Poses are limited

[Milou]

Hello.

I've been doing life drawing from my computer, which has helped me immensly. However, I still have no idea how to draw a character doing stuff. Most of my characters are sitting or standing, and their body languege is very limited.

How do I make them pose and do stuff? I want to draw comics, so I need to learn how to do this from my head.

[Star Eater]

Draw from life. Get friends/family to pose for you. Draw yourself in the mirror.

Find more references for what you want to study. If drawing photos are your thing I guarantee you
will find a lot more pictures on the net of people doing more than just sitting or standing.

[TinyBird]

I want to draw comics, so I need to learn how to do this from my head.

No you don't (well, not to the extent that you'd never need to use a ref). Like Star Eater said, get friends/family pose for you or get them take photos of you posing. You can't get a ref for everything in your comics (depending on what your comic is about at least), but references are commonly used when drawing comics.

[Arshes Nei]

Dear OP.

GO OUTSIDE. You'll learn even more!
It's ok to disconnect from a computer and observe life. That's how a lot of art is created. You get inspired by people doing stuff!

[dpaint]

Hello.

I've been doing life drawing from my computer, which has helped me immensly. However, I still have no idea how to draw a character doing stuff. Most of my characters are sitting or standing, and their body languege is very limited.

How do I make them pose and do stuff? I want to draw comics, so I need to learn how to do this from my head.

Working from life means just that, drawing from something real in front of you. What you are doing is figure drawing from your computer. Memorize construction techniques like Loomis if you want to draw out of your head but its not a good way to go, most of the best comic artists use reference.

[JeffX99]

If drawing photos are your thing I guarantee you
will find a lot more pictures on the net of people doing more than just sitting or standing.

Well, maybe not a LOT more...

And I'll second Loomis as about the best starting point if you're interested in comics. The basics of the mannequin poses is where things start.

[blogmatix]

If you are okay with working from photographs you could of course also simply use a webcam or simple point-and-shoot with timer device and then take photos of yourself, assuming whatever poses you like.

As for books, I rather like Ron Tiner's "Figure drawing without a model." It's a like a somewhat more recent version of Loomis, and has all manner of handy tips and tricks. Many of which boil down to "observe people around you and draw what you see." :-)

[Star Eater]

As for books, I rather like Ron Tiner's "Figure drawing without a model." It's a like a somewhat more recent version of Loomis, and has all manner of handy tips and tricks. Many of which boil down to "observe people around you and draw what you see." :-)

Always great to meet another fan of Rons book. I own it as well, its a fun, approachable figure drawing manual which does not get
enough press, despite the great content and tips.

[JFierce]

Either way your going to use reference. Your going to need to practice for years and years to get good enough at construction to use it without much issue. Then you'll still come across situations where you have no clue what it looks like because you haven't observed it. Especially in comics with ever changing and dynamic perspectives and angles

"Oh shit I need to draw someone swinging a bat. I've seen it before.... ... but I haven't really..... 'seen' it mid stride or anything. Fuck."



Comics are a bit of a learning experience. Your storytelling not just drawing. Along with practicing consistency, and then the balancing act of quality and not spending forever on a single page. It's honestly practicing efficiency if your doing it all alone. The figures have to feel like they're doing what they are supposed to in the story. The best way to do this is to reference what it would be in real life to help capture that feeling best as possible and also helps so your not spending hours and hours and hours on a single panel because it doesn't feel right.

I'm about to move, once I unpack I'm putting a giant mirror in front of where I draw because I already find myself running back and forth to the nearest bathroom (closest mirror)

[QueenGwenevere]

I've been doing life drawing from my computer.

No, you're not. It's not life drawing if it's on your computer.

Step away from your computer, go outside, and draw real people moving around and doing things. Gesture drawings of real live people are excellent practice for cartoonists and animators, it's a great way to study body language and how people move and act. If you have a park anywhere near you, I recommend going and sketching people doing sports and similar activities.

And depending on what kind of comic art you do, you may do most of it from your head, or you may do most of it from photo ref, or you may use ref for some bits and imagination for other bits... I second what's already been said about learning a constructive approach to the figure, that's pretty essential for cartooning and animation. But it helps to supplement that with drawing and observing real live people, so you can understand all the nuances of real expression and movement. Otherwise you'll probably end up with stiff, generic characters.

(And yes, mirrors are really reeeeally handy... Especially at 3:00am when you suddenly realize you have no idea how this arm should twist...)

[Arshes Nei]

Always great to meet another fan of Rons book. I own it as well, its a fun, approachable figure drawing manual which does not get
enough press, despite the great content and tips.

He's also one of the few books that goes over different body types in a very understandable fashion (Peck is another book that has body types as well). Something that I think it essential with dealing with characters in storytelling fashion .ie comics.

[creeptool]

Always great to meet another fan of Rons book. I own it as well, its a fun, approachable figure drawing manual which does not get
enough press, despite the great content and tips.

i have Rons book its a great book on how to draw people at coffy shops and stuff like that...Ron has another book out called Drawing from your Imagination http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-your-I...pd_sim_sbs_b_2 its starts off where the last one left off...what i like about Figure Drawing Without a Model Ron Tiner preaches over and over that artist need to take a sketch book with them every where you go and sketch every thing you see even if you don't like the subject.

[blogmatix]

"If you wish to become a successful imaginative artist, the best advice I can offer you is: be prepared to draw anything and everything you see."

- Ron Tiner, "Drawing from your imagination"

[Dusty]

There isn't a single painting that I do where I haven't had my wife take some completely ridiculous photo of me with a camera phone.
Reference images are essential.

[JeffX99]

There isn't a single painting that I do where I haven't had my wife take some completely ridiculous photo of me with a camera phone.
Reference images are essential.

Prove it...

[Elwell]

No, you're not. It's not life drawing if it's on your computer.

Some digital artists have portable laptop/Wacom setups that allow them to approach working from life in a similar manner to using traditional media. But I'd bet a million bucks that the OP isn't one of them. So yeah, no.

[QueenGwenevere]

I'm pretty sure the OP meant they were drawing figures ON the computer, not drawing figures WITH the computer... If you know what I mean... (As in, the "models" are on the screen.)

I've seen people lug laptops to life drawing, but the models themselves are not on the screen. That makes all the difference.

[Milou]

Thank you so much for the book reccomandation! I've checked it out from the library and written up the author's name. It was exactly what I was looking for, and I've spent the evening drawing my friends.

Yes, I have been drawing naked figures from the laptop screen by using the good ol' slideshow method. It's not as good as actual life drawing, but it has helped me improve significantly during times when life drawing was unavailable to me.

[Dusty]

Prove it...

Hells to the no.
:p