Anatomy of the Rib Cage
Anatomy of the Rib Cage
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Anatomy of the Human Body

Torso(163 Lessons)
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Rib Cage

Anatomy of the Rib Cage

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Anatomy of the Rib Cage

677K
Mark as Completed

Assignment: Draw the Rib Cage

Construct a Robo Skelly rib cage and the pelvis using the bucket method. Try to be as accurate as you can with them. Don’t just draw a generic rib cage shape in there. Look for clues from landmarks and muscle attachments that will tell you exactly where the rib cage is.

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pencilstudent
Tried to gleam a better understanding of the overall egg shape (2/3=widest). Will need to investigate the plane changes and the connection between the thoracic arch and back arch caused by the 12 rib. Will do these lessons a bit more rapidly now in order to do 1 lap of anatomy faster.
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palyo
Hi everyone! These are my assignments for this lesson . I've had some problems with drawing the bucket in some poses so i opted for the cube which was way simpler . There are some drawings that i'm not satisfied with like the sixth and the ninth . Anyway, any feedbacks are greatly appreciated .
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teetree
My drawings for this assignment. Struggled with the shape of the rib cage, gonna go ahead and draw a load using the 3d model. Any advice is appreciated!
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Benjamin Green
Looks good. Draw 10 more pages of them. Keep up the good work!
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outerpaja
Hi! The feedback is always grateful.
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Mathias Ragnarsson
Rib cage assignment. An egg shape? That can’t be too complicated! Or… Even though the big shape is simple, it proved to be a bit of a challenge to make it read clearly. In some angles it didn’t make for any sharp corners, especially in my second image where the top plane makes it all look flat to me. In contrast I thought my back view had a more interesting angle for drawing the rib cage. Any helpful feedback is always appreciated!
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Mathias Ragnarsson
Thank you for your feedback, both of you. I see what you noticed @Brett, regarding the parallel perspective lines. It’s difficult sometimes when perhaps they should only converge in a really long distance. I had a habit before to distort bodies quite a lot as I thought everything almost had to visibly converge. It all looked like it was trough a fish eye lens! But yeah, maybe they’re too parallel here. I’ll keep it in mind! Thanks for the paint overs @Jesper Axelsson I thought of them when doing a couple more drawings, from imagination this time. I still find the front view a bit difficult to portray with distinct angles, but hopefully it’s good enough until I get to put some meat on it! (Also, drawing a sitting pose from imagination posed a new problem to solve. Does the pelvis tilt forward with good posture? And backwards (or straight up) in a slouching posture?)
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Brett
A couple of points from the standing pose from the front. The perspective lines appear parallel, they should converge- I struggle with this too. Sometimes it is good to exaggerate a bit at first. The second point, with the far side of the rib cage, I don’t think you would see the side plane as drawn. The side plane is hidden by the front plane. This distorts the sense of depth.
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Mathias Ragnarsson, these look really nice!! Clear read. Solid form. Good proportions. Pretty accurate anatomy. Overall great job! -I did paintovers with suggestions. -Here's a link to a reply I've written before where I talk about how I think when drawing anatomy that isn't visible on the surface, such as the 1st rib of the ribcage. You might appreciate reading it. https://www.proko.com/s/r6za - I think the next challenge for you is to practice drawing the ribcage from imagination. Hope this helps :)
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Peter Tinkler
For me, this was easier to construct compared to the pelvis (that pelvis is dastardly tricky), and it really helped to think of it as a box first and foremost. I think I sometimes make the ribcage too long, but as always, I'm enjoying the trial and error of the process overall.
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Mark Manthorpe
Drawing the ribcage. My aim was to try and draw it rotated getting more dramatic with each row down. The final row at the bottom is imo dicey and not sure it all works. Though what I took from it was the thorciac arch looks like an upside down heart to me from below.
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viny
7mo
done
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Anson Man
Hello, here are my assignments for the rib cage. The hardest part of the drawing was trying to figure out the construction of the rib cage, so any critiques on this would be helpful.
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Samuel Lemons
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Samuel Lemons
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M Graves
Does anyone know how many head units tall the sternum is?
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axel21
Hi Graves, From the Shoulder Bones ebook, it says about one cranial unit from manubrium to bottom of the sternal body, and I measured about one head from manubrium to end of xiphoid process.
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Natali Santini
Hi! Here is the second half of the rib cage assignment. I will be greatful for any feedback on these. Thank you!
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Natali Santini, nice studies! Great job overall👍 - I would pay closer attention to the proportion and shape of the ribcage and its parts. When having done a drawing, it might be useful to compare it with the 3D-model of the ribcage. You can ask "does it look like the 3D model?", and try to spot things that are off in your drawing. You might notice that: In image 1, the ribcage looks a bit tall, and the angle of the first rib could be steeper, in the drawing. In image 2, the ribcage might be a little deep front to back, and the neck look's as if it doesn't start in the center of the back of the top plane. It's a good way to find things to improve on :) - In image 4 & 5 the pelvis seems to be too close to the ribcage. To practice getting this right, it might help to do some studies where you completely ignore details, and just draw an egg for the ribcage and a sphere for the pelvis, to focus only on the major forms and their placement in relationship to eachother. This makes the task less overwhelming, and once you get it down, adding details will be a lot easier. Hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
