How To Draw Shoulders And Arms

Capture The Trapezius Muscle

The trapezius is a very large, flattish muscle that encompasses parts of the neck, shoulder and back. It is very useful in describing how the forms of the neck overlap with the shoulder as it attaches to the back of the skull and wraps around the shoulder to the collarbone. Capturing the overlap of the neck, that sits in front here, with mass of this muscle as it wraps around to the front helps to describe exactly how the forms interlock.

Drawing Anime Arms Behind Head

To draw the arms behind the head you can again use the previous example. Since this is a simpler pose to draw you can even just estimate where the hidden parts of the arms will be positioned without doing a see through drawing .

Simply make sure that there is enough room left for the hands that are hidden behind the head.

Shoulder Muscles Anterior View

In the sketches above, I am slightly rotating the arm to reveal more of the shoulder muscles as we move from left to right. The shoulder muscles have three heads the front deltoids, medial deltoids, and rear deltoids.

Front delts are indicated at 2, middle delts at 1 and rear at 3. At 4 is the clavicle bone. At 5, I indicated the biceps muscle and at 6 the brachialis muscle.

Note that all three heads of the shoulder muscles come together and wedge between the biceps and the brachialis. A common mistake is to place the shoulder muscles between the brachialis and the triceps.

If you are curious about the anatomy of the arm for drawing, visit my tutorial at this link.

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Drawing Crossed Anime Arms

To draw crossed anime arms like in the example above its a good idea to think of the drawing as see through.

Being able to look at the arms as see through allows you to know if the visible parts of the arms are correctly placed. For example the fingers on the left arm.

You dont need to draw every hidden detail like the individual fingers in the previous example. Instead do sketch like the above example to help you estimate their general size and position.

After confirm that it all looks right simply erase the parts that are supposed to be hidden, add the smaller details and go over your sketch with darker more solid lines.

How To Draw A Neck And Shoulders: Things To Consider

If you’re learning how to draw a neck and shoulders, we recommend starting lightly with the gesture as even though the neck and shoulders seem quite chunky and static, they have a surprising amount of variety in their poses. If you are unsure of the angle of the shoulders, compare them to a horizontal to check which way they are tilting. Usually a pencil held up in the air will be sufficient.

There are three major forms at work here; the neck, the shoulders, and the ribcage. An effective tactic for drawing the shoulders at different angles and poses is by treating the gesture of the shoulders as a diamond that fits around the connected forms of the neck and rib cage. This simplifies the behaviour of the bones underneath the scapula and collarbones and gives us something to build on. Another issue beginners may have with the neck is making it look flat like a paper cutout doll as it smoothly transitions between the body and the head.

We can further push the sense of form by treating the neck as a flexible cylinder that passes through the centre of the shoulders, drawing through where it connects to the ribcage and the head as if those forms were transparent there is no harm in erasing these early exploratory lines later.

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Film Yourself And Analyze Your Form

Its quite easy to use the right form if you can see yourself in a mirror. When you go back to the range you may forget all these things because there are many distractions. Therefore, its helpful to film yourself. Either ask a friend or use a tripod.

When you are home, you can look back at your shots and analyze what you did right and what went wrong. This is something coaches often do with their trainees since its often easier to see than to explain.

Drawing The Shoulder Muscles With Arm Raised

We spent some time looking at the complex interaction of muscles at the shoulder joint from the back, lets focus a bit more on muscle interaction at the shoulder from the front.;

The first thing to remember to help in drawing the shoulders from the front is that the chest muscles insert at the humerus.

In the illustration above, We see that the pectoralis major is actually twisted on itself at the insertion in the humerus bone.

It untangles and the muscle fibers become parallel to each other when the arm is raised as we can see in the illustrations that follow below.;

In the drawings above,;I shaded in the scapula so that it can easily be separated from the humerus, clavicle, and the pectoral muscles.

Here we see the twisting of the chest muscle and then we can observe that the fibers of the chest muscle at the connection to the arm actually straighten out as we raise the arm.

Lets now draw in the shoulders on top of the foundation in these diagrams.

From the drawings above we see how the shoulder muscles cover the chest muscles at the humerus insertion, even when the arm is raised to reveal the armpit .

Notice that when the arm is raised, the pectoral muscles tower over the armpit, as they drive up over the biceps and then tuck in under the shoulder muscle.;

To understand how to draw the shoulders with the arms raised, We must look at the interaction of the biceps and triceps muscles, coracobrachialis, latissimus, and the teres major muscles at the shoulder joint.

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Useful Lines From Bones

The shoulder is where the collarbones on the front and shoulder blade or scapula on the back and the bone in the upper arm meet each other. You can often see the lines of the collarbones on the front and the ridge of the shoulder blades on the back, and they are really useful ones to look out for.

