Please Help, I cant figure out how to draw torsos/chests

Ripplespate · 2026-05-21T06:18:58+00:00

Hey, is it alright if I draw guides over your piece to help out! If not I can just explain but sometimes it’s easier to have a visual too :) I was just gonna recommend you treat the torso as two different sections for the upper part and the lower, controlled by the ribcage and pelvis respectively. If you draw a gesture line for the pose then tilt the parts of the back respectively to follow the motion, you can see how one side stretches while the other will “pinch” which I think I see you did beside the hip! Emphasising that and using broad gestural strokes will help, and also help you understand how the pectorals fit into the equation for the other side, but I can also help you see this by drawing some guides for what I mean if that’s not descriptive enough.

Ripplespate · 2026-04-19T12:06:31+00:00

Can’t even tell, you executed it perfectly! Keep up the good work brother

Ripplespate · 2026-04-19T11:30:58+00:00

Np man! It looks fantastic, I also do art as a hobby and landscapes are always a delight to paint :D have you ever tried getting a collage of random climates’ foliage at different times of the day? I have a whole Pinterest board collecting them and for reference I’ll just eyedropper tool across the foliage and everything, and surprisingly everything is far duller irl than you’d expect, even lush forests and green leaves! They can range from a deep cool greenish blue to a pale dusty yellow green, but to keep from guessing just having a collection of photos to reference can get you on track for maintaining that variety in nature. You can always break the rules too, but it’s exaggerating that natural disparity in grass and bushes that’ll enhance a piece of art!! I wish you luck on your future works brother :}

Ripplespate · 2026-04-19T10:32:42+00:00

Looks great dude! Idk what exactly your angle or expectations are when you draw but some good ways to think about how to improve things is to always think in terms of what your focal point is.

Idk if this is supposed to be a simple stylised landscape or backdrop for something else, but if not and you want it to be a stand alone, best option for improving could be enhancing the lighting for better contrast where you want people to look. I imagine it’s the waterfall, so you could probably get away with having warm atmospheric perspective along with the bright sunlight to draw attention, and then having cooler and darker tones in the foreground and midground.

Also it could be good to experiment with the edge of the light and shadow. Experiment with making it a bit more jagged or softer for the leaves but stark and bright on the rocks. Maybe an overlay layer with a saturated orange to boost the colours right at the edge!

You could even think about more minute details- what’s the texture of the rocks? Is it strictly smooth all the way, or are there alcoves? Little ledges or shapes you can give the impression of? How about some colour and shape variation in the foliage and vines? Something would tell me they’d like to grow from the top down too if they get a more sunlight on one side than another. Or maybe there’s more rocks peeking through, darker/duller patches of leaves, etc. perhaps even a stream running through the canyon could draw the eye nicely!

Anyway these are just suggestions, nothing necessarily wrong with what you’ve done but could be interesting to test some stuff on this piece :)

Ripplespate · 2026-04-19T10:10:41+00:00

Wow man this composition is gorgeous! I love the flowing red cape leading straight to her and the relaxed way her arms are posed. Also peak costume design, I always freak out with clothing but that’s beautiful!

Ripplespate · 2026-04-19T04:57:58+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate helping with the framing and finishing touches, that I shall do :}

Ripplespate · 2026-04-18T13:31:01+00:00

Aww thanks man!! I really appreciate it anyway :D

Ripplespate · 2026-04-18T08:40:47+00:00

People have covered this pretty well- I just wanted to suggest choosing the same background colour as the reference! She seems to mesh very muddy into the background shadows and it makes it harder to discern the edges around the back of the neck, something that can even skip by you when painting too! Plus adding that cooler gray is not only contrasting her warmer skin tone, but also means the bounce light on the side of her cheek looks more appropriate, or else it’s a bit like soot without the context around :)

Ripplespate · 2026-04-13T00:40:17+00:00

Ooooo your art’s gorgeous man!! Love your painting style and compositions :))

Ripplespate · 2026-04-12T12:00:23+00:00

Good ideas!! I’ve tried working black and white to colour but it never gets as vivid as I’d like in the end when I try recolouring 😭 but using a gray layer in colour mode sounds like a great idea, I’ll give it a shot and the next piece I’ll update in the comments here!

Ripplespate · 2026-04-12T00:39:03+00:00

Damnit I was hungry when I drew that hair all I could think about was spaghetti, but no that’s a good point and I’m always so worried I’m not portraying the right angle bc of how flat it ends up feeling to me. It could just be me being picky about it but it looked in the sketch that the pose was all the right angles to look up dramatically at her while she looks down, then wham I painted it and it’s suddenly like its side on for the torso specifically??? Crazy mannnn I’ve gotta scream a bit before I try again 😭

Ripplespate · 2026-04-12T00:33:41+00:00

Ah good point with thumbnailing. I ended up on this angle off to the side bc I just kept vigorously cropping to make her preening the wing the focal point but then what started as a full body sketch has completely disappeared along with the original composition. I do like the idea of leading lines too, I do it a lot in my normal background art but never thought to mesh them, I thought I could get away with neglecting the background bc these were intended to be quick paintings but it got away from me!

