How to Draw Balanced Poses
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Figure Drawing Fundamentals

Balance

How to Draw Balanced Poses

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Mark as Completed

How to Draw Balanced Poses

269K
Mark as Completed

Do some more quicksketch drawings and use all the principles you learned so far. Gesture, bean, robo bean, landmarks, mannequinization… But, find poses that will help you practice the concept of balance.

Another great exercise would be to take a balanced pose and use it as inspiration to invent an action pose – a pose that is in the middle of an action. This one is a bit tougher since you’re inventing some elements from imagination. This is a good challenge. You’re ready for it.

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Newest
hArtMann
Added line weight back when doing gesture for mannequinization now that I'm getting comfortable at experimenting on designing volumes for mannequinization.
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@grugrugru
Tried to do one of those action poses on the 4th one
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@egusisoup
Balance practice day 3/4. Any critiques would be appreciated
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @egusisoup, nice drawings! - Having a clear idea of what is vertical in the space that the figure exists in, is really imporant for balance. Vertical represents the direction that gravity is pulling. Level ground will be perpendicular to it. In the top row of image one, all the figures look like they are falling over to the right, because this relationship wasn't established. This becomes extra clear in the box that the first figure is standing on; the vertical edges aren't perpendicular to the bottom plane, making it look as if they were leaning to the right. It's common to define vertical as a line parallel with the vertical edges of the paper and horizontal as a line parallel with the horizontal edges of the paper. Indicating this in your drawing could help; a vertical line for the direction of the pull of gravity, and a horizontal line for the direction of level ground. (You could for example start by drawing the head, find the pit of the neck, then drop a line to the ground plane from there. This also gives you a guide for the length of the figure) In a tilted composition, what's horizontal and vertical in the character's world might not line up with the edges of the paper. But the relationship between the verticals and level ground of that world remains the same: 90 degrees. Really it's about gravity. The "vertical" line represents the direction of the pull of gravity. If you drew a large character walking around a planet, the direction of that "vertical" line would change as the character walks around. But it would always point to the center of the spherical form of the planet, and the surface of the planet would always be perpendicular to it. I would suggest doing some more drawings were you clearly establish your horizontals and verticals, probably by referring to the edges of the paper, but you could also play with other directions of the gravity line, keeping in mind that level ground must be perpendicular to it. Also use your intuition and ask questions like; "Does the figure in my drawing look balanced?" "If I left it standing there, would it fall?". Imagine that you are a small child building a tower; make adjustments so that your tower won't fall over. I hope this helps :) Let me know if you have any questions!
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Arman Jucutan
Hello everyone, here are my submission for this lesson. Please let me know of any critiques and feedbacks. Thank you so much in advance
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Liandro
This is awesome, @Arman Jucutan! I can see you're really pushing yourself to explore bold variations with these poses. All the exaggerated sketches are effectively unbalanced, so I'd say you really nailed the point of this exercise - congratulations! Aside from proportions (which is something we already talked about in your other post), if you're looking for aspects to improve upon, one thing that catches my eye in this set of drawings is that you could look out for keeping the structure cohesive as you exaggerate a pose. For example, the unbalanced version of the second pose (the gymnast) looks a little bit "broken" in the connection between ribcage and pelvis - it's like they're bent away from one another much further than what a believable anatomy would allow for. To help with this, it's nice to always remember gesture, which is the "glue" that connects every part of the structure in a figure drawing. I went ahead and sketched the same pose myself - I made some different choices regarding the arms to try to give the figure a better readability, but, mainly, my goal was to illustrate how to consider that connection between ribcage and pelvis with more solidity while also trying to keep the unbalanced quality and that nice ribcage twist which you already had in your sketch. Hope my drawing can serve as a visual feedback to illustrate what I commented above. Keep up the good work!
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Thieum
Great workout and well done!
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Jack
5mo
Balanced drawings practice
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Daniel Lykke
Her are som of my balanced drawings, I have a hard time finding the right way to draw them when they are off the ground it this the right way to do it? Thank for your time😊
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Dre Torres
Imagination poses, critique?
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Samuel Sanjaya
