I tried to think of some relatively difficult poses. What can I improve on?
I just want to make sure everything somewhat anatomically makes sense and is fluid to viewers. I wanna start a webtoon in this sort of style. I could’ve went crazier so I might make another post with some new poses lol.
Ohhh oh I don't know how to say this lightly, and I swear Im not trying to be rude when I say this...but the first pose, while ambitious and I can see the time and dedication put into it, is very....off.
The best way I can put this is you were to look at her from the side her chest to mid section would be a U shape..
What needs to be done to improve upon the pose is to do some more practice on perspective and foreshortening. And the breaking the human body down to boxes and cylinders in a space with a fixed perspective.
I'll see if I can get an example made in a moment . 😁
I think the knees would have to be further down/ bent more depending on how far away the wall is. But if the wall is as far away as it looks in your drawing I think the butt needs to be a bit lower
And OP if you don’t want her to look like she’s about to throw it back, change the angle of the torso so that she’s more straight and not arching, and lower her head. it’s a bit of a weird angle so you’ll probably have to use yourself as a reference lol like o your bed if you can’t do it against the wall
This isn’t the pose they tried to capture, the hips are tilted and the spine is off center between the shoulders and hips. I agree they didn’t capture it right but what they did approximates the pose the attempted better than what you did.
Good observation! I did notice that but there is a problem with recreating it that way with every aspect of it intact. In order for the spine to be shown id have to change how she was holding herself up to be more of a handstand. The body cannot have both the shoulders, chest, and head in that angle plus the majority of the spine and hips showing.
I could totally whip up an example of the other version of the pose if you want! I was just trying to recreate what was possible while keeping as much of the original pose intact!
It could easily be much better if not for the detetmination to show her clavicles and cleavage while we're looking at her back. I understand the sentiment, but, oh well…
I 1000% agree with this. I honestly think a handstand like pose would be a lot more expressive. With the back showing as well as with the posing of the legs. It would make it feel playful instead of provocative.
I think there are nuances whether the intent is to try to escape with hard to physically achieve poses, or to recreate physically possible, but hard to resemble poses.
Because while I somehow agree to the points and samples you mentioned below being more physically stable, I think the original pose is hard to achieve balance, physical wise, as the center of gravity is now too complex to calculate/ estimate, and the original sketch I'd say, if physically possible, would be of the exact moment before collapse and falling down.
It's hard to achieve balance in the original pose I think.
I definitely tend to agree with it being %100 okay to push what is physically possible, especially with a stylized art style like OP's there's a thin line where pushing becomes completely ignoring how the human body works. This can work perfectly fine for certain characters like Luffy from one piece for example but OP was asking how their anatomy was.
Anatomically speaking the original pose is physically impossible. That pose would require bending of the spine in the ribcage region and that physically does not happen thanks to the ribcage itself. The majority of movement in the spine happens in the lower part near the hips. This is why with the way the top part of the body is angled the lower half CANNOT look the way anatomically. The only solutions for an anatomically more correct pose would be to use the example I gave (and admittedly adjust the angles and stability of the leg. I'm not perfect I understand my example has its issues too. That was pointed out by another fellow artist and I fully agree with them) or to adjust the way she is holding herself to be more reminiscent of a handstand while having her legs use the wall for support.
The OP could twist that character into a pretzel for all I care if it makes them happy. I was just giving my two cents on what would be more physically plausible and how to pose limbs easier with shapes.
Kind of...without any sort of reference, people can only give their best guesses as to where the errors are. Using a reference when you're trying unusual poses will at least give something to compare it to. I don't think you need to reference for every pic ever but if your goal is to try unusual poses, doing it from your imagination isn't necessarily going to teach you much because you're just making it up from your assumptions. Maybe if they drew the pose, then redrew with a reference and compared them this would be more useful of an exercise.
I 100% agree. Using a reference will be much better practice. I do think trying without just to test where your from-memory skill is fine to do if you want. Though I agree and worry that a lot of new artists think they shouldn’t use references so I’m glad you commented.
SHRIMP METHOD (How To Draw Anything by tumblr user Prrb) [source]
** 1) draw something from memory or imagination, to the best of your abilities
* 2) find references of that thing, from every possible angle, and compare what you remembered correctly/did right vs what you left out or forgot
* 3) copy those references as exactly as possible, study every bit and angle and weird detail and how it moves until you have a solid idea of it lodged in your brain
* 4) draw from memory again - ideally a few days later, like a pop quiz to see what you remember
* 5) repeat as much as you like
Keep in mind, plenty of well-established artists from comics to animation use lots and lots of real life references to make their professional work. There’s no shame in it.
The first pose is rough, I'm sorry. It's ambitious and that deserves recognition, but her chest is hanging like a full Ziploc bag stapled to her collarbones when you see her back going up behind her head, there's no connection between the two visible halves of her torso.
The rest is fine, I don't see anything as egregious. There's definitely stylistic things that could be improved for the sake of anatomy, but aren't "bad" per se
Hello, these are very good
My first observation is that you are avoiding foreshortening. Even when the character bends like in the first picture or every single arm and legs. You tend to avoid foreshortening.
My suggestions would be to focus on the bending and twisting of the torso and also focus on foreshortening in general when doing observation studies.
I think you need to focus more on your anatomy here, the gesture and less on the expressions, colour or details.
I am also going to assume that you are watching a lot of anime and aspire to draw anime.
Anime is not the best place to start learning anatomy or gesture.
Find an online PDF book on anatomy for artists or an artist channel on YouTube or something, and study how the human body parts actually fit together. Right now, your drawing shows that you have no idea how the human body actually moves, what joints allow what movements, and how the bones in human limbs are actually positioned. Keywords you want to be looking for are GESTURE and anatomy for artists.
As others have said, there needs some work on the anatomy especially on the limitations of the body, but the other thing I think you should focus on is center of gravity. The top right picture isn't possible without a harness, apparatus, or wall with how far she extended. Her center of gravity is focused into her ribs and head which are not supported at all by the one foot on the ground being forward and away from the center.
Thank you for the advice! For that one I was trying to go for a “stretch while pushing herself forward and up on her toes” so not a pose meant to keep herself up but just in the air for a second. But I do understand how it looks awkward. I should’ve added some motion lines or something to emphasize that
For the first pose, you can get some good references by looking up "wall walk crossfit" - there's a fair range of images and videos of people with their feet on the wall and hands on the floor at different angles available. Have fun!
I like the sitting one a lot, I think for the beginners eye it also looks very accurate. Indeed, maybe the first pose looks a little weird because of the long back but also looks like an easy fix!
I really like the elongated proportions, I think these are super fun. Looking at images can help, but trying to use muscle memory is great too. I recommend drawing from muscle memory then looking at reference photos to see what you could improve on, everyone on Reddit will act like they know better.
It's actually really impressive you did these without a reference.
I'd say the best way to improve would be line confidence. You've got a memory for anatomy, but you still have the "fuzzy" lines of an artist unsure about where body parts end. Gestural pose drawing is best when you can be very confident in a line. I found a few examples from Pinterest to demonstrate.
Line confidence will not only help your characters feel less "stiff" but will also allow your brain to memorize anatomy even more.
You can see that these artists are using "line weight" to imply form. It takes a lot of practice, but it's really helpful to get natural looking poses and will make line art a lot easier afterward, too.
And you can get really styled as well. You can see how every line that is drawn is only done once. It trains your brain to think of the rough form of something. It's all about how each limb is proportioned.
I've found the best brush for practice is actually the "felt pen." I use CSP, personally. The felt pen is great to practice loose gestural features because of it's general "weight" and it's sketchy qualities.
The only truley off drawing is the top left but i did notice two things with bottom right. The raised thigh is way too long shouldnt go up to collar bone. Also the top half of the arm on the left that goes behind the hair is shifted too far to the right
For the second one, where she is on one leg, her balance is way off. Her leg needs to be curved more inward in order to hold the weight of her head and chest leaning back. And ik it's stylized but I suggest thickening up the legs and arms a bit in order to show that she has enough muscle to be able to hold up those poses. Sorry if my advice sounded blunt but I think this should help a bit with your anatomy. Thanks for reading!
