How to Draw Exaggerated Poses

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

inFigure Drawing Fundamentals

10K

Assignments 120

Lesson Notes

Downloads 2

How to Draw Exaggerated Poses

Lesson by

Stan Prokopenko

in Figure Drawing Fundamentals

10K

Assignments 120

Lesson Notes

Downloads 2

Exaggerate Some Poses

Try doing the process that I just described from any poses you feel could be more dynamic. I’ve also included a collection of a few photos with 2 versions of the same pose. One rigid and another more dynamic one. Try exaggerating the rigid ones and check your drawing against the dynamic version.

Keep in mind that there are multiple ways of exaggerating something. If you choose to exaggerate in one way, then check it against the dynamic version and it’s different, that doesn’t mean yours is wrong. They could both be right. You chose to exaggerate it one way and the model chose another way. The dynamic pose is just there as a suggestion. But keep in mind that the model can actually feel the pose. Compare yours to it and see if there’s something you like better in the dynamic photo. Is there something you can learn from it?

hArtMann

22d

Definitely the most challenging assignment so far from this course. Saw a reference that looked static and gave me ideas on how to exaggerate it so I used it and tried to add some drama to it.

@grugrugru

29d

Exaggerated poses, challenging lesson to think how u can exaggerate and how much. Had more trouble with the second drawing, my failed attempt is there too. Critique or advice is much appreciated.

Canaan Yuhl

20d

Hey I just wanted to ask what kind of brush do you use. You have really clean line work. I'm still messing around with different sketch brushes but can't seem to find the right one.

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Arman Jucutan

3mo

Hello everyone here is my handins for this lesson. please feel free to give your thoughts and critique

Jack

4mo

This is my first attempt. I don't have premium, so I don't really know if I'm doing this correctly.

Patrick Bosworth

4mo

Nice exaggeration!

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Daniel Lykke

5mo

Here are my assignments. I feel like I am missing some thing they feel very stiff and doesn’t have any gesture? Should I just redraw the finished posts and add the gesture there or what do you guys think?

@decentworking

5mo

Lenserd martell

6mo

@jganzy

6mo

These are awesome

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Samuel Sanjaya

6mo

my 2nd attempt, and doubles as measurement exercise. my bad habit to not converging the torso enough is coming back again, so the torso is turning towards the viewer way more than it should. This often happen when I get too fixated on the measurement. I have a hard time doing exaggeration, especially to "imagine" the pose and movement of the forms. Get overwhelmed really quickly this time. Need some feedbacks on this. Maybe on how to break this bad habit, and not get too fixated and balance all aspect of drawing.

Samuel Sanjaya

6mo

doing exaggeration from the reference picture provided. I tried to exaggerate without looking from the exaggerated picture first, turns out to be different. did I exaggerate too much ? I hope i can get some feedbacks.. thank you..

Allison Gobbell

6mo

I think you did well! I would show a bit of overlap in the arch of the back, as the skin would fold in upon itself. Also, not sure if you meant to turn her toward the viewer but the front of torso is a bit slimmer if she is facing the same way. Also the buttocks are a bit lower and I believe would be going out a bit more. Subtle changes!

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Josh Fiddler

6mo

Consider that when the model leans back this far, to maintain balance, she will have to push hips forward more, causing more tension in the thighs. Meaning: there would be more bending at the hips and a rounder midsection into the thighs. The bottom of the ribcage would also be pushing out through the skin. Look at the reference on the far right. See how just in this position her lower ribs are strongly pushing outward?

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@costish

6mo

When you hold your pencil, do you hold it like when you write or like Proko?

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Eveline Rupenko

7mo

Hi everyone! Here are my drawings for this assignment! Struggling with keeping these clean, since this assignment turned out pretty hard! I feel I am getting overfocused on the structure so I lose some of the gesture, think I'll get back to simple gesture drawings in a few lessons just to refresh the feeling of flow and motion within the sketch.

