What makes this composition so stiff and shapeless?

[JoshRaed]

I've tried fixing an issue by myself, fixing it using references, fixing it using an app, and it's still awful, so I figured this was a good time to take this to the forum.

Pictures of this pose from real people looks boring, a 3d model of this pose looks boring, and my attempt at fixing the pose with my own drawing eyeballs is pretty bad too. No one seems to know how to make this pose look good and nothing resembling it seems to look good either.

I tried to follow this tutorial specifically. So the shapelessness is my fault, and I can at least fix that.

[SleepingPoppy]

I feel like you’re just over fixating on this one thing. You should just let the drawing be “good enough” and move on. I feel like practice and study over time (drawing lots of things, looking at multiple references, using shapes over and over again) will eventually help you get rid of the stiffness.

I do find using 3D models tends to result in stiffer art if you don’t really now what you’re doing. But sometimes we just work with what we have.

I’m sure this isn’t the advice you’re looking for, but it’s what I think.

[Caro]

Just move on. The best way to get better at this point is to accept that you’re not going to nail everything and keep moving forward and doing what you have to do to get things finished. No artist in any medium has ever gotten good by fixating. You can fixate later but right now just finish things and expand your visual library. You want to learn so you will over time but fixation is not your friend at the moment.

[NickRowler]

I don't like wireframes for this exact reason. It is a good tool to understand form but I feel like gesture drawings are going to benefit you more in the long run. (I feel like I did mention this on another thread you did)

I also agree with other people. You just need to move on from this picture and pose. It's stiff because you aren't pushing yourself. You aren't trying something new.

This is how I would draw the same pose. I tend to work with a loose sketch first, I do feel like my style is stiff but I guess the looser sketch does help a bit (something I feel like I also mentioned in another thread).

EDIT:
This vid could be helpful

[choilyriel]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[irresponsiblepics]

It's because you're looking at a wireframe. Much like 3d models it's fine for reference but lacks personality.
Watch some movies with real people dancing, pause it on a particular pose and use that as reference. Slow dancing is hard to pull off for comics (being static images) so pimp it up a bit..add some flows to the clothing or hair to convey movement. Unless its an intimate scene then using "the world stands still" effect adds intimacy.
Additionally once you add your character details then it will be less boring.

[Legendofgenii]

I know you said you weren't a fan, but drawing from life is the best way, in my honest opinion.

This pose looks stiff and unnatural, because you are trying to draw it from imagination. Now, I'm not saying drawing from imagination is a bad thing, but it's not easy either - especially for a beginner. That's why Pictionary is so funny.

I recommend collecting up some references that you do like. It'll give your creative brain more material to work from.

I had a quick google search and found some lovely poses. I think with an embrace, it's important to show the hands (which are hidden in your example). How they are physically holding one another will express so much more information. Gentle hold vs a lusty grab for example. Maybe push their foreheads together?

I hope that made some sense. I am certainly not a qualified teacher.

[Lensing]

First thing to do is collect 10 pictures of people in that pose or similiar.
You can´t draw a picture from imagination when your brain doesn´t know
1) which pose looks good
2) what the pose looks like
Every artist has a huge reference library and constantly checks out
how people in real life look like, how other artists draw those poses etc.

The way you see things will develop and with experience you will see what
makes a good and a bad pose. There are many horrible reference pictures which
don´t work well for illustrations. You have to learn what makes a good reference
and then feed your brain with that information. Your brain can only work with
information that you provide.

Hugging, standing close, holding hands, kissing etc are hard poses to draw by the way.
It´s not easy to figure out where the arms go and it can look weird when the anatomy is off
and the arms are too long etc

[gabriellabalagna]

Others have some good ideas of what not to do. But I'll give some ideas of what you can try instead:

• line of action
• squash and stretch
• flour sack/jelly bean torso

I don't have a specific tutorial for those concepts, but if you look into them, they are helpful for less stiff poses. All the best!

[JoshRaed]

I actually added the exaggerated lean for a stronger action line.

Also I thought squash and stretch only applied to animation and to drawings with a much more cartoony slant. How would it fit into this pose specifically?

[BoomerZ]

Going to agree with @NickRowler . Try to draw very loose with your sketches and use line of action/gesture drawing for you base model. We are drawing comics, not portraits. Those are two different types of artwork. That block way of drawing will do you no favors on learning how to draw. You also should try and take some life drawing classes. Squash and stretch are animation techniques that only work if you are doing very cartoony style artwork. Most comics don't use that.

[hakei]

I myself am still learning to draw more fluidly but adding to what gabriellabalagna said — I think this piece could use more exaggeration in the curves, especially in the spine.

One tip I learned is to think of gestures in terms of action -- how was the person moving before and how they will be moving after the picture is taken.
So for example for this pose (and in the reference photo), one of them could be pushing up and forward to the other person.

Something like:

(gesture drawing lessons tend to focus on curves and line of action, so they're great for fluid drawing)

[JoshRaed]

This might be a stupid question, but is the general pose I'm going for in my drawing an inherently bad one? Like is is possible to draw it the same but better. or is it just going to be bad?

[kalmia]

You can’t really keep the pose the same and somehow find a way to make it better. The general pose is the issue and why it looks so stiff, if you were to add more flow and curve to it, it would look better, but it would require you to change the composition of your pose. That doesn’t mean the pose is changed completely, it’s still two characters hugging one another, it’s just composed better.

[hakei]

I don't think the pose itself is a bad one but the direct side view like the one you chose can be tricky to draw.

It's why many illustrations have the characters slightly turned at an angle away from the camera.

[PoquitoBird]

This one video has always stuck out to me about the fluidity of motion and wire frame character poses. Its a pretty good break down of motion from the dancers that performed the piece. You can feel the weight behind the motion and the intent of the feelings behind them.

Thought of You - by Ryan Woodward

[JoshRaed]

Is it possible to keep going from here or is this just unusable?

I just realized right now that it breaks the action lines I established, on top of being the mess it already is.

[Shanny8]

In addition to the numbers of posts with helpful suggestions, you also have to accept that you arent going to produce dynamic art overnight- it takes time, determination, and perseverance...how much time depends on how well you learn and produce.

[JoshRaed]

I don't understand how this mans drawings get anything right anatomically using his method. Like you'd think a loose rough sketch without concern for how it looks would look less like something you could actually put in a comic.

Like here's what I got.

[EncryptedWriting]

Okay so my art is less than good. But I think it's important to note that art is fluid. It isn't wood. It isn't a building (if I can put it like that?). You are drawing living people. We have parts that rotate and spin and aren't flat. Try maybe looking into, what many have said, the various tutorials put there to make your folks look more like humans and less like shapes.

I should note you are getting a lot of good advice here! Take a moment and go over them and try and think about the ideas these folks are giving ya.