Friday, April 27, 2012

Student Work! A Sneak Preview with Bad iPhone Shots


The Spring semester has just ended at the American Academy of Art, and over the past few days I've had the pleasure of looking through all the lovely anatomical drawings my Advanced Anatomy students did this semester. I would like to scan and post some of my favorites over the summer, but for now I'm going to offer a little sneak preview. I'm sorry about the quality. These were taken with my iPhone in the midst of a grading frenzy.

Justine Herrera's rendering of anterior neck muscles.

Chase McNicholas's rendering of anterior torso muscles.

I will post many more images soon, after I sleep for about 15 hours and then do some scanning! Thanks, Justine and Chase.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Quick Forearm Study: My Pal Rich

Here's a quick forearm muscle study using my pal and fellow illustration instructor, Rick Kryczka. We see mostly the extensor/supinator group here, which is discussed more thoroughly in The Dorsal Forearm Part 1: Compartment Search, The Dorsal Forearm Part 2: Which Side Are You On, Anyway?, and The Dorsal Forearm Part 3: The Final Chapter. There are also smaller updates on this area in The Dorsal Forearm: One Last Encore and Landmark Sightings Part 1: Bruce Lee. 

You might start orienting yourself on this image by first identifying the olecranon process of the ulna and the lateral epicondyle of the humerus. From there you can identify anconeus, the small triangular elbow muscle that originates between those two landmarks and then points into the crease between the extensor and flexor forearm muscle groups groups. (And if you keep following it distally, will take you to the crest of the ulna.) From there you can identify the twin muscles (extensor carpi ulnaris and extensor digitorum) and then extensor digiti minimi between them, and so on. The links mentioned above explain all this in much greater detail.

Bony landmarks to find first: lateral epicondyle (LE), olecranon process (OP), and the ulna itself, whose crest
and head show at the distal and of the arm. The extensor muscles will follow: Anconeus (Anc), extensor carpi
 ulnaris (ECU), extensor digitorum (ED),  extensor carpi radialis brevis (ECRB), extensor carpi radialis longus
(ECRL), and brachiradialis (Brr). Some thumb muscles can also be seen: Abductor pollucis longus (APL),
extensor pollucis brevis (EPB) and the tendon of extensor pollucis longus (EPL.) Finally, a few upper arm
muscles are shown: Biceps brachii (BB), brachialis (Br), the lateral head of the triceps (Tlat) and the triceps
tendon (TT).