Muscles!

After a decent amount of clay work, I've become satisfied with my muscle manikin.  He's constructed of all the major muscle groups, not necessarily every muscle in the human body but everything that needs to be mentioned for a solid understanding of human musculature.  I had a lot of problems sculpting out the arms, particularly the forearms and the countless muscles that control the subtle movements of the hands.  All of these are necessary for the dexterous ability of human fingers and wrists, I have come to understand.  However in the scale of the manikin each muscle is about the size of a spaghetti noodle and they are all piled together in a complex bundle between and around the radius and ulna.  At first I was left with a massive ball of a forearm that dwarfed my triceps and rivaled the thickness of the manikin's thighs.   It was also a challenge to maintain the same level of tone and scale throughout the manikin, not having the muscles be too large in one part of the body and too small in another.

Regardless of the difficulties I found the project highly enjoyable.  While it was difficult to maintain the same level of dedication I had starting out with the detailed spiraling muscles supporting the skull and neck leading into the layered spinal erectors, I still feel like I have a better idea of how the muscles in the legs and arms are all related.  While my muscles aren't perfect, with the tear-drops in my legs not perfectly recognizable, I still had the opportunity to see each example in the books we referenced and the Visible Body website.  The most educational experience here was learning where each muscle started and stopped (always crossing at least one joint!), and trying to fit them together in the proper way.  Understanding that muscle groups are supposed to be comprised of many muscles that smoothly transition between each other all with similar functions was key to doing the project.