How do you start your chest shape?

#1

Hi guys

One of the things I’m having trouble with is that because I always start of all my drawings with the chest/rib cage first, it can be tricky to find a way to a process to draw the rib cage at all angles. I can’t figure out a good way to start with a chest block that I can rotate and (for example) actually know when to stop drawing the side of the body and start drawing the back. By comparison the head always starts with either a ball or an egg shape and it’s very easy to figure out what the head shape will be at any given angle.

This mainly all stems from my first two forays into life drawing. As soon as the model bent over backwards, kneeled on the ground and placed a hand on the floor, my whole method of drawing the chest went out the window. I struggled to come up with a basic chest shape to snap everything onto. The head is easy, as I know the more side on it goes the more egg shape it gets, and then as it turns further around to show the back of the head it turns goes into a circle shape again. It’s a quick starting shape like that which eludes me when drawing the chest.

So what I’m asking by all this rambling is, when you are drawing the chest how do you start of with what general shapes? How does it work at different angles and such? What’s your process for getting the chest shape down on paper?

Cheers

#2

Try imagining the upper torso as a rectangle with a bow where the chest would be with the strings inline with the upper middle of the sides of the box. So in front view you would see a rectangle with the bow pointing down where the pecs tie into the fifth rib. the ends of the bow would flare out and up to where the shoulders would be. the string could be like the collar bones.
In the side view, you would see the bow at the front of the body but it wouldn’t be directly pointing downwards. It would point at a downward and forward angle with the string of the bow being at the middle of the top of the box.
Now, if you imagine the ends of the bow attached at the shoulder it should be pretty easy imagining how it stretches and compresses depending on the movement. The outer edges of the bow would be the outer most edges of the chest. Anything behind it would be where the muscle appears to wrap around and attach to the rib cage.
Also, check your muscle charts. You’ll notice how the pec seems to be divided into multiple pieces that overlap eachother to insert into the humerus.
Hopefully, that is useful.

#3

I think your problems will decrease when you try to see the chest/rib cage, not as a single object, but as part of a human body.
The ribcage is attached to the spine, but so is the pelvis. Try to see the egg shape of the ribcage together with the wedge/box shape of the pelvis. How do they relate to eachother? Try different poses with simple shapes, starting with the centre line, representing the spine.

Always think 3D when drawing… draw the form you see, not the 2D shape.
When drawing from a model, try to locate the ribcage, pelvis,…

#4

I start the chest out like a bent, vertical shield, going up in the center, like the ribs do. Make sense? Also I always, always, get a midline down it. Maybe this is the animator in me, but I find it priceless.

#5

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