Anatomy Studies

Every now and then I like to do anatomy studies of my figure drawings. This helps me: A) memorize the anatomy B) understand landmarks that I saw on the live figure, but did not know what caused them C) find errors in my drawing and D) know what to look for regarding structure next time I draw the live model.

This week, I used Saturday's drawing from the model to study the skeleton and surface muscles. A took a picture of the drawing, and then printed it out in black and white. Over the top of this I put a piece of tracing paper and referencing a couple charts started blocking in where I think the bones were positioned.
After I had some basic positioning, I looked for more detailed depictions of each bone and attempted to render them more fully. I did not delve in to individual vertebrae or ribs this time.

Above is an image of the skeleton overlaid on top the drawing via Photoshop.

I then followed the same procedure with the muscles, attempting to create a little big of depth with the shading.

Again, and image of the musculature overlaid on top of the original drawing.

Finally, here is my attempt at showing both the skeleton and the muscles on top of the figure. I'm sure there's a better way for me to overlap the images so they are more clear, but I'm not sure how to do that yet.

If you don't have a figure drawing of your own you think is appropriate, it can also be a good idea to do this over a photo of someone, or a picture of a classic Greek sculpture. I find this process to be quite challenging but I learn a lot each time I do it.