A theoretical framework is presented for the analysis of planar membranes based
upon a triangular (as opposed to a polar) decomposition of the deformation gradient.
This leads to a distillation of the deformation gradient into three distinct modes.
Each mode can, in principle, be individually activated in an experiment. Measures of
stress are shown to exist for each mode of strain so that the stress power can be
decomposed into independent additive parts. The outcome is a set of three conjugate
stress/strain base pairs (each being a pair of scalars) from which constitutive
equations can be constructed for planar solids without relying on tensor invariants to
cast the theory. Explicit and implicit elastic models are derived that, when
convolved, produce a material model whose stress/strain response is indicative of
soft biological tissues. Stress/strain curves for each conjugate pairing are
constructed from published experimental data. The model describes these
data.