Practice Drawing An Action Pose

Most figure drawing instruction presents the Loomis mannequin as an academic exercise, disconnected from the actual process of creating dynamic character art. The gap between drawing a static mannequin in a textbook and constructing a character in a compelling action pose is enormous, and rarely addressed directly.

This two-hour demonstration bridges that gap by building a fantasy character from the very first thumbnail sketch through mannequin construction, anatomy, costume, and illustrative elements. The subject is Ara, an original elf character from a published comic, drawn entirely in pencil on Bristol board. Every decision about proportion, tangent management, and when to prioritize story over anatomical perfection is discussed as it happens in real time.

The drawing follows a clear four-stage process: transfer, pose, form, and detail. Transfer means getting the rough concept onto the page at the right scale, answering the simple question of whether the drawing will actually fit. The pose stage establishes the stick figure and mannequin, finding the spine, center lines, and major joint positions. Form adds musculature and three-dimensional anatomy over that framework. Detail brings costume, character features, and illustrative elements.

What makes this process practical is that the stages overlap. The mannequin phase already incorporates character-specific elements like horn placement and weapon positioning, because those features affect tangents and compositional flow. Waiting until the detail phase to figure out where horns attach to the skull would mean redrawing the entire head construction. Anything critical to the silhouette or the pose becomes part of the mannequin stage, regardless of whether it is technically anatomy or costume.

A major theme throughout the demonstration is what gets called a drawing spidey sense. This is the subconscious awareness of when poses are going to create problems, particularly around tangents. Tangents occur where forms overlap or meet in confusing ways, making it impossible to separate one limb from another. A hand crossing behind a knee, an elbow lining up with a heel, any spot where the silhouette becomes ambiguous.

The honest approach to tangent problems depends entirely on intent. For a quick sketch, the solution might be to simply fade out or obscure the problematic area. For a polished cover illustration, every tangent needs to be resolved through careful pose planning. The demonstration shows both approaches in practice: some tangent issues get solved structurally, while others get handled by letting hair, a cape, or environmental elements cover the trouble spot. This is not laziness. It is the professional reality of directing the viewer's eye toward what matters and away from what does not.

The final phase transforms a character drawing into something that feels more like an illustration. Rather than attempting a full background, the approach starts small: a few rocks being shattered, speed lines to imply motion, a cape caught in the wind. These simple additions create narrative context and compositional energy without requiring a fully rendered environment.

This incremental approach to backgrounds is especially valuable for character-first artists. Instead of jumping from isolated figures to complex scenes, the path is to add one or two interactive elements at a time. A character standing becomes a character doing something, which becomes a character doing something with something. Each step builds compositional thinking without overwhelming the drawing process. The medium matters too. Pencil on Bristol board encourages a sketchy, tonal approach that rewards looseness. Responding to what the tools do well rather than fighting them produces more natural results, and the iterative erase-and-redraw workflow that good cotton paper allows makes successive refinement passes possible without destroying the surface.