Character Posing and Wings Practice - Would Like Critique

Hello! Farren here. I recently did this page in my sketchbook using ballpoint pens, practicing the posing of 2 of my characters and how one of their wings work. I was wondering if I could get any advice and/or critique about posing, wings, and how to draw similar things in the future.

Click For Drawing (Sorry it's sideways)

Hey Farren,

I like how the charecter designs are lookin!

In terms of posing, i think you did a pretty good job, but, the forms look a little static (stiff) in the head and neck area. I would suggest looking into the anatomy of the head and neck in dynamic poses to get a better understanding of the forms in 3d space. Another thing i noticed is that some of your proportions look a little off. The male charecter on the left has an arm that isn't proportional to the other. The arm thats further away from the cameras lense appears bigger than the other arm, however, the arms would look almost the same size in this drawing. Things tend to appear smaller as they get further away from the lense, not larger. The are drawn pretty decently, although.

The wings look like they're lacking some form and aren't very proportional to how large bird-like wings would look. Most wings, when spread out, look more like a nike symbol. In your drawing, the feathers shoot out in an almost equal length from the arm of the wing wich gives off the vibe of something more like a butterflies wing. I'd suggest doing some anatomical studies birds in flight.

Thank you for your time and I hope this is usual information. :)

Bread

• D3ad Br3ad edited this post on March 24, 2021 11:03am.
• D3ad Br3ad edited this post on March 24, 2021 11:05am.

Hey Farren, I really like the characters you were drawing. The pen is a medium where mistakes can't be erased! I found it may be difficult to deal with, however, I can see you appear comfortable with this which is great! I do think that your character on the left squatting down has a great and interesting pose! I don't know the wings, however posing there is something you may want to look into! The term used is contrapposto. My lecturer always stressed how beautiful the body was made. Every part of the body is made to counterbalance one another.

If you see the image below, this is something you can afford to exaggerate to make the pose appear more dynamic! Usually, if you find your poses being stiff, try drawing over the shoulders and the hips and see if they are making a parallel line. Also I would recommend either taking some artwork from your favourite artists and analyse their poses and what makes them dynamic as well! Hope to you may take away something from this! :D

Okay! Thank you! This really helped. I haven't drawn wings or male characters for that matter up until very recently. Now that I find myself pushing to get better and expand my skill I am seeking out guidance from others instead of just...winging....it. Okay, that was a bad joke. Anyways, this really helped. I never know where to look, the right people to ask, or what to do. Thank you for explaining to me what needs to be corrected and how to go about doing so. This really helped me out! Your guys' comments are really helping me improve anatomy, posing, and a greater understanding of art. Thank you!

Great job on your pose composition, SnailsAndRavens, that is totally and totally excellent and awesome job.

If I would be able to give you a sincere critique on this picture, then it would be to say that most of the faces (rotated accidentally, forgiven) are a bit too rigider here. Would you please be able to completely and fairly loosen yourself up on your face and expression gesture drawings, with 159 minutes of 30 second drawings and warm-up doodles????? (159 x 60/30/5, 9540/30/5 days, 318/5=64 warm-up scribbles a day)

The reason why you should be able to help yourself is because, you'd be able to get a lot of exaggerated and more than appealing range of expressions and emotions, in your heads, if you could be able to apply this into your manga-influenced cartoons.

So, cheers, good luck, and my hat's off to you.