Ok I know I'm fairly new to the comic-ing world, Just out of art school. But I have been drawing for awhile, and normally I can do poses pretty well and with out to much trouble. But over Christmas I agreed to do a one-shot manga with a friend, its only about 14 pages long, but I hit page 10 where one of the characters shows up drunk, and mad. I have been stuck on this page for almost 3 days because, I. Can't. Draw. Drunk. People. Now don't get me wrong I thank God I don't have that knowledge, but I need to finish this page.
This is my third atempt at the pose and this is the best so far. But to me it sill doesn't look right. Does any one have any tips that could help me out?
Replies
Glad to be of service. Show us the final result.
Martin
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! that last picture is almost exactly what I was looking for!
Ok...
YOUR POSE IS ACTUALLY 90% of the way there. I kind of got the vibe that the guy was looking for a fight - but I wasn't sure so I pushed it to more sickly.
Anyway - I did an analysis in the mirror: If someone is carrying something in one hand, and they don't have anything in their other hand they over-compensate so the arm and shoulder carrying the item will be higher than the empty hand.
A general rule of thumb for natural poses (except when things prove otherwise) is if one shoulder is up, the hip below it will be low, and the shoulder that is down or low, the hip below that will be high.
The follow up to this rule is: the high leg will be "straight" and the low leg will be "bent". The reason for this is the high leg is taking the brunt of the weight and is holding the pose. The other leg will be bent since it will be in relaxed state.
So high left shoulder + low left hip, low right shoulder +high right hip. And vice versa. Low left shoulder + High left hip, High right shoulder, low right hip. High side straight, low side bent.
So the issue with your pose is you have both the shoulder AND the hip on the right "High", and both the left shoulder and the left hip low. This makes the character seem off balance.
Now if you were intending an overly aggressive pose, then you can straighten things out - but even then, there would be a slight higher/lower thing happening.
So below a couple more options. One thing you could do is grab a pop bottle from the fridge and strike the pose - watch what happens to your shoulders and the twist of the torso into the legs. You'll find that if the left side is up, then right side down, and vice versa, and your high hip will have a straighter leg, and your lower hip a more relaxed a depending how relaxed a very bent knee or slightly bent knee.
Caveat: this doesn't apply to every situation. Observation will be key to making a natural pose.
Thank you Martin, That helps a little.
to answer your other question, in the script he is angry and I guess a little bitter, so after one too meny I supose he would be looking for a fight. (at least thats what 'I' got from the script)
Part of the issue is I don't know what your script calls for - is a he a mean drunk? A sick drunk? A drunk that's realized he's had too much and is confused?
Anyway...think body language if you were feeling: Overly giddy, really sad, angry and irrational, kind of sick and you know you're abou to puke - what would that look like? Perhaps act it out or have your friend do it so you can figure out how that translates to your pose.
A visual suggestion below: