Ape Muscles Assignment

inDrawing Dynamic Creatures

329

Assignments 75

Downloads 2

Ape Muscles Assignment

Lesson by David Colman in Drawing Dynamic Creatures

329

Assignments 75

Downloads 2

Let’s see what you’ve learned!

I want you to do a shape breakdown of the muscles, just like I did in the demo.

Think about the skeletal structure underneath and then build the muscle forms on top of that. Focus on the big shapes and try not to get caught up in the minutia.

You can do the whole model or break it down into parts but I recommend trying the whole model at least once.

Once you’ve done that, try to take that understanding of the forms and draw them in a few different poses. Trying to get away from the static poses we have been doing and drawing them more dynamically.

This assignment is about your understanding of the forms, not making a pretty picture. So don’t worry about refining or rendering out your sketches.

Jamus Zeppeli

22d

this was really tough for me Ill be honest, I find a lot of difficulty in giving the forms volume and I still don't really know how to do so while keeping the gesture and rhythm intact. Also I probably need to watch more videos on Apes to see how they naturally move and how their body naturally flows as it does to create more natural gestures. The gestures I drew here feel a bit "off" and stiff. Overall, a pretty fun experience still thanks @David Colman for saying "There's no such thing as failure if you learn from it" it made me a lot more happy while working.

22d

My overall note here is to draw through the form- think spheres not cirlces...3D not contour. Draw like your a sculptor carving the muscles out of wood. Think about whats going on on the other side of the subject- the side you dont see.

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22d

Jamus- dont be so hard on yourself - growth is hard. Do you want to achieve greatness in your discipline or stay the same. Its going to challenge you all the time and its supposed to be hard. If it was easy everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great

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Eve A. Bear

25d

Study and sketches of the muscles. Tried some learning the tools in digital. That's why it is shaky. I tried to apply muscles over studies of the skeleton too. Will practice from imagination now. Till next time, enjoy the path of learning everybody!!!

20h

Nice job here , I think you are ready to get to the next step and draw some from imagination... put your knowledge to the test

22d

I like seeing you draw the muscles over the skeleton. Like laying the clay over a wire armature. I have used this analysis many time. Like Ecorche I do think you need to loosen up and draw through the forms as my overall note. Great job

nickmesics

28d

First using the Écorché to understand the forms and differences with human anatomy. Then did some sketchs from imagination

22d

GREAT work... love your angles. Challenging yourself and you did exceptionally well. I would now try and find more flow and rhythms... See the anatomy as just an avenue to convey movement and live while maintaining believable structure. Lean into long lines of action...

27d

Nice drawings, especially the one sitting with the back turned to the viewer.

28d

Chimpanzee arm muscles from memory. Continued practice.

22d

GREAT..... try to give those muscles more form as they wrap around and in between one another

Mariusz Stefanowski

29d

beginner starting with anatomy fun :) lots of wrongs which is hard for me to leave but its so much easier to focus on understanding and stuyding when you dont try to produce something on point

20h

Youre doing all the right things and knowing that its about learning is the primary point here. Try some individual muscle groups studies and overall think about the muscles as 3d forms. They are tending to flatten out in your studies. Draw through the form a little bit more- see these as almost transparent forms so that may help you think about whats going on the other side. The opposite angle....

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Mariusz Stefanowski

28d

Bp 4, too bad we dont have 3d model. Wouldnt save my work but would help a bit with what goes where :) i can imagine that for guys with human anatomy its much easier

Mariusz Stefanowski

28d

Bp 3

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Ian Gregory

1mo

Here is my assignment. I tried to make it loose while maintaining the muscle placement, however it kind of feels stiff at times. Definitely would take more time studying this section. My take of doing these starts from gesture, overall form, then placement of the muscles objectively.

30d

fantastic observation. and analysis.. now I want you to see the muscles as rhythms.. they should flow together...loosen up

goot

1mo

Some gorilla sketches. Some are from the model and some are from imagination.

