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Pharan — Names of Things - Muscles
by-nc-sa
#anatomy #muscle #muscleanatomy
Published: 2011-03-20 16:39:27 +0000 UTC; Views: 8089; Favourites: 249; Downloads: 126
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Description
Striving to “become better artists” or to be able to draw this and that, a lot of people who turn to tutorials for help. There are plenty to be found here on dA, on YouTube, or through your favorite search engine.And while there’s a lot of crappy tutorials out there teaching wildly misinformed things— and I’m probably guilty of the same, though I do try my very, very best not to—, there are also a lot of tutorials that simply don’t suit the audience they claim to try to help.
By that I mean that the information and tips they offer may be helpful, but only to people who know certain things already. Kinda like how cookbooks aren't too useful for teaching people who don’t know what measurements and cooking terms mean.
But rather than condemn the latter sort of tutorials to eternal uselessness to the general art-learning public, I decided to do something to help people cross vast the divide and made this series. This may not be the ultimate mega super holy bridge of knowledge for everyone but I'll be happy if at least some people understand and make better use of other tutorials because of this one.
This is still in beta. If you have any comments, suggestions, or clarifications to make, feel free to leave a comment.
Continued: See Names of Things - Muscles WORD LIST
EDIT (May 26 2011)
This deviation has been getting some attention lately. I'll be updating this soon, fixing some typos and rewriting some parts for clarity.
I'm open to your feedback. Let me know which parts are extra useful (and which ones are vague to you).
EDIT (August 2012) - ANATOMICAL TERMS OF LOCATION
I think my old tutorial page (which I originally linked to to avoid repeating myself in forums) is relevant to this topic: [link]
Also, I pledge to finally update this tutorial with more recent insights and rephrasing before October. (if anyone actually cares, please bug me about it. You will be rewarded handsomely with a dA llama)
Related content
Comments: 17
I commend you for writing this up! The main things that were vague to me were sort of the locactions of these muscles you were naming - you zoomed up quite close to the muscle in question to really see whereabouts it was in the body. I think more zoomed out pictures would help out. Other angles would also potentially help. For example, I'm kind of curious about the front view of the trapezius deltoids. Other than that I think you did a fantastic job on this and thank you for sharing with the community!
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Thanks for the comment!
The box of examples (and maybe the rest of the article) was to give context to the names of muscles written in so many much-more-detailed anatomy diagrams that many young artists have already seen and that you can easily find on dA, Wikipedia, random places on the internet and many art books.
That said, the topic is not on anatomy per se but on etymology, nomenclature, order of study and their relevance to learning anatomy and drawing. This is meant to supplement those other complete diagrams that actually do show where the muscles are and what they look like, but don't offer much order or meaning for the artist.
Haha! This article is actually due for a rewrite and redesign. I'll keep your suggestions and alternate background in mind. I'll probably do quick, more relateable, zoomed-out sketches for the examples. Maybe add simple labels. But also know that muscle diagrams are EVERYWHERE, as are human bodies. Google is your friend. (I am too.) XD
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XD It's great! I was going to take senior anatomy just for this reason but it looks like I won't have to stress about it anymore [that and the new teacher is terrible]. I only keep up with around 3 or 4 muscle names and constantly forget the others. Bones are the only things I can remember.
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Where were you when I was in Biology 2?
When you mention that some muscles are named after some long forgotten cultural reference, do you know any specific examples?
This was a very helpful tutorial though, thank you for taking the time to make this.
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Forgive me. I was not there for you when you needed me the most.
Haha! There are probably more examples of the historical reference thing from other organ systems.
Off the top of my head, you've probably already heard this one: the sartorius muscle is from sartor meaning "tailor", but historians can't seem to trace back its specifically intended meaning (i.e., what the muscle has to do with tailors). There are a lot of guesses though.
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That's really interesting, thanks for telling me!
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I think I and probably many others could learn from this, it's well formulated and well presented!
