Anatomy and wireframes

Even though I would say that my anatomy-comprehension is pretty good, that doesn't mean I struggle with it from time to time. Especially when it comes to perspective and foreshortening! I want to elaborate a bit how I tackle the situation when it becomes difficult for me.

First of a little anatomy lesson. Please keep in mind that I make mistakes too and you should always refer to real-life references only! I like to use Arnold Schwarzenegger or other bodybuilders, because you can see each and every muscle. 

I like to pick some of the muscles that I find important and boil them down to simple shapes. These mostly consist of triangles and ovals. Try and analyze where which muscle connects!

Personally, I like to use as reference points (in the arms and upper body):

• Trapezius
• Deltoid (3 heads)
• Pectoralis major
• Latissimus dorsi
• Biceps/Triceps/Brachialis
• Brachioradialis
• (in one) Flexor Carpi radialis/Palmaris longus
• Flexor digitorum superficialis

This is pretty theoretical, but necessary if you ever want to draw a fit body-type. You can either draw them super pronounced and even add individual muscle fibers (l like to do that on the chest for a super lean look) or make them less "plump" and add some extra fat if that's what you prefer more. Either way, I like to sketch most of my muscle groups, even when the character is fully dressed in the end, just because it helps with proportions and perspective.

But drawing a straight arm isn't really the problem right?
To further visualize the bending and stretching in different positions or angles, I like to draw a wireframe too! Maybe you know this from 3d-modeling.

A wireframe can help you viewing everything more or less as an object with actual shape and mass than just a few scribbles. I think this works as good as shadows making something 3d. But other than shadows, this is way less time consuming and easy to change. Also, it can show where your tension points in fabric will appear. - which would be "on the highest point" of that shape.

I like to do wireframes in the limbs, esp. when there's some more complex angle -

As you can see in the picture above, just these few guidelines give so much more information on how the legs are positioned.

That's also the reason why I like Dabis Pants with the stitches so much and why I like to do the stitches in clothing overall. Sometimes I like to keep at least the first row of the pants stitches in the image, just to help with perspective a bit more.

Don't underestimate editing and transforming certain shapes either! Just select the muscle group that still looks weird and transform the shape with wireframe.

Don't forget that muscles bend and stretch in certain positions! I know that my trapezius, biceps and latissimus most likely are too voluminous most of the times, but that's just my taste hah!