Poses are my kryptonite

[MoonlightRequiem]

Let me just say one thing... HELP!

Ok, I'm probably one of the worst people ever at poses. I can't think them up and even on the rare occasion that I can, they turn out utterly putrid. Soo... I'm asking for help on poses.

How do you think of poses?
Do you know of any good pose reference or anatomy resources?
Any tips on perspective you can give me?
Can you help me with anything? (I'm always looking for ways to improve my art.)

Danke.

[Smight]

thumb through this guy.

http://d538518.u320.bigcrawler.com/FigureDrawing/7.htm

and get yourself a little wooden pose guy.

[MoonlightRequiem]

thumb through this guy.

http://d538518.u320.bigcrawler.com/FigureDrawing/7.htm

and get yourself a little wooden pose guy.

Thank you! ^_^

I've got one of the pose dolls, but he isn't flexible enough... I'm going to have to break out some cash and buy a larger one. The kind without the stick in there bum.

[LAGtheNoggin]

For perspective:
DrawThrough.com very good ellipses tutorial.

As for poses, ah, I have that problem too. I recommend looking at pictures of people, people that tell storys, people with movement, comics even, pausing movies is good too, or try and imagine the poses you see frozen in your mind. Just study people, I guess. Trying to fit the pose to emotions is useful to do too, I find poses are all about emotion.

Other than that, a full length mirror oftens helps me out of a tight spot. Animators swear by them.

[MoonlightRequiem]

Thank you too.

I wish I had a full length mirror. I find that if I stand about 15 feet back from my mirror, I can see most of myself. I'll try using that more often.

[Dburkhead]

I use several sources for poses:

- Sports magazines
- fashion magazines
- Myself and a camcorder
- Books
The Human Figure by David K. Rubins
Atlas of Foreshortening by Cody and Tribell
- male and female 12" artist mannequins
- and, most recently, a copy of Poser 4

[Grey_the_angel]

also, take pictures of yourself or look at yourself in a mirror. that helps me with simple details. 8)

[Faub]

Try to imitate what your characters are doing. If you're drawing a hand a certain way, try the pose. If it doesn't feel natural, erase and try again.

[Zhan_Dvega]

Get a digital camera with a timer, take a picture of yourself doing that pose, then use it as a reference. (Trace over yourself with a stick figure or blocks to even better understand the post :D)

[Faub]

One of the problems I've seen in a lot of places is that the artist doesn't account for the mass of limbs or the torso when making a pose. They try to fit the pose into a nice, convenience frame. The limbs may get flattened, shortened or chopped off to make it fit.

For example, I've seen characters who cross their arms and their upper arm points straight down or is flat against the side. Doing this would be quite painful actually. The upper arm should stick out from the side and be angled more toward the front of the body.

I've seen characters squatting where the knee is conveniently shortened so that it doesn't cover the character's chest.

Just take into account that arms and legs are basically cylinders. They don't squash or shorten. If you draw the character standing you can measure the limbs and even when those limbs are bend they should still be the same length as before (assuming the same size drawing).

[Grey_the_angel]

One of the problems I've seen in a lot of places is that the artist doesn't account for the mass of limbs or the torso when making a pose. They try to fit the pose into a nice, convenience frame. The limbs may get flattened, shortened or chopped off to make it fit.

For example, I've seen characters who cross their arms and their upper arm points straight down or is flat against the side. Doing this would be quite painful actually. The upper arm should stick out from the side and be angled more toward the front of the body.

I've seen characters squatting where the knee is conveniently shortened so that it doesn't cover the character's chest.

Just take into account that arms and legs are basically cylinders. They don't squash or shorten. If you draw the character standing you can measure the limbs and even when those limbs are bend they should still be the same length as before (assuming the same size drawing).

actually, if you notice, the arms arch forward. they tilt all the way behind to behind the back. so the arms aren't actually moving forward, but are curving in a clockwise arc.

[Zuri]

The idea behind a pose is that it is ment to be as much a part of the story telling as the facial expression or dialogue. So the first thing you are going to have to ask yourself is " what am I trying to say here?"

Ask yourself, what is the mood I want to convey? Is the character sad? happy? thoughtful? depressed? Each emotion has specific body language associated with it which is a part of the pose and influences ultimately what the final pose will be.

Once you've established the mood, then you have to look at actual anatomy and real life. You have a number of options here.
1) Do anatomy studies. Learn how the body is put together. start at the bones and work your way up to the muscles then the skin over them. Learning how the body is built allows you to manipulate it.
2) Use reference. Find magazines, books, internet photos, pose guides, etc, to find the pose you need and work from the reference. ( google image search is a marvelous thing)
3) Get friends to act out the scene and take digital photos and work from those. ( I've done this particularly for action scenes.)
4) Sit in the mirror and examine yourself. Work on each part as you need it.

Once you get the basic idea down, try to exadurate it a little. This will add more movement and generally makes it look less 'stiff' to the viewer.

Ultimately there is no substitute for practice using the above methods. I have a few books I reference frequently. Drawing comics the Marvel way was one I used a lot for dynamic poses, Drawing the Dynamic Figure, and Drawing Anime Battles are all good ones for motion.

[MoonlightRequiem]

Thanks everyone for your help. It's all very interesting and I'm definately keeping these tips in mind. ^_^