Skeleton by Sketchfab user Graft: sketchfab.com/graft

Anime Arm Proportions & Step By Step Drawing

Before you draw arms its a good idea to first analyze their basic proportions.

Though these can vary slightly from person to person generally you can use the above example.

The the distance from below the shoulder down to the elbow and from the elbow down to the wrist is generally the same .

When drawing just about anything start with a light sketch and go over it with darker lines after you are sure you have the correct proportions.

Though it can get a little tricky its also important to try and maintain these proportions when drawing arms in different positions.

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Artist And Tutor Jake Spicer Takes An In

You dont need to know anything about anatomy to make a good life-drawing. When you first learn to draw, it is often best to be an unthinking eye drawing what you see without filtering through your intellect. However, as you become more confident and competent, you might find a practical understanding of the bodys major anatomical landmarks will help you to make clearer observations of the shapes you see on the skins surface. Here we explore the aspects of anatomy that I find most useful to bear in mind when drawing the human figure.

Neck and shouldersIt is the relationship between head and shoulders that often sets the scale of the entire figure, with the neck bridging the gap between the face and the rest of the body. The drawings on the opposite page pick out some of the most useful shapes to notice in the neck and shoulders. Feel the shapes of your own body: the ropey muscles of the sternomastoid muscles, running from behind your ear to your collar bone; the mass of the trapezius the muscles you might massage if youd been drawing all day long; the deltoids shoulder caps at the top of your arms. Ive avoided drawing vertebrate into the spine or ribs into the ribcage so that you just notice their mass and position it is the jaw, collar bones and shoulder blades that are close to the surfaces and can be most easily seen and felt below the skin.

Jakes materials

MusculatureBone structure

Introduction To Drawing The Shoulders

In this guide, we will go over the bones involved in the movement of the shoulder muscles, as well as the muscles around the shoulders.

We will then dive deep into muscle interaction, looking at precise attachment points, wedging of muscles, and their pull and stretch. With this knowledge, we will draw the shoulders from various angles and with arm raised.

Shoulder anatomy for drawing begins with simple observation of a few major bones but ends with going over many muscles that twist and overlap in ways that can be difficult to remember, as the muscles travel from the back to the front fo the body.

I provide numerous drawings to help us along the way. Stay close to the text as you look over the included shoulder drawing diagrams. Together we can get to a place where shoulder drawing is a strength and not a weakness in our drawings.

Without further ado, lets begin.

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Diving Deeper The Acromioclavicular Joint

On the image above, I painted the outside and the inside of the scapula so that we can take a closer look at its landmarks and muscle attachments.

In the image on the left, the scapula is shown as it sits on the rib cage, with its exterior facade facing us. The scapular spine is visible and the acromion process is also closest to us.

In the image on the right, it is the coracoid process of the scapula that is closest to us, and the spine of the scapula is hidden by its shell-shaped interior.

Lets more closely examine the many landmarks of the scapula:

As you can see, there is a lot to learn about the scapula bones.; lets cover the most important points.;

Day 17 // How To Draw Arms

Today we get to flex our drawing muscles as we learn about arms! You might be a little worn out after drawing hands yesterday, so give your own arms a good stretch. As you do, observe the different ways they move! Arms are pretty simple and actually quite fun to draw. Learn basic arm proportions, and what elements to pay attention to in your arm observations. Plus, I have a pretty cool method for making the arms look like arms and not bent tubes. Watch the tutorial to learn how to draw arms!

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Shoulder Pain In Archers: Causes And Prevention

The beginning of archery season can be felt every year in our physical therapy clinics as archers call in for appointments for shoulder pain and shoulder injuries. For many hunters and sportsmen, shoulder pain in archers occur when the body is under prepared for the job that lies ahead. Overexertion is a common cause of shoulder pain and injuries. It can exhaust your muscles; hurting your form and causing pain and injuries. Because our physical therapists understand the biomechanics specific to archers, many Berks County Pennsylvania hunters and archers trust Western Berks Physical Therapy to get them back to shooting straight. We find many archers experience some pain in at least 2 of these major areas: shoulders and arms.

Injuries to the rotator cuff are archerys most common problem. The rotator cuff is a complex system of muscles and tendons in your upper arm that is used to draw a bow and to raise and rotate your arm. Rotator cuff injuries include tendinitis, bursitis and, in severe cases, a rotator cuff tear. A torn rotator cuff is not always easy to diagnose but symptoms include having trouble lifting, raising your arm, pain when moving, shoulder weakness, or a clicking sound in your shoulder when moving it. If you have any of these symptoms, stop shooting and consult your doctor. Through skilled rehabilitation most archers recover and resume shooting upon completing physical therapy.

