References for natural figure drawing poses
January 1, 2020 6:45 AM Subscribe
I'm hoping to do more drawing in 2020, and "random pose generator" websites are great for practicing figure drawing daily. But I feel like the images in these libraries tend to be a little... divorced from reality?
The poses available on these websites tend to be kind of unusual and contorted, like someone lying with just their head flat on the floor with the rest of their body propped up against a wall. This is a good 'challenge' pose, probably, but I feel like these kinds of artsy images skip past like the entire range of poses that might come up in regular activities that I may someday want to depict in art (my desired application is more in the vein of comics/cartooning rather than creating thought-provoking images to hang on a wall).
Are there any similar libraries that specialize in poses that might have more practical application? Or other good tactics for gathering references? When I was practicing more seriously a few years back, I'd try pausing movies and TV shows to draw the characters/poses, but it can be time consuming and challenging to wait for the 'right' thing to draw without getting swept up in a show, and Netflix automatically dims the screen after it's paused for more than a few moments so it's not very convenient.
The poses available on these websites tend to be kind of unusual and contorted, like someone lying with just their head flat on the floor with the rest of their body propped up against a wall. This is a good 'challenge' pose, probably, but I feel like these kinds of artsy images skip past like the entire range of poses that might come up in regular activities that I may someday want to depict in art (my desired application is more in the vein of comics/cartooning rather than creating thought-provoking images to hang on a wall).
Are there any similar libraries that specialize in poses that might have more practical application? Or other good tactics for gathering references? When I was practicing more seriously a few years back, I'd try pausing movies and TV shows to draw the characters/poses, but it can be time consuming and challenging to wait for the 'right' thing to draw without getting swept up in a show, and Netflix automatically dims the screen after it's paused for more than a few moments so it's not very convenient.
Best answer: Artist Noah Bradley has a website full of figure reference, of himself and his wife Rachel, specifically for artists. There are a bunch of paid sets, but they offer a few large-size freebies from each set as well.
posted by themissy at 8:54 AM on January 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by themissy at 8:54 AM on January 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
This is a very large collection of nude figure poses. Most are pretty natural and there are diverse body types and ages represented.
posted by merriment at 11:04 AM on January 5, 2020
posted by merriment at 11:04 AM on January 5, 2020
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posted by ananci at 8:33 AM on January 1, 2020