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Tips for Drawing: Posing

by J.K. Riki | Mar 26, 2012 | Drawing Tips | 7 comments

Last week we looked at Peter Casey’s question on form and volume. We’ll tackle
the second part, Posing, in today’s article. As one of the most important things
you can focus on in animation, Posing is not something to be taken lightly!

Peter continued the same line of wondering that I always think about with this:

“Posing: Yes posing is very important to animation, make the character happy
make the character sad, pose the character so he feels enlightened from eating a
spicy burrito. Look at the silhouette make sure it “reads” look at the action line.
Make sure you know can read how the character “feels.” Really? Can you explain
to me how? How do I know if the pose is with the character and “feels?”

‘You need to make your lines feel heavier and powerful.’

‘I do not understand.’
‘They aren’t heavy enough.’
‘I have already deduced that.’

This is what is so gosh darn infuriating to me. “

Me too, Peter. Those comments are easy to say, and truthfully accurate, but they
aren’t always that helpful, are they? Here’s my answer. It’s what I’ve learned as
I’ve gone along. Again, it’s not the only answer, and it may not even be “right”
but it has helped me immensely.

Posing is something I’m excited to talk about because it was only recently that I
had a MAJOR breakthrough with posing. I think breakthroughs happen o�en,
we just need to recognize them. Too o�en we let them go by and focus instead 2
on how we STILL aren’t as far along as we’d like to be. Mini tip: Savor the little
victories! At any rate, here is how I’d recommend you think about it:
A good pose tells the story.

THAT’S ALL. You don’t need to know anything else. You don’t need to worry
about line weight or silhouettes or lines of action. (Well, you do, but not right
this second. I would argue that the best story-telling pose will trump any pose
that specifically tries to consider silhouette or line of action. Why? Because the
best story telling poses are made UP of those things. The story needs to be the
FOCUS, and the blocks will fall right into place.)

What you are trying to do is tell the story the very best way you can. And guess
how you do that? (Or at least, how I do that?) You draw 100 varieties of the same
pose. Push things. Pull things. Something work? Put it into the next pose.
Something weird? Take it out. Draw draw draw draw draw. Draw until you hate
whatever story you are telling. If it’s a guy enlightened from a burrito, draw
every possible way you can think of to have the image tell that story in a single
picture as SIMPLY as possible, but as WELL as possible. Here’s an old (kind of
crappy by my own current standards) example from my files:

2
I wanted to draw a guy waiting while looking at his watch. The story is:

“Man, I’ve been waiting here forever, where the heck is Joe? Why isn’t he here yet?
Look at that, it’s been 20 minutes already. That second hand just keeps going tick
tick tick tick tick and I’m getting tick tick tick ticked OFF!”

My first attempt wasn’t awful. It tells the story. Things could be better, though.
Next pose is pushed farther. Not enough. Next pose, pushed even MORE. Getting
there. Next pose, halfway through I hate it, this isn’t right, moving on. Next pose
seems almost TOO much, which means we’re starting to really cook!

Now, I only did five poses there. That is 95 poses short of me finding the right
pose. (100 is arbitrary. What I mean is “A LOT.”) Then once I find what REALLY
tells that story, REALLY well, I will start thinking about lines of action, silhouette,
and the rest. And guess what that means? Yep, another few hundred pose
attempts to make it even better.

That is a stupid amount of work, right? That’s craziness.

Well here’s the awesome part: You don’t have to go through this process
forever! No, this is part of the early stages. Before you know it (though never
soon enough for our liking) the 50th pose you do will hit the jackpot! And then a
while later, the 10th pose might get you there! And one day (I can only hope)
you and I will be like Andreas Deja, Glenn Keane, or Eric Goldberg and find that
golden pose on the first or second try. Unless it’s a super important pose, and
then we (and they) are still going to do 100. But it will be a breeze by then,
because we’ll have been doing it for so many years. (I daydream that Milt Kahl
and the old masters could create amazing poses in their sleep! Perhaps
unrealistic, but a fun daydream nonetheless.)

I wish beyond almost all wishes that I could point my graphite pencil at you and
ZAP! You’d see things in form and understand the idea of “carving” a drawing or
pushing a pose. (Heck, most days I wish I could do that to myself.) But it doesn’t
work like that. The only way you’ll get there is through a LOT of drawing,
2
observation, and e�ort. But like I said, LOOK for it. Keep it in your mind. Check
that Glenn Keane “feel the cheek” image and KEEP that in your head. It will be
frustrating for a while, but you WILL get there. It took me about three years of
real practice on top of about 25 years of bad, copycat, not-really-trying practice
before I really started to understand. Then every day was a new learning
experience that taught me even more (and still does). It doesn’t happen
overnight is what I’m saying.

I promise you, though, I was absolutely 100% in your shoes just a few years ago.
I felt the same frustration, and it felt like it would never end. And some days I
STILL feel that way. It will get better, but you have to put the work in. It’s a TON
of work. Soldier through and one day you (if you’re like me) will be nearly in
tears and bouncing o� the walls because you finally, FINALLY “get” it. And that
feeling is so awesome. And while enlightenment may not come from eating a
burrito, it certainly doesn’t hurt to try that too.

I hope that was helpful in some way. Re-read it tomorrow and some day next
week, because otherwise you’ll forget (or like I did with Josh’s advice,
temporarily ignore it). Trust me on that one.
17 Click to say Thank You!

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7 Comments on "Tips for Drawing: Posing"
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je�O  

My first poses always suck. Good advice!

Guest
 0  Reply  5 years ago

zoetrope  

Much appreciation for this blog post. Pretty absorbing and well penned article, and
Guest
really helpful as an animator. I will return in future.

 0  Reply  5 years ago

jason  

I think the key to good poses are feeling it in your own body before you animate it
Guest
because then you aren’t just making a puppet move around.

 0  Reply  5 years ago

Andi  

This really solved my problem, thank you! Back to animating now…

Guest
 0  Reply  5 years ago

Animator Island » Remember the Weight  

[…] before you move on, whether in 2D or 3D. For more information and tips on

posing, check out the article Tips for Posing found here. Find this article helpful?

Share it with others by Tweeting it! Category: Animation Secrets | […]

 0  Reply  5 years ago

kitty  

Love your site! I visit every week. 2

Guest
 0  Reply  5 years ago
 Naviguy Perfect,  

just what

Guest
I was searching for! 😀
 0  Reply  5 years ago

jeanette  

Hi there this was very helpful would you mind doing more articles on posing
Guest
please?

 0  Reply  3 years ago

Life Drawing Work 5 – Facial Expressions and Design – Scrappy

 Dappy Doodles

[…] looked at this page for more information and this page on posing  to properly

express emotion through posing a flour […]

 0  Reply  9 months ago

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