Exercise 0G: Upper Body Anatomy 1

This week we’ll be starting an advanced lesson with Anatomy! We’ll talk about how to draw the head, neck, and shoulders. Let’s take a look at this full body pose, and review our previous exercises. Keep an eye out for today’s key point, the shoulders!

First off, let’s consider the measuring and proportions from Exercise 0B. We’re using 7 heads here, instead of 7.5, but we’re keeping the legs at 4 heads. It makes for a more youthful figure!

To understand the upper body, get used to measuring in heads by using the head shape for the ribcage. Separate the head and ribcage by about half a head.

The shoulders are going to float above the ribcage, but not as high as the chin. If the neck was half a head, the shoulders are going to be spheres about a quarter (1/4) of a head.

And, focusing in for a moment, you then use the muscles to connect the pieces!

But here’s today’s key point! The shoulders can move in quite a range around the top of the ribcage. The shoulders can be raised upwards by the trapezius muscles, also known as the shoulder muscles… Let’s pull those shoulders up… And see what happens…

(click to see the difference)

Now, the pectoral muscles (front chest muscles) have to stretch up to the shoulders. From the back, the latissimus dorsi are also stretched up. I’ve inked between the pectoral and latissimus muscles, because that’s the “arm pit”, a gap between those two muscles and underneath the shoulder.

Did you catch all that? Focus on the shoulders for now! We’re going to continue talking about the different muscle groups next week. We’ll draw contours over them to study, and then use those contours to draw clothes too!

See you next week!

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