Now it is time to study the anatomy of the leg and arm. In the study of the leg and arm, we are going to focus on viewing the form from as many angles as possible, approaching the study almost like a sculpture. Because these are cylindrical, almost tubular structures with muscles that spiral, we simply won’t be able to understand how some of these muscles look without constantly turning the arm and the leg.

In this lesson, we will identify and draw the skeleton and muscles of the arm.

Students are encouraged to work from the NMA reference images and 3D viewer included on this page*.

Join Ukrainian-born artist Iliya Mirochnik as he passes on a 250-year-old academic method preserved at the Repin Academy in Saint Petersburg, Russia and seldom taught outside of the Academy and never before on camera.

The Russian Academic drawing and painting approaches were uninterrupted by the modern art movements that transformed representational art in the West, and as a result, they provide a unique and clear lineage to the greater art traditions of the past. As a powerful approach that is both constructive and depictive, it combines the two methods that prevail in contemporary representational art.