Muscles of the Lower Leg

Today we studied the muscles and tendons of the lower leg. We also covered the basics of the knee insertions. It's amazing how complicated things start getting at joints. The feet are coming up soon, and they look ridiculously complicated.

Today was one of those days where drawing just does not come to me. On these days I spend a lot of time just trying to get to grips with the pencil, and I'm not able to maintain a clear focus. This usually eats up a lot of time, and leaves me sore and cranky. This drawing (left) was supposed to take me about 40 minutes, but it actually took me about twice that.

The three major muscles of the lower leg that we covered this week are the Tibialis Anterior, Peroneus Longus, and Gastrocnemius (Calf).



This drawing shows exactly what I'm talking about. I clearly have proportional problems here, notably in the arm and torso lengths. These are things I'm completely oblivious to during drawing, but see immediately after I'm "finished". The head is also too small. It all turns out to look quite gangly and deformed.

Having said that, it was quite a difficult pose to draw, and I'm surprised I did this well on such an off day. I completed this one on time in about 40 minutes. Nonetheless I'll be redoing this one for sure, as soon as time permits.

My main focus has to be on blocking in the major planes quicker and more accurately as I continue to progress. These proportional problems I always seem to have should all be solved in the first ten minutes of the drawing, not realized at the end. Both of these drawings are done on 18x24 paper with charcoal.

Here's the updated Ecorche including this week's three muscles: