Drawing Dynamic Poses with Mannequins

[DatBepisTho]

There's a huge range available to the artist; some very cheap to some very expensive. Each has its own ranges of mobility as well as limitations.

Spoiler: I have about three from when I thought I could art.

An Art S.Buck male model in gray, essentially a stripped giant GI Joe.
https://sneed-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/e0/94/fc/e094fcbd5e237b857ee507e248ec12a3.jpg
An 8'' wooden dummy with some features drawn on in sharpie

and a bootleg figma he blank in clear to keep in my pencil box because those things are small enough to do so.

-Whether you use the classic wooden dummy or your sperg brother's Amazing Spider-man, what would you guys say is your favorite and/or the most helpful?
Ps- I would probably sell a kidney to get my hands on one of the 1/6 Synthetic Human Sentinels or an Arm.9 Ranger.

 

[Hypodermic Johnny]

I was looking for some of the simple/cheap wooden ones (using the "look at yourself in a mirror/use yourself" for reference doesn't work for me as I think it leads to me making more...lumpy drawings? for lack of a better word) but haven't been able to find them (seriously how does Michael's have everything BUT them). But your Spider-Man comment honestly just reminded me I've got some old Bionicles in a box in my closet that are just collecting dust I could use.

I mean, it's not stupid if it works, right?

 

[Mozzarella Dicks]

I used to use the site Posemaniacs

Never really had access to physical dummies to use as references

 

[DatBepisTho]

I was looking for some of the simple/cheap wooden ones (using the "look at yourself in a mirror/use yourself" for reference doesn't work for me as I think it leads to me making more...lumpy drawings? for lack of a better word) but haven't been able to find them (seriously how does Michael's have everything BUT them). But your Spider-Man comment honestly just reminded me I've got some old Bionicles in a box in my closet that are just collecting dust I could use.

I mean, it's not stupid if it works, right?

TBH the armature 9 looks like a very humanoid toy similar to Bionicles. With a heftier pricetag, I mean. If you got creative with some wire and gorilla glue you could probably make a pretty useful, even more humanoid one splicing your old Bionicles together.

I used to use the site Posemaniacs

Never really had access to physical dummies to use as references

That was honestly my go to when I started realizing that the wooden dummy was very limited in its range of motion (and its left shin cracked,) but found the poses weirdly specific or they took too long to load/rotate on the dial-up I had at the time. Have they updated their list of models and poses?

 

[Mozzarella Dicks]

That was honestly my go to when I started realizing that the wooden dummy was very limited in its range of motion (and its left shin cracked,) but found the poses weirdly specific or they took too long to load/rotate on the dial-up I had at the time. Have they updated their list of models and poses?

I haven't looked back at them in four years except one person linking me to a much more complicated and robust hand model than I was used to recently. I switched to mostly just Googling poses.

 

[Hypodermic Johnny]

I couldn't sleep, so, I went digging through those aforementioned Bionicles to toss together a mannequin. The hardest part was putting together a passable set of hips, honestly.

I call it Frank (short for Frankenstein).

Spoiler: Frank says hello!

Spoiler: Frank has a ball!

Spoiler: 'Draw me like one of your French girls.'

Because hey, it's still not stupid if it works.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

I've always found wooden models to be well... kinda crap to be honest. You can get some poses out of them, but not a great deal due to the limitations of their construction.

I've always found plastic or even virtual models to be a decent substitute. Hell,you might want to give this a look for future consideration.