Here are some thoughts I have on the whole learning process:
When programing, I have a product in mind and as I start working on it I read up on all kinds of functions as I go, I find whatever math formulas I need to get things done like calculating the path of a projectile etc. Any one programing language have a huge library of classes/objects etc, it would be quite impossible to learn it all and quite useless to, neither am I very good at math!
I see drawing the same way, learning for the sake of knowing without practical implementation may work for some but for me and perhaps others it's a surefire way to get bored of any one subject. But if I just draw for fun without any facts in mind I eventually runt into trouble and that's when I look things up! In other words, to study things in depth without good reason isn't my cup of tea~
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But there's always the basics, right? There's always that first set of stuff you want to know so you can do most things.
Like for programming, you first learn how to set up expressions and loops, and about variables and functions and objects and general program structures and how to write everything in correct syntax. (and make sure you "get" the IDE enough so you can make your program run. XD) Then you can search for libraries or specialized algorithms for specific projects 'cause it's only after you understand the basics that you can really play with libraries effectively— or use them at all.
I see your point though. After you're done with the basics, it can get pretty tedious learning stuff randomly without any intended use.
Still, there are many examples of things you can learn that you won't expect to come in handy in some critical situations though. But personally, I don't think detailed knowledge on muscles is one of them. But who knows what people's lives are like, right?
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I won't deny that fact, but what are the basics? Most people would list up stuff like anatomy, perspective, color theory, shading etc. But all of these fields can be studied in great depth and many agree that it's an ongoing process as there is always more to learn! I guess if you have a set goal from the start you would know what you need to learn, and could plan milestones accordingly. For example if you want to be able to draw very real looking people straight out of your own mind you'd have to learn allot of things in great detail but skip out on other things like background composition. Another person might strive to become a comic artist, he/she would want to learn about things like paneling, story boarding etc.
That is to say, if anyone actually have a simple and clear goal in mind, I sure don't, it's all just impulse!
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Well, anatomy, perspective, colors are just broad topics. Each of them have their own basics. And if I knew what they were, I'd list them all down for all to see. Sadly, I don't. XD
But I imagine you could skim over the basics of a wide variety of topics so you can see your possibilities and grow in the direction of your choice. And I think that's what art schools do.
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Thats a bit like looking into a tool box, taking the tools that you like and then figure out what you're gonna build with them VS starting out with a building plan and then figure out what tools are needed...
I'm not sure I'm making sense anymore, not even to myself.
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Nah, it's like looking into the toolbox and figuring out how to use the tools, knowing you'll need them for most things.
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But there are tons of tools, and I won't be using a chainsaw when constructing a dog shed! I wouldn't even need it if I'm only gonna get rid of a small tree. The great benefit of knowing the tools would be a greater number of options and proper use of them, but for starters you can get pretty far with some super basic tools like a knife, hammer, axe, saw and nails, you're probably not gonna pick up a blowtorch anytime soon unless the job requires it and that's the time I would be learning about it!
But I don't think there's any easy answer, people most likely have different approaches on how to go about it, yours might be a bit more academic!
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Well, I think we're looking at two sides of the same thing here.
You should recognize that you're still asking the same question: "what are the basics?"
It's a valid question, and not one I can answer.
And you're right. What you generally plan to do defines what basic skills you'll need. But it doesn't have to literally be a per-single-project, I'll leave it to the last-minute thing.
If you're going to spend the next 20 years welding things, the blowtorch will be in your list.
If you're going to be a cardiologist, you'd better damn well know stuff about the heart and the rest of the body and the tools you need to deal its problems and not wait for the last minute to pick up a book.
The fact that many jobs have job descriptions means people know what skills you'll need and you can prepare for specific projects that long before you even know about them. You can't predict all the details but it'll minimize your running around looking for the things you have to read up on when you could be enjoying actually doing stuff.
So yeah... I think we're saying the same thing here. But I'm saying that the goal in mind doesn't have to be a single project. It could be a job (like a astronaut!), or a role model... or some vague idea in your head of what you expect to/want to be able to do in the future.
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Perhaps then there is a lack of a goal to keep me motivated. That sure gave me something to think about, I don't think I could just make up some goals and pretend them to be my own.
Thank you for that insight.
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