Okay, let’s talk about how stabbing at back drawings used to drive me crazy. You know those shoulder blades? Always looked like lumpy potatoes jammed under skin. And don’t get me started on spines – either stiff as a broomstick or bendy like spaghetti. So I dug around online, scraped together some reference poses that actually tackle these nightmares.
The Chicken Scratch Phase
First, I hauled out my sketchbook and dug up my worst back drawings. Shoulders looked like they were detachable, spines zigzagged like lightning bolts. It was ugly. Grabbed some action figure photos and yoga pose screenshots – stuff where backs twist and stretch naturally. Didn’t care about fancy lighting, just needed to see bones and muscles squishing under skin.
Gorilla-Gripping the Pencil
Started real simple: just a straight standing back. Traced the spine with one damn line down the middle – no wiggles allowed. Then slapped those shoulder blades like tilted triangles hugging the ribs. Felt robotic, but hey, stopped my potato shoulders.
Next, tried a twisting torso reference. One shoulder up, one down. Saw how the spine curves smooth like a river, not snapping like a twig. Scribbled arrows on my ref: “muscles stretch HERE”, “skin folds THERE”. Messed up five times till the shoulder blades stopped looking like crashed UFOs.
The “Oh Crap” Lightbulb
Then came bending poses – person reaching for toes. Finally clicked why spines don’t bend flat. Those bony bumps? They stack! Drew little blocks stacking together, curving like a staircase. Suddenly the lower back didn’t look inflated like a balloon.
- Lesson 1: Shoulder blades slide sideways when arms move – not float randomly.
- Lesson 2: Spine bends in chunks – not rubber hose.
- Lesson 3: Muscle lines follow the bone highways – no random squiggles allowed.
Sweaty Victory Dance
After a week of cramping hands, my sketches stopped looking like sci-fi mutants. Still ain’t Michelangelo, but the anatomy police won’t arrest me anymore. Just keeping those references pinned like wanted posters above my desk now. Cheaper than anatomy class, less screaming.
