And so I am going to make you draw stick figures. Find out why. ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ ͏ ‌     ­ This newsletter is about drawing. It goes out every Friday. Want to draw? Then check out my free workbook!

#148 - Stick Figures Are Actually Good If You Want To Draw Dynamic Poses

And so I am going to make you draw stick figures. Find out why.

I used to draw manikins to note the gesture of a pose, but I recently learned to use stick figures instead. I discovered that was all that was needed to note a pose. Stick figures are easier because you don’t have to get cylinders to suggest the limbs.

You still need to draw the torso as a volume. It’s useful to draw the chest and hips as separate forms, but after that, you can just attach the limbs as lines. You get almost everything down: the pose, the relative orientations of the elbows to each other, the knees to each other, the feet to each other, the feet relative to the head. All those relations are essential for getting the pose right, and you can jot these down with stick figures.

You can then start to experiment by rotating the stick figure. Later, you can fill out the stick figure, give it volume, and dress it up with clothes and details.

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