How To Draw Forearms – Anatomy for Artists
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Anatomy of the Human Body

Arms(101 Lessons)
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Forearms

How To Draw Forearms – Anatomy for Artists

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How To Draw Forearms – Anatomy for Artists

339K
Mark as Completed

Assignment

When drawing the Forearm, start with the chicken drumstick. You want to start simple and establish all the big proportions and simple forms first. Find the block of the wrist and use it to establish the perspective of the arm. You should know in your head whether the arm is supinated or pronated, and where the ulna and radius are. Then you can draw the individual muscle groups. Get the rhythm of the ridge muscles as they wrap around the arm, from lateral epicondyle to thumb. Split up your chicken drumstick into the individual muscles if they’re visible, and add the tendons at the palm side of the wrist. As you add the individual muscles, try not to lose the large mass of the 3 muscle groups. There’s a hierarchy. Primary forms first, then secondary forms.

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Marco Sordi
2023/12/3. Good morning everybody. Here's my diagram of the ridge group. Thanks!
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Marco Sordi
2023/12/2. Good morning everybody. Here's my diagram of the flexor group. Thanks and have a good weekend.
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Marco Sordi
2023/11/29. Good afternoon everybody. Here's a quick review about the forearm muscles. The first part is about the extensor group. Thanks.
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Madelyn Kuipers
This assignment required quite a bit of self-critique to get right! I'm sure I've missed things so feedback and critiques welcome and appreciated!
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Rain Cloud
not much to say, youre really good. Just keep doing what youre doing. You have a good handle on this.
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Madelyn Kuipers, nice studies! - The muscles generally go to the right place, so good job with that👍, but I would try to be more specific about the insertion. I don't necessarily mean putting in every little tendon, you may simplify, but in that simplification it's important that things make sense, so that the arm you've drawn would have been able to move, if it was a real arm. In drawing six for example, you stop the extensor group where the forearm ends. Had this been a real arm, it wouldn't have been able to extend the hand. The extensor group has to attach to the hand in order to extend it. Make sure that each muscle group has a specific point/line where they attach. - If you want to simplify the ridge muscles into a single volume, try to keep it consistent between poses. Comparing #2 and #6, which both are based on muscular models, the simplification isn't consistent from drawing to drawing. In #6 the drawing have indicated a strange split in the middle of the ridge group, which doesn't seem to match the more accurate "Jabba the Hut" shape of #2. I hope this helps :)
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Phattara Groodpan
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Samuel Parker
Finally getting back into regular anatomy practice!!! Wahoo!!!
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Jesper Axelsson
Yippiee!!! XD Cool drawings! They show that you're going in depth with the muscles. - There are some innacuracies here and there. In the top middle drawing for example, it feels like the brachioradialis could reach higher with its origin, and the extensor carpi ulnaris seem to be origination from the olecranon instead of the lateral epicondyle as it should. I think the next step for you would be to focus on nailing the muscle groups and their attachment points. So find the big groups and the point/line of origin and the point/line of insertion. Ridge group. Flexors. Extensors. Thumb muscles. Also you might want to follow a process of: first drawing the flow then fleshing out with the major volumes (maybe a step here where you find the bones) then draw the major muscle groups on top of/into the major forms. Kinda like they were big chunks of clay on a sculpture (you probably want this established before adding individual muscles). This will help making the arm's orientation in space read even better. In the bottom middle drawing, I'm not quite sure how the nearest forarm is oriented. Hope this helps :) Keep up the good work 💪😎👍
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Margaret Langston
My forearm assignments, before watching demos
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Sandra Süsser
Forearm lesson notes
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James Paris
Here are my assignements for this lesson ! I just realised I forgot to watch the Anatomy of Flexors/Extensors and Ridge Muscle I mainly used the PDF/3d Model to better understand the forms I also did some bonus ones with a LITTLE BIT of stylisation I'm sorry for the overall quality, my phone and my scanner aren't so great
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Crystal Blue  (she/her)
I did some tracings over photos to practice. Any feedback is appreciated, it was really hard!
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@abrahan13
any feedback is appreciated
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James Paris
I had a feeling forearms would be tough, I was right. This is going to be hard ! Here are my first three attempts. PS : I forgot to mention that I switched from A4 to A3 since the Deltoids assignements, and while I can finally use the overhand grip, I think I need to pay more attention to proportions now
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Alexis Riviere
I find the arm muscles lessons really challenging overall, and I'm sure to go back to them a lot of times before getting the hang of it.
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Ernesto Palma
Hey there! Goo effort I see! I believe that what will help you most is simplification. Go back to square one for direction. Have you got the figure drawing course? Practice gesture and then add the anatomy on it ONLY if you feel it will carry the pose forward. Simplify and continue to practice no matter how hard it gets, take breaks too! Go enjoy life! Come back with a fresh mind and take another crack at it! Persistence is key! Wish you the best of luck!
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Luke Ng
Some forearm studies. I'm struggling to understand what's going on with the flexor muscles in the last image (tracing). Shouldn't the underside of the arm be smoother as the flexor carpi ulnaris covers most of the lateral (Ulna) side of the arm?
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@viny
finished the forearm exercises. After learning the individual muscles it gets a little easier
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@viny
a quick study 8 months later
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@xander
Here's my attempt at the assignment. Cheers.
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Ria Kumo
All critiques welcomed!
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@hiflow
Please critique >.>
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CHARLES DEIGHAN
For the record, here's my Forearm Assignment, critiques welcomed. Thanks.
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Thieum
Another exercise that I found very useful thanks to the 3d model to try to understand muscle forms and their relationships in space. Good day and good drawings to all, I go back to my pencils!
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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
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