30d

GREAT loose sketches. lets try and flow those muscles together now that you understand them in their own compartments. Also when drawing out of your head try to use this muscle approach in more true poses... some look like they are standing straight up. ITs rare to see them fully standing. The model is more for teaching resource

Mathias Ragnarsson

1mo

My assignment for the Muscle Breakdown. I had a bit of a struggle coming up with interesting poses to use with this lesson. So I went off and searched for some references; and while I could find a lot of pretty photos, not many of them were very energetic. Videos on the other hand seems more interesting for this case! Especially wild life documentaries.

30d

GREAT work...yes a little stiff but so clear and concise in your form design of these anatomical studies. Try to go for the gesture with just wire armature first and then add the muscular forms being careful to maintain the energy of the pose

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Anthony Damazyn

1mo

Tried to be conscious from the last critique and not get too detailed. A lot of the flows between muscles became more apparent the more I drew.

30d

Youre really puttin in alot of time... Thats great. I do think the poses are afterthoughts though.... adding an arm here and then a leg there.. Try to feel the energy of the entire pose. The way the back arches effects the tension and pressure of the bent knee etc

Jesper Axelsson

1mo

Cool! I really like the expression of the orangutang, to the right on image 1. Since you're focusing on not getting too detailed, it might be useful to try to draw like an animator, with simple shapes and exaggerated gesture (at least in the lay-in stage). I've been trying to do that the last week and I feel like it's improving the gesture, structure and poses of my drawings. I did a drawing yesterday where I tried to mimick Milt Kahl's drawings of Pinocchio ( https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_cNrb0Qj23M/WO2vrUuLGsI/AAAAAAAAS-I/Y7cm3iN9-FkifDTOcbMKWQLeSmu_1VyiQCLcB/s1600/PN4.jpg and https://adreamer49.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/milt-kahl-9.png ) I found that his drawings were amazingly simple, and that I often hide the weaknessess of my drawings with details, rather than nailing the foundation. So in this one I tried to stay simple. I guess I've kinda avoided Disney cartoon drawings, because I don't want my work to look cartoony, but I've been blind to the fact that they're built on really solid drawing foundations that I think will help in whatever style I'm working in. Hope this helps :)

Thomas Vang Pedersen

1mo

I’m trying figure out how to draw the skulls with open mouth from imagination, with is much harder than I thought. This is studies from imagination and reference.

30d

Oh my...Thomas... these are SO GOOD! Especially the first two pages. You really understand the volume and structure in its organic state then on page two understanding it on a conceptual objective shape level. You have a great confidence in your line too. more more more. I see some errors here and there that will be ironed out by repetition. I want to see you draw completely out of your head seeing what muscular anatomy ,pose and skeletal structure you and retained. Imagine all these categories as one...ex: youll see the anatomy present even in the simplest of gesture etc

Linus Lehmann

1mo

Here are some of my muscle studies. I started by going through the major parts first. Torso with back, than arms and than legs. I have spent the longest time on trying to figure out the forearm muscles, because where as i already did some study on most of the other muscles on humans i never really practiced the fore arm, and because i feel its the hardest part. I think i improved but i have to do a lot more forearm studies to really feel comfortable with them. Generally i tried to focus on the volumes of the muscles, and on staying loose and finding rhythms. I think that i managed to be more loose and to improve my understanding of their volumes. I did find some rhythms but i still feel a bit of struggle with those, so i think i might to focus on them more in future studies. On the last two pages i tried some full body poses from imagination. I have received some great suggestions on how to improve my poses when i posted some skeleton poses, and im trying to think about them as much as possible. Im a bit uncertain on what things i should focus on in my next studies, so any feedback would be very welcome.

