help!! developing sense of bulk?

[kirborg]

I've been drawing for 4 years now but I still suck pretty hard. This is mainly due to the fact that I don't understand how the muscles present themselves in 3dimensional.

I know pretty much all of the major muscles (from 2 different anatomy books) by name and general shape but i can't seem to put them to good use since i do not really know how to convert them to 3d. it makes all my drawings look terribly flat and it makes my for-shortening look... well not very good.

I know drawing from real life humans and taking classes and stuff like that is the obvious answer but i really lack the time and money (im a poor college student) to do so. aren't there online resources available them give me insight in the 3dimensional structure of the body or something like that? i really need to improve since im not progressing to well.

would really appriciate help on this :rendered:

[MephistoLV]

I think the key for you might be in a layer beneath the muscles: the skeleton.
First, become familiar with the construction of the skeletal anatomy (and I don't mean mannequin construction - I mean the actual bones). Then learn to draw just the bone structure in 3-D space. This will give your foreshortening skills a workout.

After mastering the skeleton, you must learn the points of attachment and the layering order for the muscles. This is just as important as knowing the muscles themselves. Once you know where to attach them and in what order, you can draw them over your (hopefully correct) skeletal structure.

This is certainly not the only way to do things, but if you are a serious analytic type, it just might get you over that bump in the road.

[kev ferrara]

Buy George Bridgman's anatomy books and copy them over into your own notebooks LINE FOR LINE. His drawing contain a ton of info about form.

Buy some clay and begin sculpting figures and heads and hands. As you are doing this keeping looking at your own features, and photos and such. As well as consulting anatomy books and seeing what other artists use to make their anatomy look correct.

Take some life drawing courses, pay particular attention to separating in your mind and your drawings what parts of the figure are in the light and what parts are in the shadow. Have that difference be evident when we look at your drawings.

kev