1

Editorial Director:
Raffaele Rocchi

Drawings and illustrations:

Kibbitzer

Texts:
Kibbitzer

Graphic project:
Laurence Casalini

English translation and proofreading:

Laurence Casalini, Adam Boltik

© 2015-2021 by Kibbitzer. All rights reserved.

© 2021 Kudos S.r.l.s a single shareholder, Bologna

ISBN
978-88-31252-06-5

First edition - April 2021

w w w.ku d o s e d ito re.c o m

 kibbitzer

REFERENCE
poses
INDEX ▐

Index 5 PART 4: ACTIONS 51

Phone calling and texting 51
PART 1: HEAD 7 Crossed arms 52
Head construction 7 Hands on hips 54
Face and expressions 8 Hands in the pockets 56
Age 9 Eating 59
Curly hair and dreads 10 Reading 60
Short hair and braids 11 Undressing 62
Beards and mustaches 12
Kissing 13 PART 5: PERSPECTIVE 63

PART 2: BODY 14 PART 6: EXTRA 68

Body proportions 14 Sweet top 68
Body construction 16 Scarves 69
Running 18 Shoes 70
Cycling 20 Top hats 72
Poses in action 22 Hoods 73
On the ground 26 Jackets 74
Casual poses 30
Interactions 32 Credits 75

PART 3: PARTS OF THE BODY 36 Kibbitzer 77

Shoulders 36
Chubby female torsos 37
Well-built male torsos 38
Chubby male torsos 39
Hands 40
Feet 45
Glutes 47
Legs 48

5
 HEAD CONSTRUCTION ▐
Let’s get straight to the point: whatever your drawing style, you need to draw a symmetrical T-Zone. A
cross as a guideline is the first step in creating a harmonious face.
You can’t skip this step!
Important note: if you start from a sphere, squeeze it a little on the sides. This way, your character can
comfortably wear glasses.

7
REFERENCE POSES

FACE
When you create a head you
can first think of it as a sphere
inserted in a flowerpot.
Make sure to keep the cross as a
guideline. If we change the shape
of the vase we get dozens of
different bases to create faces of
all kinds.
After smoothing the corners,
I obtained a standard face, a
chubby one, that of a child, that
of an angular man, and that of an
elderly man.

EXPRESSIONS
Joy, fear, disgust, sadness and
anger are the focus of it all. All
theothersarederivedfromthe
combinationoftheseemotions.
Don’t be afraid to use the
experience of others to learn.
It is permissible to study by
taking a cue from your favorite
artists and doing so will help
you develop your own
personal style.
Here I propose a small series
of expressions from different
angles.

8
 HEAD

AGE
To tackle this exercise, I suggest you
start from an age between 38 and 42.
As we age, the most common features
are increasingly sunken cheekbones
and sunken eyes, and progressive
enlargement of the nose and ears.

This happens to all humans, to a greater

or lesser extent, so have fun tweaking
these traits as you draw your character!
In the man I added an increasingly thick
beard and, as the age advances towards
the age of 50, I began to raise his hairline.

In women, at ages greater than about 50,

I use thinner and lightened lips.
This detail is important to obtain a
credible result, unless you had a little
work done... <3

9
REFERENCE POSES

CURLY HAIR AND DREADS

10
 HEAD

SHORT HAIR AND BRAIDS

11
REFERENCE POSES

BEARDS AND MUSTACHES

12
 HEAD

KISSING

13
REFERENCE POSES

BODY PROPORTIONS
When it comes to proportions, we are taught “the head is in the
body about 7-8 times,” but this is not enough!
How do we know proportions for other body parts?
Sometimes the answer is so obvious it escapes us.

For example, the human body

can comfortably fit in a suitcase.

This means that by dividing the

individual parts of the body into
sections, the measurements are
repeated and create modules.
You can see this for yourself; squat
down and you will find that
your knees touch your
shoulders.

In a curled up body, to check

that the leg length is correct,
The measurements from shoulder to elbow and the knee should end at shoulder
from elbow to wrist also coincide. height.

For the arm it is different: the tip

of the elbow reaches the upper
part of the pelvis bone, the iliac
crest.

You can easily check the

The same is true for those from the pelvis to the proportions on yourself.
knee and from the knee to the ankle. Using these small tricks you can
proportion any body, regardless
of the design style you used.

14
BODY

15
REFERENCE POSES

BODY CONSTRUCTION
The first step in building a pose is to draw its
dynamic line. This line represents the basic
essence of a fluid and natural gesture, it
follows the body entiretly and it guides the
eye giving strength and consistency to the
movement.
As for the head, this is the last anatomical
part I draw. Why this choice?
Most people start from there because it ►

► is a habit that has been carried around

since childhood. When you are drawing a
static pose, you can start with the head.
However, if you want to make a dynamic
or twisted pose, starting with the head can
risk limiting the dynamic perception of the
body movements. Indeed, the position of
the head is a consequence of the gestures
of the body, or a result of body’s attitude.
I hope this reasoning will help you getting
rid of static poses.

