8 Minutes to Better Leg Drawings – Hamstring Muscles

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8 Minutes to Better Leg Drawings – Hamstring Muscles

126K
Mark as Completed

Assignment

For this assignment let's change it up. Instead of doing quicksketch studies, let's do good ole' anatomical tracings. Download the model photos below and do a tracing, dissecting the anatomy of the upper back leg. You can put a piece of tracing paper on top, or preferably, do it digitally. Check out my Anatomy Tracing lesson if you need a refresher.

Newest
Ezra
3mo
Felt like i was really guessing here and would appreciate any corrections!
@syodraws
7mo
Here are my tracings of two of the four Hamstring Assignment photos :) Critique is greatly appreciated.
Samuel Sanjaya
My attempt at hamstrings tracing. Well, This is too complicated for me right now. I'm not ready for an in depth studies like this
Lenserd martell
Samuel Parker
Anatomy tracings of the Hams (and egg :3)
Richard Barkman
So as I was doing the hamstring assignment, this photo came across my Instagram feed (don’t judge me, it’s art. LOL). The hamstrings are difficult to identify because there seems to be only one raised column that comes straight from the “egg” of the calf muscles. I’ve associated that ‘column” with the semitendinosus, and shown , in purple, how my muscle overlay matches (and doesn’t) with the furrows in her legs. By the way not all of the ends of the biceps femoris where it connects to the fibulae are shown, because the legs are turned away somewhat. Of course, I could be completely wrong, what do you think?
Richard Barkman
Hey everyone, please critique my hamstring assignment. Thanks!
@syodraws
7mo
Your drawings are very clean!
@abrahan13
2yr
any feedback is appreciated
@viny
2yr
done
@viny
2yr
Alexis Riviere
The traceover ones have been done before looking at the other videos. Then I watched the rest, understood (at least partially) why my attempts looked so off, and did it again while quick-sketching. I seriously need to get better at locating the greater trochanter.
Sita Rabeling
Just some pre- and prep studies. This assignment will take a lot more time, but I’m glad to finally get more insight in the leg structure.
Jesper Axelsson
Nice!
Sadie Ward
2yr
Here's my best shot at it. I realised after the attempts that it was best to trace for the glutes and quades as well. The images on the right are when I've redrawn it after watching the answers video. To be frank, I did get lazy for number four and didn't redraw it. I would love some critique!
Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Sadie Ward, really nice studies! The anatomy looks accurate for the most part; you seem to know the attachments well and the muscles' placement look pretty accurate. - In image 1 and 2 I think you might be placing the biceps femoris short head too much laterally. I think the femur runs closer to the center of the thigh. -In image 2 you seemed to have place the greater trochanter where the asis is. - In image 2 I think you might be showing too much of the sartorius in your second attempt. In Stan's example it's only a thin sliver. The main difference between the ones you made before watching the video and the ones you made after seem to be: - the tendons. In your tracings they are very wide and don't feel as hard/strong/tendony as Stan's drawings. - the three dimensionality. In your tracings the muscles feel a bit more 2D; they don't interact with eachother in space as clearly. This often happens to me when I do a tracing :) One thing that helps me is to practice drawing the muscles from imagination, so that I get to know the muscles and how they relate to eachother in space more thoroughly. Hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
@hiflow
2yr
I dunno
Ria Kumo
2yr
Me neither :(
Ria Kumo
2yr
I struggled a lot with these since there weren't always clear indications of individual hamstring muscles. Any critique or tips welcomed!
@axel21
2yr
