Hi @Christopher Tju, really nice job! Yes the shoulder bones are really hard! I struggled a lot with them, but now they are my favorites XD - I think you might be making the scapulae a little small, and a little short. - The clavicles don't correspond to the their real shape in some of your drawings. Conceptualizing them as strange, but more drawable shapes might be necessary for drawing, but I just wanted to make you aware. They are "s"-shaped and you could think of them as built out of 3 straight pieces; one connecting to the acromion and another connecting to the manubrium (these are parallell but on different levels and the acromion part more posterior) These two are bridged with a 3rd piece, at an angle (posteriorly and superiorly). - Last year I came up with a mass conception of the scapula that I'm really happy with. I attached an image. Maybe it can be useful to you. I noticed that you haven't received any critiques in a while, so I'll quickly go through your most recent posts after this one. Overall, scrolling through your profile, you seem to be doing really well with your studies. Keep up the good work! Hope this helps :)

Really nice job! Your drawings are well constructed and show a good understanding of the ribcage. - A point that I would encourage you to learn how to place, is the 12th ribs' connection to the spine. Judging from the 3D model it seems to be placed halfway between the bottom of the sternum and the bottom of the ribcage (not the 10th ribs' corners, but the actual bottom; the 12th ribs). Placing it helped me a lot in drawing the 12 ribs themselves correctly and the thoracic portion of the spine, since the thoracic portion of the spine meets the lumbar portion there. I like to think of the spine as 3 separate pieces. The thoracic portion is tucked into the ribcage, starting at the top plane of the ribcage (1st ribs) and ending at the 12 ribs' attachment. The back of the ribcage and thoracic portion of the spine share the same arc. The spine is a long cylinder and as it bends the ellipse crosscontours turn accordingly to always be perpendicular to its current direction. - In the drawings to the right in the 2nd image, the top plane of the ribcage doesn't look quite right to me. It's tricky to get right, because you can't really see it on a person. Two things has helped me: 1. Imagining placing my hand on the top plane of the ribcage of the figure I'm drawing from. It might sound strange, but doing that often helps me estimate the placement of the top plane. If you know the bones thoroughly your imagination can support you with a lot of guidance. 2. Noticing how the manubrium and clavicles relate to the first rib. The manubrium continues a bit higer than the first ribs' cartilages and the clavicles lie ON TOP of the 1st rib. You might think of an ox on top of a heart to remember this. Hope this helps :)

Nice! I would take a closer look at the sacrum and how it relates to the pelvis. One thing that helped me draw it was to be aware of the articulate surfaces of the illia, between which the sacrum fits. Cheers!

Really nice studies! Good construction. - I would be more carfeul with the thickness of the spine. It goes from thicker in the lumbar region to thinner in the cervical region. - In your tracings I think you are putting the spine to far out; too close to the skin. Looking at the 3D-model, note how far in the body of the vertebra is. - I found drawing the spine really tricky until I could draw the pelvis and ribcage. Key points for me were the sacrum, the 12th ribs' attachment, the top plane of the ribcage and the base of skull. If you secure these points drawing the rest of the spine is a lot easier. The hardest one is probably the sacrum and the lumbar portion relating to it, so you might benefit from doing drawings of just the pelvis and lumbar spine. Spin them around form imagination and see you can get a solid grasp on the construction. Hope this helps :)

Nice! I agree! - It would have been nice if you added some ambient occlusion I hope this was helpful :)

Hi @Christopher Tju, I think these are good! They could be more refined, but like you said "I am just not overly concern with having "perfect" shading techniques, more so just learning how light works and portraying some form of dimension" , and I think your studies are doing that well! So good job! I'm not really sure if I understand your question... "Also curious, does anyone here map the shadows before shading? I have tried @Dorian Iten 's process and it has been helpful but I find that I get loss with shadow shapes if I don't map them out before hand. I think I get too afraid of simplifying the shadow shapes, risking the loss of form." Could you clarify it, then tag me? Keep up the good work :)

Hi @Christopher Tju Awesome! The exaggerations and mannequins are great! Keep up the good work! -One piece of advice I received when doing mannequins was to indicate the ground plane, with either perspective lines or cast shadows, so that the figures feel more grounded. Constructing the foot more geometrically also helps with this. -Don't forget about what was taught in the previous lesson about balance. Can you feel how the figure in your 5th image is about to fall to the left (our POV)? Finding the balance can be done technically by finding the center of gravity, but you can also use your intuition, as if you were a kid building a tower with toys. Ask yourself when looking at your drawing: "Will this person fall? What parts do I have to move to make her stable?" and you'll probably get things right I hope this was helpful :)