The head on the neck and shoulders

Like any other body part, the neck varies immensely, from the skinny reed of a seven year-old kid to the thick and muscular column of a weightlifter. A woman’s neck tends to be more round and smooth, a man’s more muscular. As we get older the muscles can become more obvious. Despite these variations the basic structure is the same in everyone.

To fully understand the neck we need to consider the shoulders too, since it sits inside their bony structure. We often include the shoulders as part of a portrait, so they belong to any thorough study of drawing the head.

When your subject is clothed, you may not be able to see their neck and shoulders, but you need to be aware of them even so. At other times, you will need to draw them, and for that you need to understand them.

Structure

As we’ve already seen, the head and neck reduced to their most basic forms are an egg upon a cylinder. For a more detailed understanding of those forms we must study the underlying bones and muscles.

Bones

We have already studied the human skull, so let’s focus on the bones of the neck and shoulders. The illustration below shows the top section of a skeleton (this one is male): click to enlarge.

The width of the neck is defined by the top part of the ribcage. When we look at the ribcage we usually see the full width at the breast and don’t notice how narrow it is at the top.

The spine and neck

The skull sits atop the spine or backbone, a flexible column made of individual bones called vertebrae. We’ll discuss the spine in full another time, but in the neck there are seven cervical vertebrae (that’s ‘cervical’ meaning ‘pertaining to the neck’ – nothing to do with a woman’s cervix!) which provide support for the skull and are the most flexible, to allow movement. The top vertebra is known as the ‘atlas’, because it holds up the skull. The upper six vertebrae are usually hard to see, but the seventh is fairly prominent (hence its nickname vertebra prominens), making it a useful landmark on the back of the neck. You can think of it as simultaneously the bottom of the neck and the top of the ribcage.

The hyoid bone is shaped like a horse-shoe with a couple of little horns. It sits between the chin and the thyroid cartilage and helps swallowing and tongue movements, as well as acting as a muscle attachment point. The hyoid is unique as it’s the only bone that doesn’t connect directly to any other. One can’t normally see the hyoid, but it is useful to be aware of it as a landmark where the bottom plane of the jaw meets the column of the neck.

The back of the head bulges out where the occipital bone forms the bottom base of the skull. Centred on this bone is the external occipital protuberance, a bump where the muscles that hold the head upright attach. You can feel it on the back of your head with your fingers.

The shoulder girdle

The arms connect to the torso using a ring of bones known collectively as the shoulder girdle or sometimes the pectoral girdle. (The other girdle in the body is the pelvic girdle.) This part of the body is highly mobile. Here is a view from above:

The shoulder girdle is comprised of the two clavicles (collarbones) and the two scapulae (shoulder blades). The clavicle and scapula form a kind of V-shape on either shoulder, with the neck sitting in the middle.

We could also consider the top of the sternum as part of the structure. The sternum or breastbone is a thick bone with three parts. The top section, called the manubrium, has the jugular notch in the upper middle to which the sternomastoid muscles attach.

Image: Anatomography (Wikimedia Commons)
link

The clavicles are long bones that lie horizontally at the base of the neck, crossing the top of the rib cage. They connect at one end to the manubrium of the sternum and at the other to the scapula via a bony protrusion called the acromion process. The clavicles often look like straight lines because of our viewpoint, but the bones have an S-curve, starting on the breast and turning around the shape of the neck – similar to bicycle handlebars, as you can see in the animation on the right. Men’s clavicles are more horizontal, whereas women’s are a bit shorter, less curved, and point slightly downwards, making the neck seem longer.

The scapula or shoulder blade is a large, triangular bone that moves quite freely across the upper back. We needn’t discuss it in detail here, though you should be aware it contributes massively to the movement of the shoulder. There is a projection arching over from the back called the spine of the scapula, which partially overhangs the arm socket and ends at the acromion. The upper arm has a single bone called the humerus, whose head connects to a cavity in the scapula as a ball-and-socket joint, forming the corner of the shoulder. On the front of the scapula there is another, hook-like projection called the coracoid process which combines with the acromion to stabilise the shoulder joint. The shoulders are the widest part of the torso.