Hi Ria, I haven't done the hamstrings yet, so I will critique the adductors. From your reply, I think you understand them very well now, so feel free to ignore my critique. I'm pretty sure that in your first tracing, the forms you are indicating as gracilis are actually the add. magnus and gracilis merged into one form. Sartorius shouldn't be visible from this angle, except from the knee area, where it flows around the vastus medialis, to attach on the tibia (the big bundle of tendons is actually visible here, so the sartorius would be in the front there, behind it would be the gracilis, and behind it are the hamstrings). The add. magnus attaches to the femur, so the gracilis will overlap it at the knee, in order to join the tendon bundle. The adductor muscle that is medial to the hamstrings is the add.magnus. Gracilis is medial to the add. magnus. You have it as gracilis in your 3rd tracing (the one on his left leg), but it is actually the add.magnus. In your 2nd, 3rd and 4rth tracing you forgot the add. magnus, between the hamstrings and the gracilis. It should be a little wedge-like form, like the one you drew on the 3rd tracing-his right leg , but a little bit longer. When the muscle is not stretched, it will be like a wedge, because it is covered by the hamstrings. If stretched, it will continue, until its insertion on the distal femur. Best of luck with your anatomy studies :)
Johnathan
2yr
Proko has a youtube video doing a hamstring tracing. I wonder if you've seen it. It was very helpful to me. However for your first image where it says sartorius, that's more likely the adductor magnus. Same with the last image. I cant provide any other feedback as this area is difficult for me too haha :D
Marco Sordi
2022/4/7. Good evening everybody. Here's my first attempt for this section. I have probably drawn the IT band too large. I'm not sure how much it covers the hamstring in this pose. The part in orange and green are the section of the long and short head of the biceps femoris covered by the IT band. I used the 3D model to better define the shape of each muscle. But from this angle angle it seemed to me that the short head of the BF was not so visible. In the inner side the semimembranosus is covered by the semitendinosus. Thanks.
Praveen Arora
please come up with the e books of the remaining lessons as soon as possible
Katey Jensma
Hi @Praveen Arora the eBook is currently in production, we promise we have not forgotten :)
Sam
3yr
I do enjoy these tracings! The fourth image did confuse me though as I didn't think the adductors could move that far back (At least I think they are the adductors!)
Samuel Wade
Ended up doing this assignment twice as I noticed some errors and didn't feel too happy with the results. I tried to be careful, but this is such a complicated area I feel I've probably made some mistakes.
Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Samuel Wade Great job! Thorough and clean!   There are some inaccuracies in muscle shapes, but I think it's more efficient for you to just watch Stan´s example videos. Whenever I do an assignment I always check with Stan´s example to find points where I made mistakes. If you haven't already, I definitely recommend taking a look at them.   I´ll point out more general things:   - You seem to attach the sartorius at the back of the knee whereas it attaches on the medial side of the shaft of the tibia. Maybe this happens because you don't draw the bones first? When doing my tracings I usually start by identifying where the bones are. That way placing the muscles accurately gets much easier. - Your tracings are beautiful and clean, but sometimes a little flat. I recommend drawing crosscontours, or muscle fibers to indicate the form with line. -In your second drawing, I think you happened to blend the semis together at the top.   To conclude I want to give a general anatomy advice: When starting on a new muscle group, I always begin by studying the 3D-model until I can draw the muscles from imagination.  I like to “get to know” the muscles first. To quote Robert beverly hale: “For no one can draw the figure really well unless he can draw every part of the figure in any position out of his imagination”. Since you can´t always see the muscles on a real person. knowing where things are is crucial, to judge what you see and to indicate it with confidence.   I hope this helps :)
Jesper Axelsson
1 hour study. I flicked through Bridgman´s constructive anatomy before doing this one and tried to get some of his solidity into my drawing.
Jesper Axelsson
I´m feeling quite confident about this one, but I have a few questuions: 1. Drawing the part of the semitendinousus close to the insertion was difficult, most of the tendon is covered, right? (since it´s on the medial side). 2. Am I lacking adductors or is that back contour all fat? 3. I´m having trouble with gluteus medius. See that ressesed plane (blue), is it the tendon? Can it really be when the anterior head stays thick past this plane. Is it just the anterior head´s part of the tendon being stretched or do the length of the tendon vary from head to head? 4. I ended up with this hole (yellow), what did I miss?
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Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.
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