Help me depict a figure who’s off balance

Question

Answer Tom Fox replies

With a bit of practice, you can control not just if the figure is balanced, but how unbalanced you want them to be. First, draw the ground plane, in the form of a grid, and the horizon line to establish eye level. Now draw the major masses as boxes – the torso and hips – and get them leaning to one side. If you can get some twist between those two, then that’s even better. Once the ground and boxes are blocked in, the figure should already appear off-balance, without even having drawn the limbs. You can see these highlighted in my first process image.

Next, draw the legs. Draw a line down from the boxes to the floor. Now choose where you want the feet to be. If you draw them at a point directly below the torso, it’ll add stability to the figure. The further you place the feet from the point below the torso, the more off-balance the pose will become. Imagine where the weight is distributed. Posing yourself is the best way to imagine this. Establish a clear lean and you’re off to a great start.

Finally, add the arms as cylinders and you’ve blocked out an off-balance gesture. Job done.

There’s no need to overcomplicate your colouring. Flat colours with just two or three values to describe the values will do. Then just add highlights to show differences in material.

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