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palyo
Hi! These drawings are my assignment for this lesson. I've had troubles in drawing the poses from the back/where we can see the back . Any critique/advice is greatly appreciated
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fefelix
Hi palyo, first of all, I like your fluid and energetic gestures! Cool to see, that you're already trying to apply this more advanced topic to your studies. Be careful not to put gesture over proportions, though (in this exercise). In your very lively first drawing the distance between the rib cage and pelvis is too large, whereas it's too small between the rib cage and the head. There are two main things I'd like to criticize: proportions and line quality. In many cases, the proportions of the three major masses and/or the distances between them are off. Try to achieve, that in all of your drawings the length proportions of the spine (cervical: 0.75 cranial units, thoracic: 2 cu, lumbar: 1,25 cu, sacral: 0.75 lumbar / ~1 cu) as well as the proportions of the major masses (you can use the cranial system explained in the figure drawing course, for example) are all correct at the same time. Secondly, your line quality could be higher. Line quality refers to the amount of clarity a line has in depicting something. Using very many lines to represent an aspect of your subject, such as you did for the top plane of the pelvis in your first drawing, for example, makes it very unclear and "blurry" and disables you from understanding its perspective. The line quality in the 5th drawing you submitted is so much better, though!! Try to get it to this level consistently and focusing on perspective will become much easier! One more thing: The angle you drew for the iliac crest in your first drawing is too horizontal. Keep in mind that the crest's posterior three quarters are covered by the external obliques and fat. If you're having a hard time finding the proportions of the rib cage in a dorsal view (a problem which i don't really see in your drawings btw) the landmarks of the 7th cervical and the PSIS can help you. If you've found those, find the attachments of the 12th ribs to the spine by connecting those landmarks via the spine, applying the length proportions mentioned earlier. I hope this helps! Have fun studying :) Felix
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nongthimay31797
my assignment is kind of messy but it is the first time i use pts for this kind of work, hope late will better
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fefelix
Hi there, hoping to get these critiqued by you :) I feel most unsure about the first one, any ideas on that?
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @fefelix, really good work! Solid construction and good anatomy! - In the left drawing in image 1 and the right drawing in image 2, you have the thoracic portion of the spine curve in a way that looks unnatural. I understand why you've done it; the torso is twisting, however when you draw, I recommend thinking of the ribcage as a solid form, and the c-curve in the back as unchanging. Then as you blend it together with the other parts you can add some nuance, though the thoracic portion of the spine still remains pretty much a c-curve. It shares the curvature of the back of the ribcage, since the ribs attatches to it -It's great to see you finding the attachment of the 12th ribs to the spine. Knowing where the 12th rib attachment is will help you when drawing the muscles of the lower back and sides. When I look at the 3D-model, the 12th rib attachment seems to be halfway between the bottom of the sternum and the bottom of the ribcage. Hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
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unpayedintern123
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fefelix
Hey there! Your method of doing a general envelope / gesture drawing of the entire body first is a helpful way to get the general proportions and pose correct. Apart from that I recommend actually constructing the forms of the pelvis and rib cage (if you haven't done so already) using the bucket method for the pelvis and the "boxy rib cage" method from the next lesson. Doing this really helped me understand the 3d forms of the masses and also to pay closer attention to angles and perspective. While, most of the time, you have no problem getting the proportions right (except in dr. 2 where the head is too small, even bearing in mind fore-shortening), you're angles are off or imprecise in many cases. In dr. 5, for example, the rib cage would be angled forward much further, resulting in a more visible top plane. You can get that information from observing the angle between Anthony's right shoulder and the brow line, which should be at almost the same horizontal level. His pelvis, on the other hand, is actually facing to his left side rather than to his right, as you drew it. If you can't determine the angle between the ASIS, you can also look for the angle between the two Greater Trochanters, which equals the previous. In your dr. 3, the rib cage would be angled to the right much further (I think you can see the point where the rib cage meets the waist at the plane change right above Yoni's left hand, but I might be wrong). Also, the head would appear behind the rib cage, resulting in a fore-shortened cervical spine. In your drawing the pelvis is too small (it should be about two thirds the size of the rib cage) because you put the ASIS points inferior to where they should be. In this pose, you can find the left ASIS by following the Tensor Fasciae Latae muscle to its origin. I hope with the image attached, it becomes more clear what I mean. Apart from that, have fun drawing and until next time :)
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mathews
first 5 exercises
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mathews
thanks Laimis L and axel21 for the corrections!
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Laimis L
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James Paris
Hi ! I had some troubles with these exercices, I pushed myself to draw the spine everytime, but it wasn't really easy thing to do in some extreme angles.
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Sandra Süsser
Lesson notes rib cage.
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