Drawing People: Creating Unique and Dynamic Character Poses in Procreate
Throughout this class you’ll learn how to design and pose diverse, stylised human characters with unique body shapes.
I’ll be using my iPad Pro with Procreate in my demonstrations but feel free to use your preferred drawing tools.
If you want to learn how to draw and pose people with confidence and to establish personality in your character illustrations, then this class is for you! Whether you’re a total beginner or just looking to brush up on your character illustration skills, there’s something to be learned at all levels.
We’ll cover:
- gesture drawing
- understanding realistic human proportions
- designing stylised characters with unique body shapes
- creating expressive character poses using references
- illustrating several dynamic poses for one of your character designs created in class
As humans we communicate so much through body language, and having the tools to communicate these expressions through art can be so effective and rewarding. This class will give you the confidence to draw expressive people of all shapes and sizes, providing you with the tools to design unique characters and pose them consistently.
I'll be using pencil and paper as well as the iPad Pro and Procreate to demonstrate this class, but feel free to use whatever materials or software you're most comfortable drawing with. While I'll be explaining my process in Procreate as I go along, the primary intention of this class is to teach you how to draw people using any medium, so I won't be covering too many technical aspects of the software.
I look forward to seeing you in class!
Music by: Smith the Mister
Lessons
- Introduction
- What We'll Be Doing in Class
- Gesture Drawing
- Basic Proportions and Body Variation
- Drawing Realistic Proportions
- Stylising the Form
- Designing Character Body Shapes
- Refining Our Character Designs
- Creating Character Poses
- Preparation
- Sketching Our Poses
- Cleaning Up Our Sketches
- Creating a Stylised Silhouette
- Colouring
- Adding Texture, Detail, and Final Touches
- Final Thoughts
Meet Your Teacher
I'm Sarah, a freelance illustrator based in Scotland. I create playful, narrative based artwork celebrating nature, imagination, and emotion. I graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design with a BDes (honours) in Animation in 2016, and have been freelancing since 2019.
Empowering other creatives to develop their illustration skills is a big part of my work. As a Top Teacher on Skillshare, I’ve helped over 40,000 students level up their practice by sharing my own techniques and processes.
What Students Are Saying
"This was such a great class! I ended up spending two days watching it and drawing along, and even after five years studying graphic design and illustration I learned something new and got things explained better than some of my professors have. Sarah gives very clear instructions and explains basic anatomy and character creation in such a way that even beginners will have no trouble keeping up." - Karoline B
"Excellent course, just what I was looking for and needed. Been struggling with drawing people but Sarah broke down all the steps so well I don't feel intimidated drawing people in poses anymore. Thank you, thank you Sarah, BEST class! <3" - Sarah R
"Sarah is a brilliant coach. The class is fun and easy to follow and it allows and encourages you to try new things in your style while using very clear, concise tools. I came away with lots of tips and tricks! Thank you Sarah!" - Lady T
"I've never been confident at drawing people and Sarah's class shattered all my fears. Yes there are classes that teach traditional realistic drawing, and they are necessary for understanding the essentials. But I wanted to create stylized characters and couldn't really find a suitable class for that. Until this one. If that is your goal I highly recommend this class." - Jelena O
"This class was by far the best I've ever taken on drawing the body, and poses. The distillation of tricks to remember proportions as you go is just magnificent. Chapters 5-7 were a major CLICK moment for me. Every teaching I've had up until now starts with the head, and just sort of puts things in places by rote, leaving no real form of reference to recreate it without using the 8-head grid. Sarah's instruction is SO CLEAR and specific, with perfect mnemonic devices; I've copied the transcript and will commit the steps to memory. This class really met me where I am, and told me what I needed to know to move up a step in understanding how to draw the body. Her whole teaching style is really awesome. The pace, the clarity of instruction, her organization in moving things from one element to another, but in a way that helps cement knowledge and get comfortable with one before moving on to the next. I'm going to take a few days to really learn each chapter. This whole class was just amazing." - Maili B
I hope you enjoy the class! If you have any questions about it, feel free to send me a DM or email hello@sarahhollidayart.com.
Other places to connect:
Subscribe to my newsletter (you'll get my favourite procreate brush as a sign-up gift!)