Tips to Reduce Shoulder Pain While Bow Hunting

Shoulder Pain Treatment Options

Why You Need Protection

It is a best practice for all archers to wear an armguard. But especially for new archers, its important to wear one. When you use the right technique, the string will come very close to your forearm. If you overextend your arm a bit, you will start to hit it. This can create nasty string slap marks on your arm and is painful.

When this happens, you might be tempted to shoot with a bent arm. But that is not the right technique. Therefore, you should buy an armguard because you dont want to be afraid of string slaps.

Generally, I recommend archers to get a long arm guard like this one. These longer armguards also protect the inside of your elbow. When you lock your elbow, you might hit your elbow which hurts even more than on your forearm.

If you already practice archery for a while and you have never experienced string slap in your elbow, you might want a shorter armguard. The longer armguard is less comfortable than these shorter versions. Therefore, I would recommend this shorter armguard if you arent afraid of string slap in your elbow.

In addition to the arm guard, some archers need a chest guard. Theoretically, this is primarily important for ladies and people with large chests, but I see more and more archers wear it. You can try shooting without it. If you think you may hit your chest you want to use a chest guard. A simple chest guard like this one from Bicaster Archery will do.

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Interaction Of The Scapula And Rib Cage

Be prepared to have some trouble identifying the scapulas position exactly as it glides about the back of the ribcage. The knowledge of precise position depending on movement and the figure can only come from practice and from looking at and drawing many, many examples.

The scapular spine and its medial border are big giveaways to finding the position of the scapula.

Below we will map out the connections of the deltoid muscles to the scapula, as well as look at muscles that originate there and move towards the shoulder joint.

At the very bottom of this tutorial, we will dive deep into various aspects of the scapula and the clavicle as they come together in the acromioclavicular joint.

Drawing Anime Arms Behind Back

To draw the arms held behind the back you can yet again sketch out or estimate the position of the parts that are hidden.

In this case simply make sure that the arms are angled in a way that they have enough room to meet behind the back.

Also keep in mind that the arms will usually be slightly bent when they are in this position.

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Shoulder Joint Bones Review Top View

Note the location of the acromion of the scapula as it sticks out from the main shell of the scapula. It is slightly elevated and is the highest point of the scapula bone on the body.

Note here the highlighted coracoid process of the scapula. It sits under the clavicle bone and also overlooks the glenoid cavity where the humerus attaches.

It may be worth looking at a front and rear view of the scapula again, to see if you can identify the acromion and the coracoid process from those viewpoints, lets do that now:

Lets now continue with our top-down view:

Highlighted on the image above is the neck of the scapula, it is the section that leads up to the ball socket joint with the humerus.

Shoulder Muscles Folding Over Chest Muscles

Now lets take a look at how shoulder muscles interact with a chest muscle .

From the image above we see the distribution of the shoulder and the chest muscles on the clavicle bone.

From the front, deltoids take up about the upper third of the clavicle, and the pectoral muscles take up about the bottom two-thirds of the clavicle down its length until it connects to the sternum .;

Take note of how both shoulder and chest muscles attach at the humerus bone of the arm. Note how it is the chest muscle that tucks-in under the shoulders at that location and not the other way around.

So far things have been pretty simple in our goal of learning to draw the shoulders.

There are some bones and some shoulder muscles that map onto those bones. Sure! Thats great.

However, to draw the shoulders well, we have to dive deeper into muscle anatomy and interactions of muscles at the shoulder joint.

This is where things get more complex. To help us visualize and later draw with anatomical accuracy, I prepared a step-by-step diagram to help us get through it together. Lets go!

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Interaction Of Muscles Around The Shoulder Joint

Now lets look at the muscles that go into the shoulder joint area as we draw;the shoulders from the back.;

In this first diagram, we have the scapula at 1 and the humerus bone at 2. Posterior view.;

Now at 3 lets add the triceps muscles. Note the two heads of the triceps muscle, one connecting to the humerus and note the other connecting to the scapula.;

Now Ive added three more muscles that originate on the scapula and all drive towards and insert at the humerus in various positions

At 4 we have the infraspinatus, at 5 we have the teres minor and at 6 we have a teres major.;

An important takeaway from the above diagram is that the teres major muscle ,;swings under the triceps and finds an attachment at the humerus at the front.

Memorizing this will help when you are drawing the shoulder from the back and faced with figuring out where the muscles tuck in.

Finally, lets add all three heads of the shoulder muscles to our diagram.

Notice how the shoulders map to the spine of the scapula. .

For now just take notice of the fact that there are muscles from the back that move toward and attach at the humerus bone, They are then covered by the shoulders from the back but become visible as the arm is raised up in the air.

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