Anatomy Practice: Torso More Study: Squash & Stretch, Size, Overlap, & Surface Here are some things to keep in mind when drawing big muscley torsos and anatomy in general. Squash & Stretch - Muscles are connected to the skeleton and will change shape depending on what activity the skeleton is doing. A common example is if you bend your arm at the elbow, the bicep will squash into a more rounded, less elongated shape. (Technically the muscles flexing or relaxing are the reason for the skeleton moving in the first place, but for now let's just look at the relationship between the shapes, ) Let's take 8 quick look at the chest drawings below. As thé arms and shoulders reach aut, or reach up, or move closer together, the muscles of the chest squash oc stretch accordingly. One way to think about itis if there is fess space for the chest muscles to Occupy (becbuse the shoulders are closer together for example) they will sqUIsA to fit that space. If there is more space available (because the shoulders are further apart or raised up) the muscles will stretch to fill that extra space. Anather good example is the abdomen. You will see.a tot of twisting, Stretching, and squashing in the abs s the body maves, twists, etc. More on that in a little bit, ‘Size, Overlap, and Surface - Remember reading about our simple ideas in the previous foreshortening tutorials? Even if your poses aren't overty dramatic or extreme they're good to keep in ming. In case you forgot: Size - Objects that are closer appear larger than objects that are further away. Qveriag - An object that overlaps another will appear to be in front, and therefore appear closer. Surface - The viewer will see more of whichever surface is facing ninnfner. Let's look at these ideas real quick in the example at righit. Size: Since the body is leaning forward the upper body is closer to the viewer and the lower body is further away. Notice how the lower body, including the abs, takes up less space and appears: smaller than the upper body. Overlap: With the arms forward in this pose the shoulders overlap the biceps whieh overlap the chest which overlaps the nbeage and tower torso. The shoulders appear closer to us, followed by the: rest of the arm, where as the rest of the body is further away. Surface: Since the body is leaning forward, we are essentially looking down on it. Therefore we will see many of the top surfaces, For example, the top of the head, the top of the shoulders, biceps, chest, ete. We really don't see any of the bottom surfaces. ‘On.a related note, [find the way the chest overlaps the rest of the body is often 3 really great way of using overiap ‘to show depth. Since: the chest is such a large muscle group it can overlap the ribcage Or abs when looking down on ‘the body. Or it can avertap the neck or chin when looking up at the body. Just something to think about. The Abdomen in Perspective ‘Ah ha! We're back to the abs. Sexy. And definitely one of the most dynamic parts of anatomy. Squash and stretch and overlap are really, really handy when putting together a dynamic, twisting abdominal pase, Here's how I tend to think about it, ‘Think of the ahs as 6 (roughty) sphere ‘As the body bends or curves, the stick will shapes. Now attach them to an invisible bend to follow it and the spheres will move bendy stick, with the stick. Yeah, bendy sticks! See this anatomy thing isn’t so tricky! Nov let’s also keep in mind our simple Ideas for foreshortening: size, overlap, and surface. Overlap in particular is very handy when drawing a dynamic abs pose. Check out the drawings below to see what I mean. ‘A mostly front wiew, The body stretches and curves backward and the bendy stick follows. No major overtapping here, but the abs follow the curve of the body, Also, since this is a pase in which the figure is reaching up (and creating more space vertically which the muscle can fill) we stretch the abs @ bit te add to the Dellevabllity of the pose. A view from slightly above, looking down, The bendy ab stick follows the curve of the body and we see here that the top ab muscles (those closest to the viewer) are starting to overiap the ab muscles underneath (because they are further away from the viewer), Not too tricky right? In addition to the overlap, the abs may appear squashed since the body is Bending forward slightly, leaving less space available for the abs. See the difference compared to the ab example above? In this pose the body is twisting away from us, so we are seeing more of the left side (the viewer's Teft) and less of the right side. Additionally, because of the way the body is bent over, the bottom portion of the torso is angled stightiy up towards the viewer. This means we will some more of the bottom surfaces, right? So, the ab muscles on the left side, which are closer overlap the ab muscles that are on the right side, which are further away. Additionally, the ab muscles that are lower on our bendy stick (and cioser to the viewer) overlap the ab muscles that are higher on our bendy stick {because they are further away). We also squash the abs stightly because the body Is bent forward and there is less space for the abs to occupy. Right? Right. Alright! We survived another one! That‘il do it for this look at the torso. Gbwiously getting familiar with all the ‘muscie groups and what not takes some time and practice, but remember they can be thought of as just a ‘bunch of shapes, like spheres and cylinders and cubes, The key te making dynamic and believable (and fun!) poses from those shapes Is by keeping in mind our simple ideas: squash & stretch, size, overlap, and surface. And remember, this stuff is cool! Have fun drawing and explaring perspective, and don’t feel like you have to know it all right away! You don’t! Just keep drawing and learning. And if you can, take a life drawing lass, oF draw 2 friend walling to pose for you, oF ust google "body builder” online for some goad practice drawing from life. You can’t beat that. 1 need to do a lot more of that myself actually. Until next time, keep drawing! Gene