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Even if you’re not an artist, it’s important to understand the way pecs work — for science.

Everyone knows the fascination some people have with anime boobs, whether they be flat as a pancake or gravity-defyingly balloon-like, but what about the male equivalent? With popular anime like Free! and the plethora of otome games where each character has to get shirtless at least once, the male form has its fair share of admirers in the otaku world.

But it seems that not all artists are equipped to deal with illustrating them.

Twitter user wahrheit79chris, an artist and self-confessed muscle maniac, voiced their concern over some artists’ treatment of the precious male pectoral muscles, saying:

“Since the pecs change shape based on the up and down movement of the arms, for those who have trouble drawing them it might be best to focus more on…studying how the pectoral muscles stretch and contract. I feel like a lot of people who have problems with muscles have a tendency to just draw the pecs as a square…” 

They posted this rough sketch to show how enlarged pectoral muscles are squished together by the muscles in the arms to create “cleavage”, just like the breasts on a woman.

https://twitter.com/wahrheit79chris/status/709316565754228737

Next they provided a few helpful sketches of different types of pecs, and asked us to note the placement of the shadows.

https://twitter.com/wahrheit79chris/status/709333038312792068

Here’s a brief description of what’s going on in each picture:

Top-left: “Normal type”. The standard macho body type, these are the easiest to get the hang of.
Top-right: “Kung-fu type”. A tighter, leaner chest, like the kind boasted by martial arts star Jet Li.
Bottom-center: “Nice boobs type”. These pecs are very full in the center, with the nipples pointing downwards.

So there you have it: masculine chests come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and they’re more pliable than you might think. It’s great to see the male form getting even more appreciation in the manga world, but perhaps some variation beyond “insanely ripped” would be nice to see in the future. Until then, I’m off to find a model for “artistic research purposes”.

You can check out more drawing tips and tricks in our other articles here.

Source: Togech
Images: Twitter/@wahrheit79chris