Hey @chekdot! I agree with @Steve Lenze’s suggestions regarding gesture and simple structure. I’d certainly consider using Steve’s generously provided drawing as a reference to make some adjustments in your character’s pose! In terms of story, one thing I personally like to do (rather than just randomly think of elements to add to the scene) is to imagine the backstory of the image, like a description of the situation or action that’s happening. In this case, for example, your character is a boxer and he’s punching, so here’s a few questions to consider in order to imagine that: what is he punching, is it his opponent? Or maybe a punching bag? If it’s an opponent, is he just practicing, or is he in the middle of a real fight? If it’s a fight, is it an important one, like the championship finals, or is it a more ordinary fight? Where does your character live in the world? How old is he? What motivated him to be a boxer? What does he intend to achieve in boxing, is it fame? Is it to become rich? Or is it to prove himself to the world? Or even to test his skills as an athlete? By answering these questions, you can more easily prompt ideas of how to set up your scene and what to include in your composition. Quick example: let’s say he’s about 24 years old and he’s actually an amateur boxer who never won any big championship because, when his wife got pregnant, he had to work to support his family; but he also never completely gave up on his dream of becoming a professional boxer, so he still practices daily with a punching bag in his house’s garage. Then, I’m thinking this scene could perhaps be the point of view of his young baby looking up at him one day as he practices (hence the exaggerated upward perspective): so the scene would show him punching an old home-made punching bag; he would be slightly absent-minded as he practices because he’s concentrated and also daydreaming about his alternative life as a professional boxer, so we could try to work his facial expression based on that; the environment would be his garage, so we would see maybe a modest car or a motorcycle on the back, maybe some shelves with miscellaneous stuff from his house (tools, piled up boxes…), maybe the garage gate would be a bit open and we’d see the street outside, perhaps some neighbors walking by; his outfit could be a simple “stay-home” pair or shorts and a worn t-shirt; and maybe this scene could be happening early in the morning, because practicing his boxing would be the first thing he does every day, so we could work out the light of the scene to suggest that. Of course, this example is just one of the many possible ideas - there are various other potential solutions I’m sure you could be able to think of in case you prefer to go a different way. But, as you see, just “framing” the illustration inside a storyline can already trigger a lot of ideas for elements to compose the scene with. Maybe try it out for yourself! If you’d like, let me know how it works for you. Hope this helps. Cheers!

Hey chekdot, This is a really interesting pose, good job challenging yourself. I think though you would benefit from building the pose out of shapes, in perspective, first to show the proper structure. Also, you want to find places to add gesture, it will make the pose look more dynamic and less stiff. I did a quick sketch to show you how you can do this, I hope it helps :)