/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>7286624
couple things:
1. when the shoulder raises, the clavicle and scapula raise solely through the traps as they pull both up and in towards the body, and the only pivot point that the scapula has to the rest of the body is through the sternoclavicular joint (ie the scapula floats freely inside a mass of muscles above the BACK of the ribcage and can only pivot through another bone at the FRONT of the ribcage) - as consequence, gesturally, when the shoulder raises towards the head, the traps will squish and make the angle of the shoulder far less acute than how you've drawn it
this isn't always the case, since an extreme shrug on a very skinny character can make the upward angle of the shoulders more acute, but a) animation breaks rules to maintain gesture all the time, and b) the shoulder will be closer to the head, since again, when you raise your shoulders "up", they actually pivot towards your ear
see pic related for a classic manga style shrug example - most manga artists simplify the shoulder contour of this type of casual shrug by just drawing a straight line that's higher on the neck and the ends of the shoulder being pivoted up very slightly, since subtlety is a major quality of manga

bottom line: when drawing the shoulders, if you have a steep ramp that's angling up and away from the body along the shoulders, the shoulders are still at the distance from the head that they would be in a neutral pose, and the character isn't shrugging or an alien, all at the same time, something is wrong

cont.