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!

Great workout and well done!

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.

Very interesting. You have a good control of the figure and its parts.

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 :)

Wow! nicely done... the proportions are spot on

For meatier arms, try mixing elliptical and boxy shapes, and show some muscles as plane changes from flat to bulky. It helps me!

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!

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 :)

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)