Centers of mass: see-saw, man, woman.
Let’s say you’ve learned a little about proportions, a little about figure shape (if you haven’t, go check out my first tutorial), but you've hit a new rut: poses. You can draw something recognizable as a person - perhaps even go so far as to put clothing and facial features on it (WHOA now, slow down), but every single person you draw is just kind of standing around, waiting for... nothing. With this tutorial, I hope to help you get out of that - to help you expand your ability to draw more unusual poses. As with my first tutorial, I'm not trying to teach anyone to DRAW... I'm teaching the theory behind the art, in an attempt to allow you to make your own extrapolations beyond what I have the time and ability to teach your directly.
As a side note, the easiest way to learn poses - in humanoids, anyway - is to sketch from photos or from life. Sit down with a sketchpad in a park or other public place and just draw people walking, playing games, talking to one another, anything. With practice, using skeletal or ovoid drawing techniques (as described in my first tutorial) will allow you to draw a figure in a matter of seconds, so you can draw many people in many poses.
One thing I won't spend a great deal of time on in this tutorial is foreshortening - making something come "towards" the viewer out of the page. I'll look at it briefly, but I'm not going to look at extreme examples, which are actually a combination of both foreshortening and perspective.)
1. Hanging In The Balance.
Every physical object in our world shares one common attribute, no matter what: a center of mass. This is the point on which the entire mass would balance, were it suspended from a string or placed on a pin. A simple example is a see-saw (teeter-totter); every child has tried to balance a see-saw with both seats in the air; it's possible because the axle is directly underneath the see-saw's center of mass. While you generally don't try to balance a person, the principle still applies - every person has a center of mass. For males, it is located in the abdomen (stomach); in females it is slightly lower, closer to the waist/hips.
How do we use centers of mass in artwork? It's simple, really. To maintain any upright stance, a human must be balanced. Try lifting one leg out to the side; to keep from falling over, you will lean your torso in the opposite direction, preserving the balance - preserving the equality of mass around your center of mass. The simple physical fact is that if your center of mass is off-balance too far, you must do something or you will fall over. You can alter your body position to restore balance; you can use an external point as an "anchor" (leaning on something); or you can move.
Posing a figure is as simple as finding a new place for its center of mass in relation to the ground. Want to lean your figure back to look up at the sky? With his shoulders behind his center of mass, push his hips forward to counterbalance. Want your figure to bend over to pick something up? Her center of mass is far forward; extend one leg to take a step under her, or have her brace herself with one hand on a nearby table. For smaller (especially upper-body) movements - for instance, aiming a gun or preparing to swing a baseball bat - the best way to get the figure shape right is to find a reference image. Or, be your own "model" by pantomiming the action in a mirror. It takes time to get poses right - the more dynamic, the longer it may take. After you draw a pose, look at it and ask yourself what gravity's effect on the figure would be, and if that is the intended effect.
1a. Now in 3D.
In many cases, a pose will result in some body part moving towards the viewer directly; don't be scared by this. This is one of the reasons skeletal/ovoid sketching comes in handy; you know the bone is there (you drew it, after all), but it looks short because it's coming towards you out of the page. In the sketch below (a kid watching TV), the upper arm comes directly out of the page. Note how when I add muscles to the arm, you can barely see the upper arm. That's ok! If your pose is sound and logical (no backward-bending joints), the viewer's brain will "fill in" the missing upper arm automatically, and the drawing still makes sense. In dramatic instances of this effect (which is called foreshortening), perspective also comes into play, making "near" elements appear much larger than they ought. But that's an issue for another tutorial.
2. I like to move it, move it.
Hand-stands are fun, but a pose is still a pose. How about a little action in our artwork? Luckily, centers of mass again provide the answer. What happens if I tilt a human being forward so that his center of mass is in front of his feet? The simple answer: he falls. The more interesting answer: He falls... unless he takes a step forward. Movement - walking, running, etc - is really just a series of controlled almost-falls. Drawing motion, therefore, is a matter of "freezing" your subject mid-fall. Compare the images below.
Note that the drawings in this tutorial are all skeletal or ovoid sketches only. This is importart; it's easy to see when a figure is unbalanced even at the skeletal stage. In most cases, it's actually easier than determining balance in a more detailed picture, because there are no unnecessary elements to obscure the motion itself. Therefore, always sketch out motion as simply as possible BEFORE you add detail. There's nothing more frustrating than getting something all drawn up and realizing that it couldn't possibly stay upright at that angle.
Above all, remember that imbalance suggests motion, and motion requires imbalance. If you draw an unbalanced figure, he will look like he's in motion - how you draw him will decide whether that motion is to stop abruptly or simply fall over because he can't keep his own balance. If you draw a totally balanced character, he will *not* appear to be in motion, no matter what.
3. Walk like a man.
This tutorial has focused completely on the human figure, and I wanted to touch briefly on a few other body types. First, quadrupeds. While they have a center of mass just like anything else, I find it's also helpful to imagine that each pair of legs - front and back - has its own center of mass as well. A quadruped balances on all four of its legs; if one is up, it's either in motion or balancing on the remaining three. Therefore, a cat taking a step would look like this.
Digitigrade creatures (those that walk on their toes; see my first tutorial) like a raptor have a much less stable footing than humans. For bipedal digitigrade animals, there are a few ways to fix this. One is a tail to counterbalance the body; another is an external walking aid, such as a staff, for more advanced creatures. These animals are frequently better suited to motion than to standing still because of their more precarious balance.
4. You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.
In closing, the only real way to "get" motion and unorthodox poses is, as always, to practice. Draw people you see in real life, on TV, anywhere. Find photographs on the 'net and draw the figures depicted. When learning motion and balance, the most exaggerated motions will be the best teachers - watch track and field athletes, watch gymnasts, watch acrobats. They are extremely precise and concious of their own balance, and picking up on that balance will be all the easier for you.
Here are a last few sketches of various poses.
