3 Arm proportion

Our third and final proportion relates to the arms. The first element to consider is that the upper arm ends almost exactly at the bottom of the ribcage. When drawing, we can always consider the arc the arm would make back to the torso to easily check if this proportion works in our drawing.

If we consider the halfway point of the arm at the elbow, the forearm is slightly shorter than the upper arm. In fact, the lower arm all the way up to the knuckles of the hand is the same length as the upper arm.

The easiest way to remember this is to consider how, if you bend you arm, your knuckles will end up at the top of your shoulder.

The length of the upper arm allows us to transfer the weight into the stronger ribcage, making it easier to carry things!

The arm halving at the shoulder is just the right size to let us carry things over our shoulder. Any smaller or larger and this wouldn’t work.