trying to invent an action pose out of balanced one. Accidently draw it near the border of page. I hope i can get some feedbacks, Thank you !
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Samuel Sanjaya
Here's my assignment for the balanced pose. I have trouble with proportions and measuring, even though I do the pencil measuring, it still came out wrong. Should i measure the "construction" itself or the picture itself ? I don't know if this question make any sense, it's hard for me to word it. I hope i can get some critiques and advices on this..
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@kotka
I would use less complicated figures to achieve your goal of better proportions in gestures. Try doing shapes similar to one-minute gesture curves but with proportionally correct landmarks added on. Avoid completing the anatomical shapes, the important thing is that the landmarks are correctly placed on a fluid gesture. If you haven't watched the videos on proportions and linear layins yet, do so, and revisit these figures.
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Eveline Rupenko
Hello! For this assignment I took some balanced poses, and after that, I've tried to unbalance them in the next sketch
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Jean-Nicolas Bouchard
Very interesting. You have a good control of the figure and its parts.
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Vera
8mo
Hello everyone, I drew some balanced poses. The last one is unbalanced. I struggled finding the center of mass. Advice and critiques are welcomed. Reference images are from line-of-action.com
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Vera nice studies! - When looking for the center of mass I find it to be a good Idea to awaken my imagination. The reason you struggle with finding it might be because you're only looking and not feeling. You could ask: "If I strike this pose myself, where does it feel like most of my mass/weight is?" You could also imagine lifting the figure, maybe thinking that it's a sculpture. How would the weight be distributed during the lift? When trying to a balanced figure, the simple question "would it fall over if I let it stand there?", could be enough to make you realize that you have to shift it this way or that way. Think of yourself as a child playing, trying to build a tower of bricks; you don't know any fancy physics or terms, you just follow your intuition doing your best to make it not fall over. The more times the child plays the game the more fine tuned its intuition gets. Your imagination and intuition can give you some extra clues, so use it! - In drawing two, the crosscontours on his right thigh is going the wrong way (assuming that the darker part of the crosscontour is closer too us). The cylinder should go away from us. Imagining touching the forms help me figure out their orientation. Hope this helps :)
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@pmak22
Did 5 balance studies and 2 unbalanced. I probably have a few too many cross section lines the more I look at it, but you know when its a larger drawing it doesn't seem that bad. I really tried to build a good foundation of the gesture up front, but not sure if that really comes through in the final product.
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@kotka
No sure that I'm checking the alignment of the center of mass right here, some input?
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Jesper Axelsson
Nice work! I can feel the weight and balance clearly in the drawings on the first page. I'm assuming the ones in the second page are unbalanced action poses. - These feel well drawn to me. I think what would improve them the most would be to improve the gesture. I'm currently focusing on gesture a lot, because I want to be able to draw like Heinrich Kley, and gesture seems to be the key. His work is filled with a strong sence of balance, weight and movement, it almost looks animated, and I've heard it's because he's so good at gesture. If improving your gesture sounds interesting, check out this post https://www.proko.com/s/fGiV. - Could you explain why the line running from the center of mass to the ground is diagonal in the two outer drawings of image 2, and not in the middle one? - I think I might suggest doing a short bootcamp where you practice placing feet on a ground plane. Or you could do it as a warm-up (gesture drawings, but the feet are taken into the mannequin stage). A clear groundplane is important for balance. In the drawing to the right in image 1, the understanding of balance seems to be there, based on you analytical lines, but the feet feel like they are slipping. - I would try to think more about/feel the weight more. I would say that weight is the primary concern. Balanced or in movement, is just a consequence of the weight and forces. With all that being said your understanding of weight seems to be strong enough, and if you feel the same, feel free to move on to the next lesson. Hope this helps :)
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Sal Sulaiman
Wow! nicely done... the proportions are spot on
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Petra Brandström
I'm struggling with finding the body shapes vs simplification. I also think I need to practice confident lines, and patience ^^ Do you guys have any tips on how to view meatier arms other than cylinders? Or is it best to just draw the cylinder anyway, thinking away the muscles? I also find it hard to use a box for the ribcage, especially from the side. It's so round!! How to think of it as a 3D shape with edges and planes? Should I just give myself more time to experiment on each pose? All tips and critiques are welcome!
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Jesper Axelsson
