Started getting crits that my character art had 'stiff posing' - took me 6 months to see it

Someone on a feedback thread pointed out my figures always had their shoulders squared to the viewer, like they were posing for a mugshot. I went back through my last 50 pieces and holy cow, they were right - every single one. Has anyone else had a specific critique that took forever to actually click for you?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_allen19h ago

That shoulder thing is brutal, I went through the same phase. For me it was noticing all my characters had their hands glued to their hips like some kind of superhero stance. What finally helped was drawing from life references and actually acting out the poses myself in a mirror. Sounds dumb but it made me realize people almost never stand perfectly square to anything. Try sketching people on the bus or at a coffee shop, just quick 30 second gesture drawings. You'll start seeing how shoulders tilt and shift naturally when someone's just standing there talking or looking at their phone.

the_fiona14h ago

Did you catch that Proko video where he talks about the "line of action" in gesture drawing? He says that shoulder tilt is usually the first thing to vary when people shift their weight, so if you flatten that out, everyone looks like theyre standing at attention.

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