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Shoulder VS Elbow

10:43 PM, Wednesday March 24th 2021

So while doing the homework and trying to take everything learned into consideration, I'm trying to use my arm more, which is easier than the wrist for me. However, the issue I'm having, and possibly something I'm not understanding, is using the shoulder to draw. While doing the Ghosted Planes or any line so far, I can't seem to stray from using the elbow. To me personally, I feel like the shoulder has a much larger range for a larger drawing area, but trying to use the shoulder to draw something that's not even the size of my palm seems difficult.

I guess I'm wondering if this is an issue? Obviously certain parts of the arm will be used for certain things, including the wrist, but for these exercises, I find it incredibly awkward to use the shoulder rather than the elbow joint. I'm not chicken scratching and I'm focusing a lot on the flow, the wrist isn't being used, so is there something I'm missing? Or is it more important that I don't use my wrist?

I have watched the videos on the lessons and read through the pages, but wanted to know others' experience with this as well and to see if there's anything I'm not exactly getting. Sometimes I don't comprehend things easily and need further explaining. Thank you all ahead of time.

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2 users agree
11:13 PM, Wednesday March 24th 2021

Drawing from the shoulder to me means that the shoulder is not locked in place. It can freely move in conjunction with the elbow and wrist. It helps you to not rest heavily on your surface to draw.

Take the simple act of drawing a 6 cm circle on paper in one fluid motion. Your shoulder provides most of the range of motion required. The elbow compensates a little for the shoulder and the wrist is essentially locked. If you lock your shoulder you can't draw it. The same can also apply to straight lines or curves. The shoulder does the heavy lifting, the elbow fine tunes and the wrist is essentially locked.

It takes practice because you are not used to using your shoulder this way. Strength and control take time to build. The good thing is that it scales and allows you to draw bigger shapes much more confidently .

I have got to the stage where I barely think about it now but I still do my shoulder warmups every day. I follow these exercises. I have started doing them on my Cintiq and iPad Pro as well as paper. Paper and sharpie is still the best practice though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjLC4W4HHw4

11:30 PM, Wednesday March 24th 2021

Thank you very much for the reply. After looking at this video and the comments, it seemed he posted a video of him showing how to draw from the shoulder as well. I apparently already do this and just never really understood it (I originally thought it HAD to be JUST the shoulder and nothing else). Thank you very much for introducing me to this video. It helped immensely!

11:50 PM, Wednesday March 24th 2021

Cool. I think that may be a common misunderstanding. It really just means the motion is driven from the shoulder and is necessary to teach because many people who start drawing mainly rest their hand on the surface and draw using small, wrist or elbow movements.

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