16
 BODY

The
dynamic line is
mostly used by artists who
work in the animation industry.
Depending on the pose, you can
also add another line, for example one
for the legs. The amount of dynamic lines you
will insert in a pose is up to you, but creating too
many can risk losing the naturalness of the gesture.
17
REFERENCE POSES

RUNNING

18
BODY

19
REFERENCE POSES

CYCLING

20
BODY

21
REFERENCE POSES

POSES IN ACTION

22
BODY

23
REFERENCE POSES

24
BODY

25
REFERENCE POSES

ON THE GROUND

26
BODY

27
REFERENCE POSES

28
BODY

29
REFERENCE POSES

CASUAL POSES

30
BODY

31
REFERENCE POSES

INTERACTIONS

32
BODY

33
REFERENCE POSES

34
BODY

35
REFERENCE POSES

SHOULDERS

hehehe!

what?

I love
you, bro! F*ck
you!

36
 PARTS OF THE BODY

CHUBBY FEMALE TORSOS

37
REFERENCE POSES

WELL-BUILT MALE TORSOS

38
 PARTS OF THE BODY

CHUBBY MALE TORSOS

39
REFERENCE POSES

HANDS
The hands are like the final boss fight… Difficult but not impossible!
I don’t have the definitive answer on how to draw them. I desperately tried all kinds of tutorials and styles. I
studied the bones, the muscles, the tendons ad nauseam and I finally realized one thing… that it’s all pretty
useless. It may seem blasphemous to some, because you should always have a technical foundation, but if
you want to become a professional cartoonist you need to find a practical method to speed up your workflow.
Like in constructing the body, I rely on extremely simple and soft lines to draw the hands. In fact, in the first
step I don’t even define the phalanges, and guess what?! They are practically tentacles.
Here’s about 40 examples of hands made from these soft lines.
Clear your mind, stop complicating your life and forget that there are bones!

40
PARTS OF THE BODY

41
REFERENCE POSES

42
PARTS OF THE BODY

43
REFERENCE POSES

44
PARTS OF THE BODY

FEET

45
REFERENCE POSES

46
PARTS OF THE BODY

GLUTES

47
REFERENCE POSES

LEGS
To show you the differences between the biological anatomy between the male and female body, I used two
identical poses. I started with the male figure and, by smoothing the corners, I then obtained the female one.
In the female body, all shapes are rounded - knees, calves, inner thighs, hips but, above all, buttocks! For
humans, the basic form in which to inscribe it is the rectangle. Think of each buttock as a brick, while in
women the basic shape of the buttock is round.
sharper rounder
knee knee
higher and elongated and
sharper calf sharper softer calf
hips rounder
hips

rounder
inner tight

rectangular circular
base shape base shape

48
PARTS OF THE BODY

49
REFERENCE POSES

50
 ACTIONS

PHONE CALLING AND TEXTING

Mommy
is pooping!

51
REFERENCE POSES

CROSSED ARMS

52
ACTIONS

53
REFERENCE POSES

HANDS ON HIPS

54
ACTIONS

55
REFERENCE POSES

HANDS IN THE POCKETS

56
ACTIONS

57
REFERENCE POSES

58
 ACTIONS

EATING

59
REFERENCE POSES

READING

60
 ACTIONS

WTH!

61
REFERENCE POSES

UNDRESSING

62
 PERSPECTIVE

PERSPECTIVE

I ship it!
<3

63
REFERENCE POSES

e!
Pleeeas

Kill that
b**ch!

64
PERSPECTIVE

65
REFERENCE POSES

Badass! I’m back,

bi**hes!

66
 BULOUS
PERSPECTIVE

FA !

67
REFERENCE POSES

SWEET TOP

68
 EXTRA

SCARVES

69
REFERENCE POSES

SHOES

70
EXTRA

71
REFERENCE POSES

TOP HATS

72
 EXTRA

HOODS

73
REFERENCE POSES

JACKETS

74
 CREDITS ▐
I dedicate this project to you, who are holding
this book; to all my supporters on Patreon who,
since 2015, have allowed me to enrich my stu-
dies; and, above all, to the artists who, with their
talent, encourage me to improve every day. <3

Thank you!

75
76
 KIBBITZER ▐
I am an Italian illustrator who attended schools of
art and comics.
I started my journey on Deviantart in 2010 drawing
fanarts, comics and anatomical studies.
Between 2014 and 2016, I collaborated with the
Nuname association, later NuPress, which helped
me self-produce the first paper version of this
volume and allowed me to present my work at
Italian comic fairs and art schools.
In the meantime, I have been pursuing my project
of creating an archive of references for artists and
it has become my profession.
In 2019 Kudos publishing published my volume
Dynamic Reference Sheets, a collection of
my works made between 2017 and 2019.
I plan to continue on this path for a while longer.

Thank you for the support!

Kibbitzer

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/KibbitzerArt

Twitter:
twitter.com/kibbitzer_

Patreon:
www.patreon.com/kibbitzer

Instagram:
www.instagram.com/kibbi_the_kibbitzer

77
KIBBITZER’S REFERENCE POSES

This book is a collection of several studies created by Kibbitzer between

2015 and 2016 exclusively for their supporters on Patreon. All the
poses have been revisited and stylistically renewed during the last
few years, in order to fix imperfections and give them a fresher look.
This volume is an archive of over 200 human figure studies including full-
length characters, facial expressions, hair, beards, hands, feet, and bonus
material that can be useful for your daily drawing exercises.
Furthermore, it includes some tips on the process behind
the creative workflow.

€ 7,00