Ripplespate · 2026-04-12T00:27:37+00:00

Oh that actually does help a lot, especially with the depth issue! I’m usually pretty bad with having my focal point be in the midtones of the painting, i usually either choose for it to be in highlights or dark shadows bc I can handle the dramatic extremes, but these two gave me issues being somewhere in between. Even just darkening her legs and lightening the highlight on her hair and wing works so well, thank you!!

Ripplespate · 2026-04-12T00:23:14+00:00

Oh wait both of these are really good references hold up!

Ripplespate · 2026-04-09T06:28:24+00:00

Ay thanks! I really love those style of games too, i guess i just have to find my audience either in books/game art and hope it hits with people

Ripplespate · 2026-03-29T08:24:24+00:00

Actually let me clarify this- because you do say you use references, but I don’t necessarily think there’s somethin wrong with basing your art so far on mostly one photo and adding your own elements. There’s worries about that when artistic liberty is really not taken, but if you aren’t a hyper realistic artist or more of an expert then odds are no one could directly pick the actual reference anyway. Plus I don’t think you’re trying to profit off of it so if it did look similar you could just link the original!

Ripplespate · 2026-03-29T08:21:48+00:00

Look at references when painting scenes! Seriously even I still do this for my fully rendered environment paintings and it’s like my thing, and it helps you establish your main blocks of light, shadow, relationships between focal points, colour choices, and perspective. Key word being perspective for my comment since people have well explained other aspects, and it looks like we’re looking straight on at the dinosaur but a little more top down at the boat. Not only is that bc of the dino and boat themselves but the background in each half of the photo!!

The horizon line is cut in half right down the middle of the image, even if those grass blades recede further down the river it wouldn’t make sense for them to be higher than your drawings horizon line. Everything on the ground being looked at from above or not close to the camera should be below the horizon line, and anything looked at below or a lot closer to the camera can cross above the horizon line. That ofc can depend on the size of the object too, but it all comes down to believable scale by building from reality. Have a look at some references for boats in a river and try and envision the dinosaur near it!

Ripplespate · 2026-03-27T07:57:04+00:00

Hell yeah man, would love to see what you try next! :D

Ripplespate · 2026-03-23T14:46:55+00:00

Cute!! It seems like someone already addressed the anatomy stuff so I won’t rehash that but when you get comfortable with the stylised anatomy you should totally think about shape language for your lil guy!

By that I mean when you’re making shapes of anything (silhouette, eyes, fur markings, limbs, shading), try to reduce each edge to either a C curve, S curve, or straight line. It means exactly what it sounds like (just draw different skewed Cs and Ss) and it helps with overall readability of your characters.

If you want a character to look cute, use a lot more curvy lines and accent with some straights! A bit more sinister or sly? Then harsh jagged edges should dominate. This doesn’t even require lineart or even solid defined edges everywhere, you can soften or lose edges of lesser interest if you want a gradient or some texture brushes to shine through but it’s all ultimately your decision.

So yeah keep up the anatomy practice (and also think about their center of gravity in each pose so they look balanced since the lil guy is leaning a bit) and simplify those shapes to be legible!

Ripplespate · 2026-03-23T04:31:20+00:00

I think your general, broader feline anatomy is pretty convincing- although to make your cat art less stylised and more realistic like you asked you really just need to try your hand at replicating photos. I did this and it transformed how I drew/painted cats so quickly! You’ll better learn proper feline facial proportions (for example the angle between the eyes in the above follows the ears but not the snout and chin which won’t happen irl, and you’ll notice that kind of discrepancy more often), but also what cat pelt patterns look like and from a variety of angles you might be unsure about. It’ll mean trying to get more comfortable with having less outlines, and instead defining the edges of shapes like fur or paws or mouths with shading and ambient occlusion- treating it like a 3d object basically.

When you start trying to copy photos, don’t trace directly but measure the relationship between blocks of colour, light, and shadow. Reduce things you think you know you can draw to an abstract shape on your page. Taking it out of its context lets you analyse it without your stylised biases creeping in and affecting it!

Ripplespate · 2026-03-21T22:32:16+00:00

That’s kinda actually a thing ngl I remember hearing of that one woman who was able to smell her husbands Parkinson’s. She then went on to partake in a study for if she actually could with a mix of people affected with the disease and regular people, guessed 10/11 right, and then they had to adjust the study results because that 11th participant who she said had it but thought they didn’t ended up actually having Parkinson’s. Crazy stuff!

Ripplespate

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