Parts of these bones show as visible bumps on the body. For example the clavicles are easy to see full-length under the skin. Note the point just short of the shoulder where the meeting of the chest muscles with the shoulder muscles creates a depression, making the clavicle especially stand out (marked A below). We often see a bump on the shoulder where the clavicle meets the acromion process (B).

To draw the subtleties of the forms and planes around the shoulders, try to learn as much as you can about these bones. Odd as it seems, if you don’t know something is there, you often can’t draw it well, even when it’s right in front of you!

Muscles

Take another look at my illustration of the muscles of the head and neck. The hyoid bone is a useful landmark for the muscles of the neck, because there is a set of muscles that go up from the hyoid and another set that goes down. Rather than discuss every last one, I’ll concentrate on the ones that have most impact on the neck’s appearance and action. We may simplify them thus:

The sternomastoid adds a
diagonal to the neck

The most prominent of the muscles are the sternomastoids (or sternocleidomastoids – ‘sterno’ for the sternum, ‘cleido’ for the clavicle). They attach to the skull at the mastoid process, an important muscle insertion point just behind the ears. They then go down the neck to insert on the manubrium of the sternum at the front base of the neck. This creates a strong diagonal from the side view and a distinctive V-shape from the front.

At the bottom the muscle divides into two heads: a tapered sternal head that attaches to the top of the sternum, and a broad, flat clavicular head that attaches to the clavicle and marks the outer boundary of the cylinder of the neck. It’s important to know about these two heads if you’re drawing in any detail, because they are visibly separate forms (the sternal head is the more obvious of the two):

The gap between the two sternal heads is known as the suprasternal notch or, colloquially, the pit of the neck. Sitting on the middle line between the two collar bones, this forms a useful landmark. Note that although the clavicles and manubrium are directly connected, their articulation points are obscured by those two pairs of sternomastoid tendons.

The V-shape contains the thyroid cartilage, which is part of the trachea (or wind pipe) and houses the larynx. There are several structures here that affect the visible surface of the neck. The most important feature is a bump or protrusion on the thyroid cartilage called the laryngeal prominence, commonly known as the Adam’s apple. It sits nearer to the chin than to the sternum, and is usually more prominent in men than in women, because their deeper voices require larger voice boxes. Note however that ‘more prominent’ does not mean women don’t have them. Adam’s apples are similar-sized in children until puberty when they become bigger in boys.

Below it you may see a second bump created by the thyroid gland, which is more developed in women than in men.

Inside the V-shape we also find the pair of sternohyoid muscles. These thin muscles originate on the sternum and attach to the hyoid bone, running down either side of the thyroid cartilage. They start to become visible in middle age as the skin and tissue thin out, and can be quite prominent in old people – search out some photos online and you’ll see what I mean.

The paired semispinalis capitalis muscles flow down to the spinal column and provide much of the mass at the back of the neck. However, these are hidden beneath the trapezius, which holds the head up and tilts and turns it. This large muscle is the dominant muscular form we can see on the back. It extends to the spine of the scapula on either side and halfway down the back, but the upper fibres also wrap over the shoulders to the front of the body, attaching to the lateral third of the clavicle. The animation below will help you visualise it:

Image: Was a bee (Wikimedia Commons): link

In front, we end up with a triangular depression or hollow on either side between the trapezius and the main column of the neck. This is called the supraclavicular fossa, and is particularly noticeable when the subject leans forward.

It’s worth noting that the muscle groups in the neck create a couple of natural divisions that anatomists call the ‘triangles of the neck’. The triangular area at the front, inside the two sternomastoids and between the chin and the pit of the neck, is known as the anterior triangle of the neck. On either side, there is an area from the edge of the trapezius to the edge of the sternomastoid known as the posterior triangle of the neck, an area which includes the hollow we just mentioned above. These divisions are used by anatomists to help understand the structure, contents and relationships of the neck.

I shan’t look at the shoulder muscles (the deltoids) here because we’ll only have to repeat ourselves when we study the arm as a whole.

Constructing the neck and shoulders

How can we use all this anatomical information in a practical way?

