New Burlesque Models Added

I've added some wonderful pictures of women in buresque and steampunk style costumes on the Female Costume page.

This reminds me of  Brian Bolland's artwork! 

How to Draw the Proportions of the Adult Male

How to draw the adult male. If you're new to drawing the human figure do spend some time grasping some of the fundamental concepts of figure drawing such as starting with simple stick figures before moving onto fleshing figures out with basic geometric shapes and then moving onto adding details - do not be tempted to skip the "easy" or "boring first steps in a rush to start drawing like your fave comic book artist.

These kind of techniques are taught and practiced in all of the top art schools and animation studios etc so they are to be absorbed, understood and practiced. Based on my own experiences I'd suggest at least one or two months of drawing nothing but very basic "stick figures" until you have the ability to draw basic figues n any postion, with any proportions.

Do not get caught up in anatomy or perspective during your first few weeks (ideallly months) of practice until you have a solid grasp of the fundaments.

Don't give up - it just takes practice and absolutely anyone can see a rapid improvement in their ability to quickly produce hundreds of simple, quick, effective stick figures that are proportionally correct and capture the essence of a pose.

I Draw Girls: How To Draw Woman's Body (Gesture Drawing)

Xia Taptara from I Draw Girls.com gives tips on drawing the female figure.

How to Draw Gesture

Hey everyone,

This fairly new blog has started getting some traffic so I am going to start posting content more regularly and really build this blog up into a useful resourc for artists.  I've decided to start posting how to draw videos - each of these videos have bee viewed and hand picked by myself.  If I find any "how to draw" type videos useful and worth watching I'll post them whenever I get the chance.

The emphasis of the videos will be on  figure drawing but will also branch out into concept art, character design, sculpting etc, where I feel the content is useful for anyone who is interested in learning ,ore about drawing the figure.

I'll kick things off with this great guide to gesture drawing.

New Pics Added - Tyler GND© by Blackhearted

I've Added 10 hi-res promotional pictures of the incredible Tyler GND© by Blackhearted for Poser 9 figure.  Comic strip artists in particular will find this figure invaluable for figure reference, action poses and anatomy studies. Please see the Poser figures page.

Cool Pose In Suit

Excellent pose - could be a super villian.

Bad Ass In Suit

When you need to drop a cool bad guy in a scene...

Suits And Shorts

As well as the jackets, there are some useful photos for leg studies here.

Cool Guys In Suits

Because you might need to draw guys in suits...

click for bigger (and then right click to see the original/bigger image).

Men With Arms Folded

If you work in the comic books industry, sooner or later you have to draw a man with his arms folded.

The Dark Side

I have The Dark Side - Female Figure Reference page - cos we all like to draw the living dead, right?

Male Mannequins For Artists

Added a page of male mannequins - useful for breaking the body down into simplified forms.

Punk/Goth/Emo/Alternative Figure Reference

If you're bored with the generic nice guys and pretty girl models this blog will hopefully provide some relief as I'll be posting plenty of references for alternative characters such as punks and goths. Being able to portray street and alternative culture well is a great skill for comic book artists and illustrators.

Check the pages in the side bar for specific pages.

Generic Male Head Studies

Kick starting the male face section with some pics of  Michael 5 Model. Rather bland and generic - ideal for comic book "good guys" etc.

See the Male Heads page for more.

Daz Studio Michael 5 Figure Page Added

I have added a page with a series of renders featuring Daz Studio/Poser model Michael 5. In time I hope to cover all of the quality Daz 3D models - incredibly useful anatomy/torso reference for the comic book artists in particular.   See the page links in the right sidebar or click here.

Welcome To The Ultimate Collection Of Free Photo References For Artists

Hi and a warm welcome to my blog which is intended to be one of the biggest and most useful sites for artists and lllustrators and creatives who are looking for an easy to access and free source of figures for drawing, painting etc.

Who Is This Blog Aimed At? 

Figure Poses For Artists is suitable for anyone who requires handy reference photos of human figures for their projects. I am a cartooist/illustrator by day so I will mostly be selecting images that I find thik I might useful for my 'bread and butter' work.

I see this blog as being useful for:  Comic strip artists, illustrators, graphic designers, painters, animators etc.

What Sort Of Figure Reference Features Here?

To start with I will be mainly focused on clothed figures so expect lots of men and women in various outfits. Poses will vary from action poses to "everyday" poses (such as standing, sitting, leaning etc). I will do my best to categorise pictures so that it's easy to find what you're looking for.

Are These Pictures Original & Copyright Free?

No and no. These pictures are found online and are presented here for your personal use and inspiration only. All copyrights of the original photograph owners/sources are respected.  Try not to blindly trace or copy these photos but simply use them for reference in the same way artists and illustrators have been using photographs from newspapers and catalogues etc for many years.

I have tried to use photographs I consider to be somewhat in the public domain - photos companies and individuals won't mind me sharing with others.

The point of these pictures is to save you hours trawling the internet looking for suitable stuff.

Is using photos cheating?

Absolutely not! Artists and illustrators have been using photo reference for years. Ideally all artists would take their own photos of professional models with perfect outfits and props  but this is not always practical.

Artists have always gathered and collected reference material for use in their work - now thanks to the internet it's much easier to find and store thousands of images for recalling whenever you need a particular pose or references for a particular prop.

Don't forget, however, to add your  own twist - you're an artist not a human photo tracer!

I hope that my collection of figure poses provides inspiration for your work.