Complete Guide to Character Pose Illustration by Kinti & Okazu

Draw any pose you imagine with illustrators Kinti x Okazu (NeoAcademy) — across 40 clips in 13 chapters / 5 parts (5h 50m) you go past memorizing poses into the root principles behind them: why stiff poses look stiff, how joints really move, balance and center of gravity, contrapposto and asymmetry, foreshortening and angles — then apply them to close-ups, standing, sitting, lying, running, fighting, jumping, gendered body types and emotion-driven (joy/sorrow/anger/surprise) staging, ending with 3D-tool and reference workflows.

“To draw the staging you want, you must know the root principles of pose — they apply to every drawing, so in the end you can draw characters freely.” — Kinti & Okazu

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Diagnose why stiff poses look stiff — the 4 conditions of a good pose via before/after fixes, and why merely “possible” poses still need changing (comfort + charm for the reader)
• Feel balance and force — unconscious balancing poses, center of gravity shifts, and the principles that make movement read with context
• Build bodies without anatomy study — read silhouettes in 3D, real joint motion no 3D model shows, twist from bending joints, joint range of motion
• Cheat charmingly — contrapposto, asymmetry and instability to grab the eye; fix beginner close-up staging mistakes
• Nail every body part — head placement and tilt by angle, wrist naturalness, arms from waist/back, pelvis/waist mechanics, stable legs, feet and ankles
• Stage common poses uncommonly well — standing, sitting with chairs, lying with gravity, side profiles that maximize design info
• Stage hard poses easily — running (speed), fighting (force), jumping (air resistance), stretching, looking back via physics + joint range
• Use angles and foreshortening — when they poison a drawing, low/high angles, exaggerated perspective for dynamism
• Vary by body type and gender — masculine vs. feminine emphasis, then emotion staging (joy, sorrow, anger, surprise) through pose alone
• Work smart — avoid the 3 ways people ruin drawings with 3D tools, and use the appendix reference kit correctly

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Beginner–Advanced — from foundational basics to advanced theory; page metadata lists qualification as prior knowledge helpful, while the class text says it covers beginner basics through advanced theory and recommends applying one theory at a time rather than grasping everything at once
• Tools: Tool-agnostic — a principles/laws class, not a tool manual; Photoshop, Clip Studio, or even paper and pen all work (demo uses Photoshop CC 25.4.0 / Photoshop 2020; programs are NOT provided). Tracing along by hand is recommended over passive watching
• Languages: Audio KO; 40 clips, 5h 50m 27s total; lifetime access, fully released 2024-03-22
• Extras with class: Self-training pose practice kit 79 (emotion poses 10 + body poses 69) with in-lesson usage training; 100+ example illustrations prepared for the class (practiced in-video, not file handouts); curriculum intro PDF on the class page

📝 Description

Copying and croquis alone trap you in the same memorized angles — without the root theory of pose, practice only rehearses what you already know. This class digs into the principles instead: every pose starts with a bending joint, and from there balance, twist, weight shift, contrapposto, asymmetry, foreshortening and tension curves decide whether a drawing feels natural and charming or merely “not wrong.”

Kinti & Okazu teach through 100+ bespoke example illustrations: close-up staging beginners botch, before/after repairs of the 4 good-pose conditions, joint-origin twisted bodies, dynamic staging through perspective and gravity, standing poses rescued from stiffness via contrapposto, and emotion staging where personality reads through the body. Hard poses get physical explanations — speed for runs, force for fights, air resistance for jumps — and angled work gets honest warnings about when perspective poisons a drawing. A closing Q&A covers who the class fits, why “possible” poses still need fixing, and tool choice (any tool works).

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Artists who can’t block a character body without pose reference
• Practitioners stuck drawing only memorized croquis/modeling poses
• Anyone whose new poses take forever to de-awkward, or who only knows basics like weight shift and contrapposto
• Beginners through advanced students wanting pose/anatomy fundamentals that end practice plateaus

🧑‍🏫 About the Authors

• Kinti (Illustrator) — Eight Studio illustrator, NeoAcademy instructor; works include Ririmeikeo (Lili Maker), Baegilmonghwa (Daydream Story), Jeonseol-ui Geom (Sword of Legend). Known for soft, clean casual character illustration; teaches staging that conveys character personality and emotion.
• Okazu (Illustrator) — Eight Studio illustrator, NeoAcademy instructor; formerly Bluehole and Square Enix; works include Baegilmonghwa (Daydream Story), Jeonseol-ui Geom (Sword of Legend). Known for lively character illustration that maximizes each character’s individuality.
• Both teach through NeoAcademy, Korea’s large-scale character illustration academy, now on FastCampus — field pros giving tailored illustration solutions from basics to production know-how.

🏁 Final Result

• Principle-driven posing: diagnose stiffness via the 4 good-pose conditions and repair with joint, balance, contrapposto and perspective logic
• Full pose range: close-ups, standing, sitting, lying, side profiles, run/fight/jump/stretch/look-back, low/high/exaggerated angles, body-type and gender variation, 4-emotion staging
• Self-training system: 79-pose practice kit (emotion 10 + body 69) with trained usage, 3D/reference workflows that don’t wreck drawings, and one-theory-at-a-time application habits

📢 Guys, this is a Group Buy campaign, check the GBC forum thread to get access

You can find the course preview in the download section below.