Let’s construct a basic working model. The neck is a cylinder supporting the egg-shape of the head upon the egg-shape of the ribcage. Because of the natural curve of the spine, the neck leans slightly forward in relation to the ribcage. The neck is wider at the top, narrower at the bottom, and note the angle: the back of the neck is higher than the front.

From this model, we can place the neck correctly within its context, namely the shoulder girdle. In his book Figure Drawing – Design and Invention, Michael Hampton suggests thinking of the shoulder girdle as a block structure that sits upon the rib cage – he likens it to the shoulder pads worn by American football players:

You won’t necessarily need to sketch this every time. It should help, however, to be aware of it, as it will make your drawings more three-dimensional.

Now we can build up the forms of the neck itself.

We can think of the sternomastoids and clavicles as cylinders – the sternomastoids taper at the bottom and the clavicles resemble the handlebars of a bicycle. In front, just under the chin, we note the prominence of the thyroid cartilage – think of it as a block. At the back, the trapezius forms two columns or cylinders on either side of the spine, with a hollow inbetween, and then changes direction as it heads across the shoulder. Don’t forget the triangular hollow created in front. 

Seeing the head in these simple formal terms also helps us understand how the neck will be affected by light. I’m not going to study light on the neck specifically, but of course the light, or absence of it, will determine what we see. On some models, the shadow in that region might be so heavy that none of the details we’re discussing can be seen! 

The forms are flexible, of course, so next we must consider how they behave when in motion.

Motion

When studying the motion of the head, imagine a pivot inside the neck cylinder, at the top of the spine and under the skull. This pivot acts like a ball and socket joint, allowing the head a wide range of movements forward, back and side to side.

As we move, our muscles change shape as they contract or expand, so look out for differences in how the neck bulges to help you convey those tensions. The neck muscles are more obvious when they are straining and bulging in motion. Note how there may be a compression on one side (A), and a stretching on the other (B).

When we tip our heads back, the neck too gets squeezed, forming a crease and bulge at the base of the skull. When we tip our heads forward, the thyroid cartilage drops into the neck, hiding the Adam’s apple.

Keep thinking of basic forms – for example the sternomastoid is much easier to draw when we think of it as a cylinder snaking around a larger cylinder.

Tips on drawing the neck and shoulders

As usual with muscles, on average they are less prominent on women. Children and young women in particular will have smooth, rounded necks where the features are subtle, whereas old people’s necks can get very scraggly (making them much more fun to draw).

The most important thing about the neck is its basic cylindrical form. Don’t exaggerate muscles just because you know they are there. You may know that the sternomastoid has a sternal head and a clavicular head and that it attaches just behind the ear, but on your model these features may not show, depending on the position of the head and other factors. You might only see a couple of tendons at the jugular notch and that’s it.

On the other hand, when the forms are not especially clear on the subject, you may want to emphasise them for the sake of clarifying what’s going on. These decisions are down to the artist’s judgement.

It’s when the sternomastoid is being used, and the head is tilting or turning, that it really pops into view. For example when the head turns left, it’s the right-hand sternomastoid that stands out, and vice versa. This isn’t obvious in a diagram but on a live model you will notice the difference. Notice in my line drawing below how the right-hand muscle stands out strongly whereas the left-hand one barely appears.

In this drawing, notice too how the line below the chin flows down to the pit of the neck. 

When someone turns to look over their shoulder, the trapezius overlaps the neck (A) and the skin wrinkles at the twist (B).

Sometimes you may observe the external jugular vein on either side of the neck. These are blood vessels that convey deoxygenated blood from the head to the heart; there’s an internal jugular as well, but as the name suggests, you won’t see it on the surface. The jugular veins are large and carry a lot of blood, so if someone is heavily exerting themselves they may stand out on the neck.

What to do

Once you’ve studied the muscles, try drawing the head in various positions, showing the muscles.

Then paint lots of necks. Use photo references, or take a good look at your own neck or ideally that of a live subject (or three). In this article I’ve suggested a standard ‘model’ for drawing the neck and shoulders that you can call upon whenever you draw one. However you don’t want all the people you draw to look the same. People’s necks vary according to all the usual considerations – their sex, their age, how thin or fat they are, what facial expression they’re pulling, and so on. You need to observe your subject and notice what makes them individual, what makes them a particular variation upon the human theme.