30d

Dont be so hard on yourself.. youre putting in the work and doing what needs to be done. When sketching from imagination the knowledge you are retaining is getting lost which means take a step back and study source a bit more. But youre doing very well. They are looser for sure and the more memory sketches you do the more surgical you will be on what needs to be addressed

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Jesper Axelsson

1mo

Ape muscles (and some skulls). I was recently recommended to not skip the major forms stage, before thinking about anatomy, which I've been doing. I feel like that advice has improved my work a lot, and has fixed an issue that I've been trying to solve; my sketches have often felt disjointed and unclear. I'm really happy with many of these! The process: gesture, major forms, then anatomy. I walked around in my room trying to match the pose of the chimpanzee model. Really fun (and useful). Aaaaaiaiaaaaaiaiaa!

30d

This is great.. and I regardless of many lines it does show you finding the form. They have a volumetric energy. On the next pass think more as you put down each line. Find the rhythms but dont belabor the line. Drawing is more thinking than actual drawing and the better you get the more subconscious it becomes.

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Shelvs Fleurima

1mo

I am not into muscle or even taking this class but i have a couple of things that i want o say: - the art looks 3d and detailed. - the only issue I have is it;s hard to read the muscles because you have too many lines. i am not sure if this help.

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Liandro

1mo

Impersonating the chimpanzee must have been really fun, haha!

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Strahinja Milutin

1mo

Here are some Chimp studies, mostly. The front one is a Gorilla. I used photos and 3D skeleton model for references

30d

loose and clear but tend to get flat and feel more like contour studies of the muscles then actual form and dimensional sections. Imagine the shapes as dimensional gobs of glay that youre building off of one another. a Sphere not a circle...etc

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Linus Lehmann

1mo

I really like these studys and i would like to see more. I think you did a very good job with finding the positions and shapes of the muscles. And i think your poses are great, i especially enjoy the the one walking toward us. I feel the thing that would help you in your next studies would be to "feel" the actions and movements of the muscles. Like how the chest and deltoid would be under tension or stretched out when the arm is lifted. How the triceps would be stretched and the biceps thightend when the arm forearm is lifted. And the other way around when the arm is just hanging. Hope that it helps.

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Thomas Vang Pedersen

2mo

studies of the chimpanzee model

20h

SOLID!! Do some from imagination now like I did in my demos. Bend the arms challenge yourself to see the groups interact with one another

2mo

Additional muscle studies from reference

30d

clean snd clear now test your knowledge and draw some poses of the arm from your head

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Linus Lehmann

1mo

I think these armstudys look very appealing. I think you did a great job with the volumes of the arms. If you havnt done that already i think it would be great to do some armposes next, because that really helps to find out how good your basic understanding of the muscles is. Im looking very much forward to seeing your future muscles studys of any kind!

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2mo

Those fingers in the middle one are really splendid, I reckon you have already quite a visual library. What’s left is to try to move away from human proportions, like in shortening the thumb.

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Samuel Lemons

2mo

20h

Solid work Samuel. Lets try and get some more energy into the imaginative poses.... Long lines of action and then layer the muscles over that. Eventually you will be able to capture the muscle groups and gesture in one smooth process....They are all relative to one another. Muscle groups flow together-just like the rhythms of a gesture

Samuel Lemons

2mo

While drawing the forms and trying to make them flow together I assume we still have to use straight lines to indicate the bony areas of the anatomy?

Jeff Arsenault

2mo

First few Anatomy Studies, will continue to work some more poses from imagination!

2mo

Excellent work on the muscle study, I tried copying your standing gorilla and learned a lot from it. As for the imagined one, I think the head should be raised to show the face.

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2mo

First muscle study. I will keep doing additional studies along with the parts I need to take a closer look at. Then post more dynamic poses.

2mo

Nice study of the intertwining muscles. The head is a bit human-like, I guess the skull is a bit high. David's choice for our most related species is both helpful and a pitfall - it is so easy to fallback to human proportions. Good luck with the dynamic poses, I guess they don't have to be as advanced as this drawing.

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2mo

Awesome exercise, David. I’ve now tried to not create pretty outlines but just quick rough images.