The Secret of Dynamic Poses

[Bernie]

I've been trying to work on my poses and foreshortening, something you need to be able to do if you wanna do certain poses. But I'm still not very happy with the results.

How can I get better at this, any suggestions? Are there any special excercises that would help?

Here's what I got so far:

[DarkArtist]

Are you sure you are not really here just to show off how awsome you are?

That is very nice work and the foreshortening looks great and is well past what I myself can manage.

If you want more pratice I always suggest getting a poseable artist's model doll and use that to draw from. It really helps me to have a 3D object to work off of.

[ZOMBIE USER 17345]

For the running pose, I would have tried to make it look as if the left knee was ahead of his foot. Right now it looks more like he can't bend his leg.

[Bernie]

That's a good idea, thanks! That's the sort of info I'm looking for.

DarkArtist - It was pointed out in my other threads that some of my drawings were stiff, so I'm trying to fix that, that's all. :3 The doll seems like a good idea, I'm gonna look for one of those.

Is there anything else that looks weird, not proportional or stiff?
Thanks~

[Taiwanimation]

If you get one of those wooden things, test it out if you can... not all of them have the same flexibility, and their joints work noticeably different from humans, f'example, mine can turn his head 360 degrees, but can't bend his knee more than 90.

[Faub]

Your characters seem to stick their chests out in a kind of superhero pose. It makes them square their shoulders and straighten their backs. While there's nothing wrong with the pose itself, it does look like a pose. (Although I did know a couple people in highschool who walked around like that all the time. There were comments that they would hurt themselves if they kept doing it.) Try drawing the character slouched or inspecting something at his feet.

I don't see anything wrong with your proportions other than maybe your character has a bull neck but that's nothing to complain about. The fact you can make toes look like toes is a bit disturbing but I think that's just feelings of inadequacy coming from my side of the screen.

[YarpsDat]

Secret of dynamic poses? Beats me.
But I have one idea: stand in a cool pose, prefferably in front of a mirror, draw. Tadam!

[Bernie]

Haha, that's a good idea! As long as nobody watches while I do that I'll be fine...

Faub: Slouchy, eh? I'll give that a go. The neck... yeah, it's a bit too big for a kid like that, I'll just make it a tad more slim. Thanks!

[ZOMBIE USER 16849]

My only complaint is that the two sixteenth notes from his humming are facing the wrong direction!!! AHHHH!! *beats self with bat* Nice work though.

[CorruptDictatorNumber2]

The foreshortening looks okay to me on all of them, except for the marching/running one. (VileTerror called it running, but I think it looks like marching. Whatever.) One of those legs needs to be bent; I'd say whichever is in front, because making the front leg straight looks more like a leap, and people who run by leaping look really funny. (I tried this out.) If he's marching, his legs look fine, but his torso may be tilted a little too far forward. Also, the pant leg on that front leg is a strange shape--I don't think you'd be able to see inside it that well. This is a case for the mirror, tho, because I don't know exactly how it should be. Something feels odd about his arm/arms...I think they're too close to his side. If he's running, his right fist should be up higher, as should his left elbow. If he's marching, it's probably okay, but maybe still a little odd because his right forearm is coming straight out.

Those are indeed some might awesome toes.

On the pointing picture, the hand poses look a little stiff because they're contrived. Bending all my fingers that far hurts my hand. Use your own hands as models when you're drawing just to see what posey-pose stuff isn't quite physically possible.

On the walking picture, I'm not sure if the back foot would be visible; if it were, I'm not sure it would be so low down (since it's farther back). Soap is right about the notes.

That's it! Everything else looks great! You really might make people mad at you, posting good stuff in the help forum.

When is your comic starting again?

[Bernie]

It *should* be running, but in that perspective, it is a bit hard to do. Lets see if I can fix this...

I haven't done many walking/running pics yet, so I'm still only guessing what it would look like in most cases. And I have troubles getting it right with the perspective a lot.

The comic will start in a few days when I'm done re-arranging the script.

Now excuse me while I go posing in front of the mirror.
Thanks!