how do you find a good reference to a pose you have in your imagination?

[Anna Lindsay]

@arielg I use the timer on my phone's camera app a lot! Nothing fancy.

Yes, I do this all the time. Even if my final character doesn't end up looking a lot like the reference photo, sometimes the reference is just a good jumping off point. I think it's also a good way to decide on a pose if you're not sure how the character should be positioned. Get into the mindset of the character (e.g. surprised, angry, searching for something, curious etc.) and see it like acting a bit. Yeah it's a bit embarrassing especially if you share a work space, but I just roll with being the weirdo haha.

[arielg]

@Neha-Rawat
thank you, yes, its a good idea

[Coreyartus]

@arielg I attended a webinar for my local SCBWI chapter, and an Art Director from Simon and Schuster was the guest presenter. She told us that she used to take pictures of her own facial expressions and poses and send them to the artist in order to capture the exact feeling and essence she wanted from the illustration. And provided visual examples.

Using reference is a thing. A quite legit thing.

I've taken to paying for collections of pose reference on ArtStation and various others I've found over time that sell reference packs on Gumroad. Interestingly, there are some useful profiles that focus on pose reference on DeviantArt, but the better ones there often link to their own pay-site collections. Also the rabbit hole that is Pinterest can sometimes proffer interesting resources that lead off-site as well.

For non-pose reference my standbys are the public domain sites like Pixabay, Pexels and PXHere, but one has to be careful of those--sometimes they're not actually public domain and all kinds of trouble can ensue. They curate similar subject matter in groups and that can sometimes help. I would personally rely upon Google more, but the ability to keep the reference material as reference and not outright copy it is beyond my capacity right now. So using anything on Google scares me, except when I specifically set search parameters for non-copyright results... I'm just not good enough to use reference confidently in the right way yet, so I shy away from the temptation. But that's just me.

Some other sites that I have found useful in one way or the other:

https://www.quickposes.com/en/gestures/timed
http://reference.sketchdaily.net/en/
https://www.anatomynext.com/
http://www.senshistock.com/sketch/
https://line-of-action.com/
http://www.onairvideo.com/croquis-cafe-photos3.html
https://figurosity.com/quick-poses
http://posemuse.com/
http://beta.sketchdaily.net/en

https://vimeo.com/croquiscafe
https://modelindexdatabase.smugmug.com/browse
https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/
https://tracingrealbodymodels.org/
https://www.bodyvisualizer.com/male.html
https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/game-dev?section=trending&q=pose&page=3

https://www.human-anatomy-for-artist.com/
https://www.earthsworld.com/

https://www.deviantart.com/tasastock/journal/Stocky-Directory-216748618
https://www.deviantart.com/search?q=human Pose

These may not help you immediately right now, but perhaps they might be useful in the future.

[arielg]

great resources! thank you very much, although i haven't found what i need still in there, i am sure to use this in the future.

[sigross]

@arielg best to set up your own poses. Just like this one I did to get the right angle for a Unicorn painting I was doing.

[ArtofAleksey]

I want to order myself a full body mirror for poses. But also cause i look amazing

[davidhohn]

@Coreyartus That earthsworld.com is gold!!

[TessaW]

@davidhohn Holy crap, that site is amazing!

[burvantill]

If all else fails look in the mirror... or take a photo of yourself. I’ve had to do this many times and it works. Even if it’s for a person that looks nothing like me in size or shape. You just need a general idea of how the bones bend and you’re good to go. There are a couple of great courses in svs that deal with poses. Highly recommend.

[Coreyartus]

@davidhohn @TessaW That Earthsworld resource actually comes from Brooklyn Walker's Introduction to Gesture Drawing course here on SVSLearn. It's hidden at the very very very bottom of the Additional Resources tab. I agree it's golden. There isn't a single person on there that isn't a walking character!

[burvantill]

I was conversing with Earthsworld and told him he was gathering a following of art students here. This was his response:

[jdubz]

One other thing that might be helpful are these types of figures.

Using a desklamp on a hinge and getting some lighting information when you snap a picture has been pretty useful.

[deborah Haagenson]

I don't think this has been said and I haven't checked out the suggested sites, which may be a better solution, but if you search in Google for Poses, instead of trying to look for a unique pose, you may find what you're looking for. That's helped me in the past. Also, it helps to learn if you find a close pose and modify it a little.