One of the most common activities in art school is life drawing – where a model strikes a variety of poses and a class of artists sketches, draws, or paints them. The model might do quick poses of 30 seconds or a few minutes, so artists can focus on gestures, lines, shapes, and proportion. Or they might do longer poses for artists to really dig in and get all the details right.
If you're a visual artist who draws human body figures, practicing by drawing a variety of poses is crucial. Whether your style is realistic or stylized, the key to drawing different poses well is to master human anatomy. And one of the best ways to learn anatomy better and improve your drawing skills is drawing from pose references!
You might use them for warm-up exercises, or just to practice drawing quick lines. They can also be great for inspiration when you're starting a new illustration. No matter the purpose you want to use a pose reference for, we've collected a bunch of resources for finding free pose references online. Check them out below!
Sketch Daily
Sketch Daily remains one of the best resources for practicing or getting some pose inspiration. It's been around for years and still gets somewhat consistent updates. Like many of the other resources on this list, it comes with a convenient timer feature that lets you decide how long you want to spend sketching a given reference picture. The images on the screen switch up automatically when your time is up – you can choose an image to stay on the screen for as short as 30 seconds or leave it there for an hour to really get the details right – or remove the timer altogether. Another option is "class mode," which starts with shorter poses as a warmup and then goes into longer poses – just like you might experience in a real life drawing class in art school.
The website lets you choose from a variety of options – you can choose the sex/gender of the model, whether they're clothed or nude, if the poses are active or passive, and whether the view is from the front, side, or back of the model. You can also choose to just focus on certain body parts – we all need more practice drawing hands and feet! – or you can choose animals, structures, or plants. It also has a bunch of other great features, like keyboard shortcuts to flip or mirror an image, and dark mode if you prefer to keep the lights down!
Visit SketchDaily here.
PoseMyArt
If you're looking to get a reference for a very specific pose – maybe you're drawing a comic and need something a superhero would do but a human stock photo model never would, for example? – Pose My Art is a great option. It has a 3D model engine, within which you can take a model and pose it however you'd like to get all of the angles and anatomy correct!
There are tons of options for the 3D model, with various body shapes and types available like Anime Male, Chibi Female, Zombie/Alien, and more. They have wheelchair users as well, and even skeletons! Keep in mind, however, that only the basic models are free – you can upgrade to a paid account if you want nearly limitless options. You can even use some stock poses, if you're looking for inspiration.
You have the freedom to pose these models in any way imaginable, and to observe them in a 3D setting from every angle. You know how sometimes the pose you draw looks good, but the angle doesn’t feel right? Being able to see the models from different angles can help you try to draw the same pose in different ways so you can get it perfect. You can also arrange the lighting to your own liking in the 3D "studio" to get shadows correct, too!
Visit PoseMyArt here.
Line of Action
While on the surface Line of Action looks very similar to Sketch Daily, it has a number of features and resources for anyone who's getting more serious about their figure drawing and who wants to mirror the art school experience at home. You can choose between human figures, animals, hands and feet, faces, still life, or environments and buildings. You can select intervals from 30 seconds to 10 minutes or set a custom time, or use "class mode." And for human figures, you can specify clothed or nude models, specific genders (including a couple of sets of non-binary models), choose age ranges, and even select portrait or landscape orientation for the photo references.
But Line of Action also includes other features. It has photosets that feature the same model in a variety of poses and from a variety of angles so you can practice "360 degree views" of a model, you can choose a particular model and view a bunch of photosets of just them, there are a bunch of resources for finding art books, and they have a newsletter that features tips and news, and a free pencil control practice workbook.
The forums are the real draw of Line of Action, however! Their Critique forum is a place where artists of all skill levels come together to post their recent work and get feedback and support from other artists. And the Practice & Advice forum is where artists come together to share techniques and resources they've found to support them in working on their art practice.
Visit Line of Action here.
Posemaniacs
If you're serious about learning anatomy in detail, down to the musculature, Posemaniacs is an excellent pose reference resource because it focuses on 3D models without skin, so you can see all of the muscles underneath! Featuring thousands of male and female muscle model poses engaged in a variety of activities, from walking to parkour to fighting to engaging in a variety of sports. Once you've selected a model, you can zoom in, rotate the model around in 3D space, and change the settings – from coloring the different muscle groups to shifting the lighting.
Visit Posemaniacs here.
Adorkastock
While all of the pose reference resources we've covered so far have a pretty wide variety of models, and allow you to specify the body type, sex/gender, and/or age, as well as other categories, of the models, Adorkastock is a great pose reference resource for artists looking specifically for diverse models. They focus specifically on featuring pose reference images from underrepresented groups, including models with disabilities, models of color, plus size models, and more. It's also one of the few resources to feature a sizable portfolio of underwater images, perfect for anyone who's looking for more reference for their mermaid drawings! Every model featured in this resource is clothed, as well, so it's great for educators who want a diverse reference library for their classes without having to specifically filter out "NSFW" material.
They also offer "packs" of images that fit a particular theme for a small extra donation, but the bulk of the material is free. If you feel like too many of the models on the other resources have a particularly common "look" and want to diversify the references you're using as you build your artistic skill, then you need to make sure you have Adorkastock bookmarked.
Visit Adorkastock here.
Learning how to draw? Check out our Learn to Draw page
Wacom is committed to supporting young and beginning artists in their creative journeys! Check out our Learning to Draw page for a wealth of resources – general tips and tricks as well as a specific collection of tutorials for character design and for manga & anime.
