SIMPLIFIED STRUCTURE
The striated surface of a muscle
doesn’t express itself on the surface
of skin; what we see of the muscle is
in fact a hint of its presence bulging
with action or relaxing with inaction.
Whereas bones impart structure to
the body, musculature defi nes much
of its volume.
When you are developing the initial
stages of a constructed drawing,
beginning with markers of the
underlying landmarks of bone (shown
in green in the drawing, right), notice
how the muscular shapes of the body
join the tangents of those starting
shapes to create a fi gure with mass.MUSCULATURE
There are around 640 muscles in the
human body. In the illustration on the
left, I have picked out the larger
muscles and those which are most
evident on the surface of the skin.
In some cases, a set of muscles may
be grouped under a single colloquial
name like the quadriceps, which is
actually four leg muscles together.
If you are keen to learn more
about skeletal muscular anatomy,
start by becoming familiar with these
elements fi rst through repeated
studies from life and anatomical
reference books before delving
deeper into a fascinating subject.CalfQuadricepsRectus abdominisExternal ObliquesPectoralsTrapeziusDeltoidTricep sSerratus
anteriorBiceps