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Nov 2020

Hi :sweat_smile:
I stuggle with drawing necklines. I sculpt more than I draw and I know the volumes of the neck, ribcage, clavicles, etc but I can't translate that to drawing...my boys' clothes look very amateur. I mostly dress them in T shirts with round neck and I like their clavicles to show.

This one is the hardest because I tend to daraw just a line and the anatomy looks falt:

This is a quick example of how my necklines look like most of the times.

If you have a tutorial that can help me or if you want to educate me I would be very grateful :purple_heart:

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    Nov '20
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    Nov '20
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So I did a little redlining on top of your drawing

A trick I've learnt is to draw the neck parallel and then slightly above the end of the line, you can start placing the shoulders. If you want a thicker neck then one of the neck lines can begin underneath the ear but I usually draw it below the end of the jaw cause my male drawings aren't of buff guys ^^

I think part of the problem might be the lineweight/overlap. Clothes need to sit on top of your body, you can see it in the references, even if it's just a little. Or if it's tight, it would pull the lines. Thicker fabrics will sit more on top of the body and have heavier lines. Like here, the thick heavy wool stick out a lot while the soft shirt collar only stick out a little.

So when you draw your neckline, try to make it overlap the body more like it's sitting on top of it (I'd do some drawing over your imagine too but I'm not at my tablet).

Edit: Ok got my ass over to my tablet. It's a small difference but the neckline should curve around the body rather than just lying on top of it and showing a bit of it doing that is a small but noticeable difference.

Here's an exercise: grab a newspaper or a magazine and a pen and just... trace the people on the pages. Try to draw the neckline/anatomy even if you can't see it because clothes or hair is in the way.

This will give you a sense of how to translate anatomy into different angles, even if there's just a tiiiny variation in the pose and angle.

Also, one thing to help with flatness it to be mindful with how to make lines overlap. If we look at your last photo reference, her left shoulder points just a tiny bit towards the camera, which means that her neck is closer to us than her right shoulder. I would draw the line of the neck overlapping slightly with the shoulder. It's a tiny detail, but when you're working in a lineart style, it makes a huge difference. And as @HGohwell said, clothes overlapping and having volume also helps with flatness. here's how I would draw that image:

The arrow points to the little overlap between the neck and the shoulder lines which I think is so important.

I don't have much of value to offer in regards to the main thread question since... necklines aren't something that I have much insight in. BUT! I want to second this piece of advice :smiley: This is the main method that I use to learn how to draw things that I'm really struggling with too- just tracing a bunch of references until you start to "get it". Can be done digitally as well if that's more accessible for some folks.

I just did a bunch of these a few nights ago for general arm and leg anatomy... something that I've found lacking in my work of late. Just copy/pasted like 10 pictures of arms and legs (including some anatomical diagrams showing the muscles and stuff) into a blank art canvas, lowered the opacity a smidge and just traced them all. Every so often I like to add some original sketches off to the side trying to apply the new understanding of volume and shape language that I was trying to pick up lol

I love that neck :heart_eyes:Thank you very much!!! I mostly refered to clothing. But this is definitely very helful to add more convincing volumes because sometimes I don't do that very well :purple_heart: Thank you for your time.

Hmmmm I can definitely see it now!! I like how the clothes seem to rech the back and the lines are thicker in the intersection to simulate depth. :purple_heart: I didn't know how to solve this type of T shit neck because it's so "simple" but it still has to show that it's sitting on top of a body.

Thank you very much for you time and you helped me a lot :purple_heart:

Ohhhhhh this is a great exercise!!:heart_eyes: I definitely need more practice with the angles. It's also a challenge to draw clothes necks from different angles because I tend to draw the line the same way as when we see the figure frontally. I will practice having your explanation in mind!

Thank you very much!:purple_heart:

Good old tracing is underrated as a learning tool :smile:
It's been a while since I traced anything. I have been studying a lot of real-life models for my sculptures and I thought that understanding anatomy was enough...Wrong! Because I still need to convert that to 2D and you are right, tracing is a good way to solve lines.
You are always helpful :relieved: Thank you!! :purple_heart:

Necks and shoulders are one of my weaknesses xD that's one reason a lot of my designs have scarves or tall armor padding, or really big heads with stumpy necks.

I think you're doing well so far! You've clearly identified the clavicle, you've pointed out the vocal box area--which helps a great deal in defining the form.

I would make sure that you're really showing more of that sculptural knowledge and drawing from the inside out. So while in comics we end up with a pretty simplified drawing, you want to be mindful that you're drawing the outside form of the muscles around the neck, as well as the muscles that go towards the shoulders--they're all connected to eachother. Also there's so many muscles, that the neck is a bit thicker (we usually shrink that neck stylistically, but it's a beefy thing.

And, especially in girls and teens, necks will be sometimes skinny, but once you hit adulthood in your mid 20's-30's necks will become about as thick as your head (*but not always, some ladies have real skinny necks, and I like to make my necks pretty skinny and much longer than normal in my comics as a stylistic choice). Also, the bigger the muscles of your character, the more the neck.

the pink line there is to also reference that the head height is about the same width as the clavicle to the side of the shoulder. Arms sit about the same height of clavicles so strong shoulders will help make a neck also look stronger. (although I probs made the shoulders a little too high but eh, I'm not perfect)

the blue line I have there is like my favorite muscle line for helping define volume in the neck. It starts behind the ear, runs around the vocal box area, and then rests in the clavicle. Super handy. I don't always draw it, but sometimes it really helps to define form. Like Andrew Loomis does that a lot and is a good reference for necks stuff. (and for heads at funny angles just in general.)

So I'd practice necks by referring to artists who are well known for anatomy and muscles, and become familiar with all the muscles that are on that shoulderline.

This is very interesting!!! I realize that it will be easier for me to get familiar with the necks movements practicing over a thick muscular neck. :grinning: I do the necks super long but still they should be anatomically correct, right? So I will practice with the diagrams you recommended and then I will draw my skinny necks with more knowledge.
Thank you for taking the time to draw over my sample it's easier to visualize like that! :purple_heart:

Uhum! The basic construction is important. Thank you so much!! This will also help me to get a better bsse. :heart: