Comic Genesis Forums

Yeah, i need help with poses. The characters in my soon-to-be-up-and-running comic have all been very static so far. I want to cure myself of this before putting up any more of my work. (Especially considering the large amount of action scenes that will be involved from time to time...)My characters pretty much look like they got a fencepost down the back of their shirts, it's that bad...

Can anyone at least point me in the right direction?

Ooh, actually I do have an idea for this (not that my comic does many poses, but...)

Get a friend and a cheap digital camera. You ACT OUT the action you want and have your friend photograph it midway from the angle you want to draw it at.

Then, use the photo as a guide.

It won't much help for flying actions, but it'll keep you from posing your characters in something that the human body can't reasonably pose.

Try to sketch a lot of various poses in stick-figures and then try to draw a character over them. Stick figures are very liberating for action poses.

Watch lotsa campy Hong Kong-style action flicks. I cannot stress this enough!

I suppose you could just watch regular action flicks, but they're nowhere near as animated as their Eastern counterparts. Martial arts films go through nearly the entire spectrum of human movement.... and some crap that just can't happen.

I second mcDuffies in the drawing of stick figures in movement.

Heh thanks folks. These all sound like great ideas, and next chance I get, I'll try them. Especially the photo-op trick. I have a reasonably powerful digital camera that would be great for this sorta stuff ^_^

I remember seeing an article on Paul Chadwick where he said he actually hired actors to stand and around pose while he took Polaroids. Then he drew his panels from that. I thought that was pretty involved.

I sure as hell can't afford actors, and my Kerie just gives me one of those looks when I ask her to pose, so now I just manhandle either the elderly, children, or the homeless. Anyone without a lobbyist will do.

You know, MANY people have already done what you've suggested and posted the results online. The problem is, these poses won't be found on a single site and certainly won't all be the same quality. Be asured that high quality images every part of the human body do exist online and can be found if you look in the right place.