Hej @Petra Brandström! Hi Petra! I think these look really nice! Gesture, structure and balance is looking pretty solid! - To improve these drawings, I think I would focus on gesture. I was made aware, contrary to what I thought, that my work was lacking gesture. After having studied some of Heinrich Kley's work, I realized that there is room for A LOT of gesture. In his drawings, it's like every line was part of a stream of water splashing through the body, connecting it and leading the eye. Try to think about this, especially in the limbs. You don't have to exaggerate the poses more, I think, but make sure that every line is part of "the river". - To clarify balance it might help to indicate the ground plane. - About your question: I think I would recommend starting with round forms, then make them more boxy afterwards. Since boxes are so specific they can be a bit hard to handle in the early stages. I found it useful to practice drawing the ribcage as a box, since that skill is a good tool to have for clear perspective, but the actual form of the ribcage is more like an egg. Look at this sketch by Raphael and see how he starts with round forms https://media.britishmuseum.org/media/Repository/Documents/2014_10/1_6/89707534_49f8_4387_b010_a3b700640e57/mid_00030014_001.jpg You'll notice animators starting the same way, I think. I think you'll appreciate this Drawing Demo by Glenn Vilppu. Maybe try to mimick his way of drawing. At 21:00 he explains the process of starting with a flow, then fleshing it out with volumes. Hope this helps :)
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@kotka
For meatier arms, try mixing elliptical and boxy shapes, and show some muscles as plane changes from flat to bulky. It helps me!
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Marco Sordi
2023/1/5. Good morning everybody. Here's my study about balance and "contrapposto" (source: "The Anatomy of Style" by @Patrick Jones). Thanks.
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Mark Manthorpe
My studies into balance. Some went well I think and some others I think need more work. I think no.5, no. 6, no. 7 and no. 10 need a do over.
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @Mark Manthorpe I think these look really nice! Balance is looking good, and the mannequins look really solid. - I feel like some of these could have stronger gesture, and that's what I would work on to improve the feeling of balance. With stronger gesture you'll get a stronger feeling of force, and all the forces is what's affecting the body to either balance or fall. If you want to keep on working on balance, do some of these, but as gesture quicksketches. Really try to feel the pose; where the forces are, where the weight is. It might help to watch Mike Mattesi's Force Drawing Series, and draw the way he draws. Improving Line Quality and Rhythm – FORCE Series Part 1 Drawing waterballoons interacting with other objects, from imagination, is one way to explore and better understand weights and forces XD Hope this helps :) Keep up the good work!
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@elkad
This was a fun one, especially creating an action pose out of a static one! Any feedback is appreciated, cheers
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Jesper Axelsson
Hi @elkad, I think you've done a nice job with these! I don't have anything to say about the balance really👍but, I think you could loosen up the mannequins a bit. They lean towards being slightly stiff. It might help to do a few where you really go crazy with the gesture to push yourself in a more gestural direction. Hope this helps :)
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Jahsee Mullings
Good day everyone these are my attempts doing balance drawings although I realized I didn’t make them mannequins😕. I will do so next time. how did I? Do I understand balance drawings and if not, how much more practice is needed before moving to the next topic? Thanks for the critiques🎖🧨🎖
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faye zhang
Some unbalanced poses and I also turned 2 balanced Mallory poses into action poses.
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@opaqueapple
Hi all, I've attempted some Balanced poses, within these i slotted in 3 poses (2,4,6) which are inspired from the previous pose (1,3,5) but invented from imagination. Some of the poses ended up cutting off the page, sorry about that. I have a question for anyone that see's this and might know an answer. I dumped in a reference of the pose at the end; if i drew a vertical line down to find where the weight of the body lands from the middle of the torso, it ends up landing on the right leg however her weight seems to be held by her left leg. Is it correct to find the balance through the middle of the torso (as proko indicated in his video)? Apart from that, any critique would be much appreciated as usual!
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Atharva Lotake
I think you have a really good understanding of form and structure! so cheers for that. What you are struggling with is over-exaggeration of gesture and proportions. I would suggest doing more proportion studies. I have attached some images which demonstrate my process of mannequinization if it helps.
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Thieum
Hi Opaqueapple! Cool mannequinization studies. I especially like the 7th. And it's a difficult but very good exercise to invent poses inspired from a previous one! I think the position of her center of gravity depends on her pose: she extends her arms to the left of the image, which shifts her center of gravity to the left. And you're right, her weight seems to be mainly supported by her left leg (however it looks a bit like she's going to fall to the right)
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