The shoulders and the hip

To see with clearly these changes of position lets to this test: Imagine that you go through the shoulders of a figure from side to side with a steel yardstick and you do the same with the hip (Ouch, that’s painful!)

These yardsticks will incline from one side or another according to the position we adapt. Observe in the measurement frame and proportions located in the last lesson and pay special attention to the two last drawings (the shoulders and the hip incline when the body rests over one leg.

In every position where the body isn’t straight or static, the “line of the shoulders” and the “line of the hip” will change position:

All this together: the line of action, line of the shoulders and the line of the hip will mark the basic sketch of a determined posture.

Do not forget this... The more inclined or exaggerated these lines are the more spectacular and dynamic the posture will be..

It’s going to be rare to find characters of a story that have “lines of action” totally straight and verticals in its base structure even in those relaxed postures, the advanced illustrator makes use of these lines and in that point is where you achieve to express the natural posture and attitude.

The curved line of action can begin from a medium inclination (Fig. 1) to an exaggerated inclination (Fig.2) or it could be a wavy line, where postures are appreciated when there is torsion of the body (Fig. 3).