Vera

7mo

Hello everyone. Here are some of my exaggerated drawings. I had difficulty keeping the proportions accurate to the reference when exaggerating. Advice and critiques are welcomed. Reference images are from line-of-action.com

@pmak22

7mo

Finished the last three poses, and I am mostly happy with them, though one of them I feel like I may have not quite finished around the chest. Going to move on to proportions....errr after I watch the step by step

Low Horvath

7mo

Definitely watch the video on proportions as proportions do seem to be an issue. I would also watch the measuring video , I already know how to measure and it really helps with proportions. But also , you’re over complicating the figure. Adding too many contours and it doesn’t seem like you’re breaking the figure into basic shapes that you understand. . Work more on designing your shapes. Design shapes that are easy to remember, easy enough that you can replicate the drawing without a reference.

@pmak22

8mo

Alright, I did 8 of the 11 examples for the assignment, with plans to finish the last 3 mid-next week. I looked at the un-exaggerated first, went through my studies, and then looked at the exaggerated after. I also tried not to get too hung up if I matched the same type of exaggerated pose found in the example. I do feel like I have some trouble figuring out how areas around the exaggeration will be affected. For instance, if the model pushes her pelvis forward, how should her legs be changed to compensate? I don't think it was a major problem, but something I noticed. Going through the reps repeatedly felt pretty good, going through and comparing the various poses was pretty educational.

@kotka

8mo

It took a while, but I learned so much! In some I didn't have the space to extend to four figures, and, since I don't know a lot of anatomy I kept the robotic exaggeration versions as the third pose. I am getting more confident with mannequinization each day, and this course is perfect preparation for a deep-dive into anatomy. I go out of my way to minimize use of the digital eraser as well as ctrl+z, since I come from traditional and want to replicate that experience as much as possible. In some, I feel like I took too much liberty in the exaggeration so it became another pose entirely. And the hardest for me is re-orienting the upper limbs. I hope this will become easier after the anatomy course.

Benjamin Green

8mo

Pretty good. Looking forward to seeing more of your studies.

Sita Rabeling

8mo

Wow, wish I could do that! 👏🏼

Thieum

8mo

Good work, and very interesting exercise!

@nongthimay31797

1yr

@elkad

1yr

Hi, here are a few exaggerated poses I did (random reference photos because I forgot there's some attached for this assignment whoops). I'm still pretty weak at drawing/visualising imagined poses but this was a great exercise to work on those skills, still a long way to go! Also noticed the first pose is un-blanaced even before exaggeration. Any other critiques would be great, thanks!

Raja Karmakar

1yr

Nice

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Goli sh

1yr

Hi everyone! I’ve made a few of these but I thought this was probably the best one, any critiques would be really appreciated! 👀

@elkad

1yr

Nice mannequins! Structure is generally pretty good although I think the back could use some more cross contour curves as I'm having difficulty reading which way the rib cage is leaning. I think you need to push the exaggerated pose much, much further to get the most out of this exercise because the exaggeration in your drawings is quite subtle. Try visualising what the 3d forms would look like if the position was pushed further or try copying the pose in front of a mirror and play around with it. Good luck!

Centrina Tamala

1yr

Hello, I’ve only made one so far. I couldn't include her arm because I drew her too big but hopefully the rest is alright. Any critiques and advices would be greatly appreciated.

Kamilla Vargyas

1yr

Wow you are very good! I can't give you critique, since you are ahead of me. I wish the old fb group was still working, so we could get feedback. Ever since it closed it's crickets :(

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@opaqueapple

1yr

Hi all, I finished the two exaggeration exercise references that Proko put in the video; Any Critiques would be much appreciated

onigi *pronunce [on-ie-gee]*

1yr

This was the most challenging exercise I've ever had. So hard that I almost gave up but it boosted my confidence once I finished. I'm sorry these pieces of paper are all crumpled up. I didn't plan to upload the pics and I once folded the sheets up to put them on my bookshelf. The second exercise was done in digital so looks clear😀. I feel I didn't understand Bean, Robo Bean and Mannequinization training studies enough. I need to do them again after I reach the and of this course once. Any critiques and suggestions are welcomed!

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Stan Prokopenko

Founder of Proko, artist and teacher of drawing, painting, and anatomy. I try to make my lessons fun and ultra packed with information.