So for me the error i see everywhere is about the torso first people dont know its anatomy which is quite normal and second they think doing base construction line is unnecessary. You are wrong ! Even for experienced artist using some guides help to give the essential life to the character. Lemme explain... anybody can draw a stickman
Here's Bob: i know bob is not really pretty but thats not our goal for now
Bob can do many poses as long as there is no perspective related. If you try to do foreshortening bob might look like a very diform stickman here's a very exagerated exemple you cant really tell what bob is doing but when i add the shapes its somehow easier to understand his pose
Now after this little introduction to stickman which was totally unnecessary lemme introduce the errors people often do drawing torso!
First of all the easiest one to see is the stiff body. Most of the time beginner start by drawing the head then the body. First step is drawing your action line then you can draw your body it doesnt need to be a big curved line but it will help you understand the movement of the torso.
Second error is about the neck connection people often think it is a cilinder going out from the torso but its a little more complicated than that.
Then people struggle to add the shoulders are they inside or outside the body??? well both at the same time.
finally people struggle to connect the rib cage to the hip they often draw the body as a big square
My first tuto is going to be for torso facing front its a technique i use which is very efficient for beginners and can be upgraded for expert lets start by the beginner part : for this example i used some drawing gesture i did without references the goal is to draw quickly so it wont look perfect but it doesnt need to be.
first step is to find your head position and orientation then draw the line of action. Dont do S shapes in your line it just confuse artist. I suggest you try on reference pictures
Second step is to place the rib cage and the hips
third step is a little more complicated as long as your character is facing you it will be easy if he is in angle use you action line as a reference to draw those guides start from the sides of your rib cage and go to the bottom of the hip like illustrated
fourth step you find the middle between your rib cage and the hip then you draw a line like you can see here the next step is to do the same we did earlier with the rib cage you start from the side of the hips and reach the guides at the height of our line
Finally if you carve a hip shape and a rib cage shape following the guides we did you earn a beautiful dynamic torso wich doesnt look like a square
Now maybe you say to yourself wait... hold on a second aim isnt it too feminine ? well i have a simple trick for that too just draw the line between the side and the middle of the body and use it to draw the side of the body it needs a little more practic but its fast enough to learn.
3/4
hope it helped a little this technique connect the neck a little better than beginner tend to do it but its not perfect you still need to be critic to your own work and correct if anything look edgy.
Question of weight? (new part)Now you know how to do my base but you might want to have a little more meat on the bones not every character have athletic shapes here's an easy way to had a little weight to your character
It was an easier vrsion of the base i usually do
Hope it helps you If there is anything you dont understand ask me ill try to answer my best! Next tutorial will be about the torso on profile view.