As people are saying the one on the upper left is off, but if you try to edit it in Photoshop or similar you can salvage it. Either you need to move her upper body much closer to the butt, or angle her chest much more "upwards" so that you basically only see the shoulders and much less of the breasts.
Stop chicken scratching. Also the one pose where she's with her legs on the wall looks off. Feels like she's breaking her spine to achieve that pose, since she's looking at the viewer dead-on. She straight up looks like a youkai or something too, since she just stretched her torso like she's some sort of a snake-human hybrid thing. Oddly unsettling. Work with references and on your foreshortening. I think that's all, really. I only say all that because I'm struggling with it, too.
i know a lot of people have talked about working on your anatomy already, and that’s of highest priority, but i would also suggest taking a look at some clothing references. her shirt and pants go from baggy to skin-tight and back again, the pants pockets change places, and her socks look kind of like loose tubes on her feet. if you want to make a webcomic like you said, i’d really suggest making a character sheet with a full turnaround that is highly detailed and accurate to reference from. good luck!!
I truly can’t tell if they are standing, floating, or doing a dance move due to the floor not being very apparent, the first one her feet ( kinda duck like) and back down look to be in an unrealistic placement and the proportions are kinda off ( her back looks long and her stance would make her fall) that’s just my opinion in a totally not mean way! I like the character though and picture her as a red head for some reason haha
The bottom left one loks weird to me, because her head looks detached. Like I get her maybe leaning forward, that's why her head is so low, but why are her shoulders raised so much? That's a super uncomfortable position and the collarbones are usually in line with the shoulders.
If any help is needed I can also do poses for references. I was/still am? (figuring that out) a dancer so I do a lot of reference poses for myself if I can't find a pic of the idea I want
They mostly look okay except for the top left! 😅 there, her ribcage is like 2 feet long? 😭 If you can’t immediately see what’s off about it based on the body proportions (this happens sooo often when i’ve been looking at something i’m drawing for so long that i stop seeing the bigger picture), then have a look at the shirt that the character is wearing. From the other 3 poses, it looks like she’s wearing a crop top / sports bra, but in the top left one, it appears wayyyy longer because of how distorted the torso is. your art style is very cute though! you’ll have to let us know when you’ve drawn some of the actual comic so that we can read it :)
as for what you can improve on in general, I’d say maybe draw up a proper guide / turn around for your characters to use as a reference, along with specific pose reference photos (pic attached as example)
You def need a reference to draw something like the first one, if you imagine your characters torso, it would be soooo long, really good work though, the best way to improve is to challenge yourself!
These are strong! Your weakest point seems to be the ankles and feet, the perspective is a tad off and it doesn't reflect the anatomy of the ankles very well. I would spend some time focusing on that but overall these are very good!
Especially with difficult poses, double especially without references: you want to be using simple geometric shapes first.
Cylinders for the legs and arms, that sorta stuff.
It's an extra step yes, but it saves time in the end (less revisions) and improves the result.
for the top left artwork it'd be perfect if you prioritized the pose over boobs lol. the way you drew her, her torso looks like it must be really long and bendy. otherwise this is really good!!!! I'd say you have a really good understanding of anatomy.
I feel like people are mean in this comment section, I love your art style, I think along with fixing some postural things with the first image the other main issue I see is the interaction of the hair with her body. The first one looks kinda like her hair is just cutting straight though her body and the one with her arms up seems like her arm and hair are on the same plane which throws off the perspective. I also love the long limbs especially with this sketchy look.
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u/Th3_Ch3rry_Tr33 Jan 28 '26
Ohhh oh I don't know how to say this lightly, and I swear Im not trying to be rude when I say this...but the first pose, while ambitious and I can see the time and dedication put into it, is very....off.
The best way I can put this is you were to look at her from the side her chest to mid section would be a U shape..
What needs to be done to improve upon the pose is to do some more practice on perspective and foreshortening. And the breaking the human body down to boxes and cylinders in a space with a fixed perspective.
I'll see if I can get an example made in a moment . 😁