Warming up Digital Figure Drawing with PoseManiacs.com

It’s always nice to start my work day off with some gesture sketching. Unfortunately, I don’t have a live model on call or have a lot of time to go through photo reference sites looking for a pose to sketch. Maybe I could just find a magazine, but my computer is right here and I have the perfect web site for doing just that. It’s called Pose Maniacs (www.posemaniacs.com). Its a japanese site with hundreds of pre-posed virtual human figures with their top layer of skin removed so you can see the muscle structure underneath. Which is great for helping learn human anatomy for both males and females. Most of the models can rotate 360 degrees on a single axis just by dragging the mouse. My favorite feature, however, has got to be the “30 Second Drawing” mode which generates a random pose every 10, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 seconds. I set it to 60 seconds and start sketching. I’ve found it to be a great tool to get warmed up before sitting down behind my drafting table for a long day of drawing. This site also has plenty of other helpful features. The “Negative Space Drawing” option which gives you a random pose but with only the silhouette visible. A “Drawing for Hand” section which is strangely named because not only does it have 360 degree models of hands but also a male foot, head and body. When you go to this page the first image you see is a nude male torso which makes it feel like you’re on the wrong page. This is where the real drawbacks of this site start to show. Remember that this is a Japanese site that has been translated into English and the translation is not very good making it a little hard to navigate. I wouldn’t recommend doing too much reading on the site but to each their own.