to "erase" my lines, but I'm making slow progress 😊
Benjamin Green
Most of these are really good. One tip I can lend you is that you don't typically need a core shadow for every muscle. Shading each muscle individually will generally look terrible. Bigger shadow shapes and maybe a pinch of reflective light here and there will look artistically better. Anatomy is about subtlety.
Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Tsotne Shonia, nice studies! Your tracings of the anatomy look pretty accurate💪 - I think I would give you the same advice I gave you on the foot bones assignment: to practice drawing from imagination. Drawing from imagination reveals what you don't know and helps you get to know the anatomy even better. In some of these I'm lacking a sence of a bone beneath, and the muscles being layered on top. In drawing 1, 2 and 5 I feel like we're lacking some of the arm's volume; maybe because the unvisibile anatomy hasn't been clearly considered. I like to treat my anatomy studies, kinda like écorché sculptures; you build from skeleton up to the surface. - I think the drawings would look even more appealing if you balance the round forms with some hard planes. Try to be a bit more boxy in you mass conceptions. In image 6 for example, you have a wonderful opportuniy to draw an almost box like biceps. - Try to consider the gesture more when adding the structure and anatomy. If you study this drawing by Michelangeo https://i.pinimg.com/originals/21/86/5f/21865fe4ea3811d6cdad9a961d5d5ce3.jpg, you might notice how every single line is contributing to the gesture. It might help to think about a river flowing through the body; the forms are like rocks that the water flow across, around, smashes into, splashes over and the lines you draw is the water interacting with them. One of the difficulties with figure drawing is to keep on adding to the gesture, while adding the forms and details, and this river analogy might help with that. Hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
Samuel Parker
Found some time to get back to this course! Been busy with my mentorship with Simon Lee.
Margaret Langston
Posting my attempt at the biceps assignment, which shows my very fuzzy knowledge of anatomy in general. I will come back and copy the SP demos at some point.
Marco Sordi
2022/11/25. Good morning everybody. Here's my latest anatomy study (source: "The Anatomy of Style" by Patrick Jones). Thanks and have a good day.
James Paris
Here are my assignments for this exercise
Jesper Axelsson
Really nice!
David Gutmann
Jesper Axelsson
Hi @David Gutmann, nice drawings! Good gesture and shading, I can clearly feel the forms. - I would do some deeper studying of the anatomy to make sure you know all the muscles from this lesson and their attachment points. In drawing 2, I'm unsure whether you're aware of the biceps's insertion point at the radius and the presence of the brachialis, since they don't seem indicated (though I'm seeing a light line that might be part of the brachialis). Maybe you were, but choose to leave it out for a focus on light- and shadow-shapes? You can shade of course, though for your anatomy studies I would recommend that you lightly indicate, or at least in the lay-in, find the muscles and bones that lie deep as well. In image 3 you've indicated the coracobrachialis, though I'm unsure whether you know where it's heading for the coracoid process. In drawing 4 you seem to have grouped the biceps with the brachialis into a single cylinder. Hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
@abrahan13
2yr
Any feedback is appreciated
@viny
2yr
biceps exercises ready, I'm still going to do some more, I don't think I understand everything right.
@viny
2yr
another study 8 months later
Luke Ng
2yr
Nice work! Keep going
Luke Ng
2yr
I struggled with Identifying the brachialis in the models, especially on the medial side of the arm. Also, I'm not sure if the brachialis and the deltoid are supposed to attach to the same location of the humerus. It looks that way on most ecorches I've seen though I could be wrong. Any Critique about my anatomy or general drawing is greatly appreciated
@cg_art
2yr
Although I truly do not have the knowledge to give you any useful critique, I will say I look forward to when my work is on this level and beyond :)
Atharva Lotake
looking good! keep it up!
squeen
2yr
Looking reaaly good.
Ria Kumo
3yr
All critiques appreciated. I did edit some of my traditionally drawn work. I think that's okay?
Johnathan
3yr
For you last drawing, the gray part seems to be the brachialis, not biceps brachii. It looks like you can identify your muscles well though!
@hiflow
3yr
I think I'm starting to get the hang of implicit shading. All critiques appreciated!
Johnathan
3yr
Well done. For your drawing of the woman, the deltoid and biceps brachii lines should be touching, as there's nothing in between them at that area. Your drawings look structural and has volume though so keep up the good work!
Course in Parts
View course details
Give a gift
Give a gift card for art students to use on anything in the Proko store.
Or gift this course:
About instructor
Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
Help!
Browse the FAQs or our more detailed Documentation. If you still need help or to contact us for any reason, drop us a line and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!