hi nikki!! how do you choose the references for the poses? The poses in your drawings seem so grounded, natural, and organic; i struggle a lot with that! (thanks in advance for reading my q!)
hi!! thank you sm the kind words 🖤 i’ll try to go more in-depth here about how i pick and “translate” my refs into my art—
((again the usual preface of what works for me might not work for others and pick art advice that works for you etc etc))
so i usually just scroll through pinterest and look for more candid poses of people in action/motion, not looking at the camera—i think that helps with the “natural” feel. i also take a lot of inspiration from existing art from artists i admire, who make the kind of art that i want to make. my challenge is how to make my art without taking heavy/obvious inspiration from existing art or outright copying it from photo refs.
the thing is - having marinated myself in pinterest for years - sometimes i see an artwork and the first thing i think of is the ref because i recognize it >< (i’m just speaking for myself and this is purely a me problem, ofc not everyone thinks like this). so this has informed how i approach my refs—i try to tweak it a bit so it’s not a direct copy. (important to note though that this is just a personal preference and i don’t do this all of the time—if i find myself thinking too hard about my art then it doesn’t get drawn! also it’s totally ok if you do direct copies or inspo of photo refs—it really all depends on what you want to convey as an artist. besides, sometimes some of my poses come out wonky bc i tweak it too much haha) ((also if i have a ref that’s my own photo, even if it’s a photo of my own hand, i outright copy it bc it’s my photo anyway and not available anywhere else)).
most of the time i try to change some part of the pose to better fit the characters i am drawing. here’s an example:
left is the ref, right is the sketch - so i had the base or what i felt was the most “anchoring” part of the ref down - geto carrying gojo - and at first i thought it’d be cute to have gojo throw his head back in laughter and his glasses fall off (ok looking at it now, it’s still cute, i’m 🥹) but i thought it’d feel more in-character to have gojo kind of flexing, showing off, teasing geto a bit, and geto being so easy for him and endeared, laughing and threatening to drop him. it felt much more “them” to me. so i looked up a ref of a guy flexing from the side and ended up with this sketch below on the left (final output is on the right). i still had to figure out the pose a bit bc he now didn’t match the original ref (hence the boxes in the first picture).
so again - pick a pose with movement, and tweak it a bit!
(i pretty much frankensteined this pose—it doesn’t always work but most of the time i go more with vibes than accuracy and it’s okay haha 🚬🥲)
also, regarding translating the ref to 2D, especially if you’re using a photo image of people - these things don’t always look good if you copy them 1:1, which is why animators always suggest “pushing” the pose. i always try to keep a sense of movement in my art, and “pushing” the pose helps that, and helps transform it a bit more from the ref. this will definitely help in making the pose feel more “organic”—more like a drawing, and less like a photo. (if you want a look at how artists push poses, i highly, highly recommend following zeet studio’s instagram account and taking a look at their stories. the way artists have translated models to paper is just incredible and inspiring to me always).
sometimes i’m able to draw without a reference but this is only possible because i have drawn from refs or live drawings and have practiced beforehand because every time we draw, it builds up our visual library. this is why i would suggest trying our very best not to outright trace references - or you have to trace smartly (for example, using the shrimp method - which is literally so simple and smart).
also as another practice: think about the same pose but in different ways. for example, i have a favorite pose to draw satosugu in. because i am deranged about them and i sincerely enjoy the idea of gojo catapulting himself into geto’s arms, i have drawn this many times and i’m always like rotating them in my mind - how would it look from this angle? with this arm placement? what if i tilt them a bit? i built up a ref board of this carrying pose and drew it over and over in different ways until i can pretty much draw it without a ref 😆 and i think i improve a little bit more every time i draw it in terms of angling, weight, posing. it becomes more and more “organic”.
ONE LAST THING in terms of making a pose feel “grounded” - i highly suggest looking at the gege’s manga panels. like he really knows how to make a character stand—they feel heavy, weighted, powerful. think of where the character is resting their weight in the pose, and how the line of action or the “energy” of the pose flows from there. these ones of geto, for example:
((these are so fun to look at ><)) i also personally like to draw a bit of shadow under the character - it helps place them on 3D plane too.
sorry i yapped away again but i hope this helps in any way! <3
