How to Draw Dynamic Poses

Practice drawing dynamic poses: Dynamic Poses Generator
Practice illustration: Illustration Prompts Generator

When drawing, you may run into certain challenges that can make your artwork harder to complete or get to where you want it to be. One of these challenges can be dynamic poses and getting the right ratios on every body part. The perfect proportions and flow of the poses can be incredibly difficult to nail but also very important when drawing a body or a dynamic pose. Not just extravagant and explosive poses are hard, something as simple as someone standing can look unrealistic or uncomfortable if you do not do it right. Therefore here are some tips and tricks listed on how to help yourself when drawing dynamic poses.

Practice and Observation

Your two best friends within the drawing process of such poses are practice and observation. Practicing is important when trying to get better at any skill and the same goes for dynamic poses and proportions. With each sketch you make you get to improve and figure out new and better techniques for yourself and see mistakes that you had not seen before. Looking at people in real life or at yourself can be very helpful when trying to get a pose to look more realistically. No matter whether you like to draw realistically or not at all, these rules and tips work the same. A human’s body works as one, when you lift your arm up, not just your arm will move. Your shoulder, chest, and neck will probably move with it and so should those of the character you are drawing.

Use an action line

One trick that can come in helpful when drawing dynamic poses is to draw an action line. An action line is a simple line that acts as a guide of indicating the movement of your character. It is often a single line that goes from the feet to the head and shows you the general base of the pose they are holding. With this, you need to keep in mind how your character is leaning, what the pressure points are, what the intentions are, and whether the character is tense or just relaxed. The action line can make it easier to shape your character and to not lose the cohesiveness and the flow within the body, no matter what dynamic pose it is in since it shows the main intention of the body and therefore, how the additional limbs will move accordingly.

Keep limits and habits in mind

Another great tip is to keep the body’s limits and habits in mind. When drawing a body, you have to remember that every limb moves a certain way and has a certain limit or restriction. An arm is not bendable in every way possible and it would look very strange and inhumane if the character you are drawing was to move in such impossible ways. Therefore, remember to bend limbs in a logical way or change the way they are turning if necessary. Besides these limitations, the human body also has a logical reaction when moving in certain ways. For instance, when landing on your feet, your knees tend to bend to soften the hit. Or, when you get pushed, your body either defends itself, tightens up and stays standing, or completely falls over. These little things can make a big difference in a drawing since it is what makes a dynamic pose believable or not believable. These limits and habits may sound like a difficult task but you could also see them as a blessing since it increases the number of possible poses there are to create with your body and it will make it easier for you to practice on those that are humanly possible and make them look way more believable and more realistic than before.

Keep practicing

In conclusion, drawing dynamic poses can be very difficult and or challenging. However, these certain body poses are one of the most important poses to really nail when trying to draw a character. Therefore, you should use all these tips to your advantage and try to come up with a way to draw these dynamic poses in such a way that works for your particular art style. But even more important than that, is to always keep practicing. Even if you still seem to struggle a lot with these poses after this article, keep practicing. Try and draw yourself in different poses or draw your friends, family, or even regular random people on the street, because in the end, the only way to truly improve your artistic skills, will always be practice.

Practice drawing dynamic poses: Dynamic Poses Generator

Practice illustration: Illustration Prompts Generator