Analyzing Capcom’s Anatomy Guide with English Translation – Part 2

So many of you read through Part 1 of my analysis and translation of Capcom’s Anatomy Guide, that I decided to publish my analysis and translation of the rest of the Guide.

First off, just like I mentioned in the first part of this post, a disclaimer: below are my thoughts on the guide published by Capcom and now featured on many blogs online. There is no affiliation with, and no endorsement from Capcom. However, I am super glad they published this guide. Capcom used it to create Street Fighter games. We can use it to learn to draw. The pages published here remain unchanged and are available on Campcom’s website.

Capcom Anatomy Guide Pages 6-12 Translation and Gvaat’s Coments

Now let’s get to the rest of the pages of Capcom’s Anatomy Guide!

Capcom Anatomy Drawing Guide Page 7

Translation:

(1) Delts
(2) Traps (trapezius)
(3) Infraspinatus muscle
(4) Teres major
(5) Lats (latissimus dorsi)
(6) Obliques
(7) Rhomboid (rhomboideus)- hidden by the traps, it is illustrated in the figure at the bottom right.

Attached to the scapula (shoulder blade) with the subspinous muscle, the rhomboid muscle moves the shoulder.

Traps help rotate the shoulder blade, as well as elevate it. Rhomboid muscles indeed help elevate and move the shoulder blade. Note that the rhomboid is covered with the traps (found underneath the traps).

Capcom Anatomy Drawing Guide Page 8

Translation

(1) Delt
(2) Traps
(3) Infraspinatus muscle
(4) Teres major
(5) Latissimus dorsi
(6) Obliques

*The deltoid muscle goes up when you raise your arm. The infraspinatus and teres major can be seen clearly as this happens.

*Latissimus dorsi muscle (lats) wraps around the upper body as if it were a corset.

on the top left image at the glutes, it says “butt” 🙂

Teres major wraps from the back under the triceps as the arm is raised. So it will be seen from the front of the figure as the arm is raised high – see lower right diagram on the page above. Infa-spinatus muscle is on the back and maps to the scapula, it will only be seen from the back or from the side. On the page it is shown in the upper right corner as (3) and teres major is shown as (4).

Capcom Anatomy Drawing Guide Page 9

Translation:

Top left image:
(B) Iliac crest
(down from B, indicated as (A) (“A” is cut off the page) ‘femur greater throchanter) – (across from this description) – adductor muscles. – adductor longus, adductor brevis, and adductor magnus.
(1) Vastus lateralis muscle
(2) Vastus medialis muscle

Top middle of the page (second illustration from the top-left of the page): Enumeration of the muscles of the quads: vastus lateralis indicated at 1, rectus femoris at 3, and vastus medialis at 2. Note that 3 goes on top of 1 and 2. Sartorius muscle indicated going across 2 and 3 to point B.

Top middle of the page (third illustration from the top-left of the page): above the hollow white arrow – the inside of the leg is slightly concave. At the bottom – this section inside goes wrapping around at the calf.

Bottom-left of the page: the leg-line (going down from hip to heel) is straight for men. (as opposed to curved for women as seen on the next illustration to the right).

Bottom-right of the page: cross section of the thigh. The shape is basically like this inside. In parentheses (sartorious muscle goes about here)

Looking at the bottom of the page on the right we find that lot of attention is spent on defining the shape of the thigh. The cross section shows that the shape is not a circle or an ellipse, but is flat or somewhat hollow in the area of the groin.

On this page at (A) Femur Greater Trochanter is indicated at every instance. (I counted five times total – great information for learning its location), and iliac crest is indicated at (B).

Capcom Anatomy Drawing Guide Page 10

Translation:

Top right, and top middle – two illustrations of the leg. Top right – outside. Top middle – shows inside.

Left side of the page – arrow at the knee – the back side of the bicep femoris is connected to the peroneal head.

Bone illustration middle of the page – (A) Fibula Head. Part (2) shows the calf muscle visible from the front of the leg.

Right middle of the page: back view of calf – (2) inside section.

Bottom right of the page – shin cross section. on the Right is the inside of the leg, on the left of this illustration is the outside of the leg.

Bottom left – bottom of shin is almost only bone and no muscle.

The biceps femoris is a hamstring muscle located in the posterior thigh, it is inserted into the head of the fibula bone (in the guide names peroneal head), – see left-most illustration on the above page.

Capcom Anatomy Drawing Guide Page 11

Translation

Left top of the page, drawing of a seating figure: on top of this image – leg – sartorius Muscle. Bottom of this illustration: long adductor muscle. Calf muscle indicated at the bottom.

Top right of the page – sitting pose: at A and arrow: tensor fasciae latae muscle. At hamstring: biceps femoris. Down by the calf: it almost looks like a triangle shape, with two corners of the triangle set back at the calf.

Bottom left of the page: leg side view – on the left, tensor fasciae latae muscle. On the right major gluteus.

Mid, bottom left, side view of hip with 1 and 2: Between 1 and 2 is the location of tensor fasciae latae muscle. The joint A is the greater trochanter (hip joint).

Bottom of page to the right: on the left of the illustration of a person sitting from view, vastus medialis muscle a the leg quad bottom, and rectus femoris muscle at quad top. On the inside of the leg: the inner muscles are connected to the pubic bone at B. Sartorius muscle and adductor longus muscle indicated.

Pay attention to the shapes indicated on this page. Especially the cross sections on the top of the page – the thigh, as well as the cross section of the calf in the middle of the page.

Capcom Anatomy Drawing Guide Page 12

Translation:

Top left illustration of the leg: at top it indicates that this is the back side. Inside of the calf section, indicate a dent (see arrow, make it look dented), going down from the hamstring into the calf.

Top right: let us draw in three-dimensions considering that multiple facets of the forms are combined together in this view. Each annotation at hallow white arrows states that there is a different side or face to the form. At bottom of that illustration see a cross section (1) one ellipse. (2) give a three dimensional feeling when drawing two surfaces synthesized into a shape.

At bottom of the drawing on the right: discussing the triangle shape, even though you are looking into it from the front, or from the back, the shape itself will not change. If you look at it from the front, you will notice that it is a triangle-like shape, when you look at it from the back, the thinner part is not noticeable, but the shape is the same.

Middle bottom of page: calf (gastrochemius muscle) wedges inside of the hamstring.

Bottom left of the page: coming from the top down: greater trochanter, illiotibial ligament, biceps femoris.

It seems that the area around the ankle and the achilles heel is thin however, it is actually not a very thin outline.

We can now clearly see from this and previous pages how the calf area of the leg is broken into a triangle like shape, with one angle at the front and two at the back of the leg.

The illustration on the top-middle of the page shows lines drawn to contour the form as if a three dimensional mesh. This approach is great for learning anatomical shapes.

Clearly the entire guide is focused on having the artist understand the three dimensional shape of the form before putting any angle on paper. An emphasis is placed on the fact that although you may be drawing only one side of a shape, you should know and consider the entire form of the shape to draw it correctly.

Thanks for taking a look at my translation and analysis of Capcom’s Anatomy Guide. It would be great to see Capcom publish updates to this anatomy guide to the general public in the future. Hope you enjoyed this breakdown, leave me a comment here. Sign up here to be the first to know of any updates.

Go back to Part 1 of this guide!