This week I was trying to go back to my basics. I have my first real figure drawing class this coming semester and I’m real excited about it. In my other classes we’ve had figures, sure, but never anything that fully takes up the whole class. I love drawing figures, so it’s something I’m especially looking forward to. Even if the way I draw isn’t especially realistic and has a lot of fantasy aspects to it, I still think it’s important to learn the basics of the figures.

Online there are a lot of really great resources. On YouTube you have Croquis Cafe (NSFW) that has nude models posing as if you were with them for 15 seconds, then longer and longer until a full pose. There are also interesting videos where the model poses and is spun in a circle, so you can get different angled understandings of the figure.

They also have a lot of resources on their own website on On Air Video (also NSFW). Here there is an awesome photo archive with tons of reference photos of all different types of bodies, both male and female. It’s especially useful to me since I draw mostly women, it’s nice to have a male reference to draw from.

There are all sorts of others online for references, including lots of cool Pinterest boards, as well as ones like Senshi Stock, where it’s more safe for work, and the models have interesting action based poses for comics and things of the like. Then again, you can always just ask a younger sibling or a friend to pose for you! But if you have any family like mine, they never are very good at it!