The action is the thing here. There is absolutely no sense in trying to get a likeness, that is, a cosmetic likeness or a personality likeness — the essence of femininity, yes, the essence of a coy or seductive pose, yes.
Don’t be shackled by the model. If the model is short and you want to draw a tall girl then draw a tall girl. If the model’s hair is short and you want long hair then draw long hair. If the model strikes a pose you think you could improve by altering a little here or there then do it on your drawing.
Take a moment before you start to see the pose. Feel yourself and experience the pose subconsciously. Actually feel the tension of a reach, the folding up sensation of a squash; feel the pressure on the leg that the body is standing on, the weight of the body on that foot; feel the relaxation of the other leg. Show it relaxed to emphasize the tension and weight on the other leg. If the model’s head is turned to the right, turn your own head to the right Feel the wrinkling of the skin as the chin squashes against the right shoulder. Feel the left side of the neck stretch. That is what you want to draw — that squash and stretch.
Drawing for animation is not just copying a model onto paper — you could do that better with a camera. Drawing for animation is translating an action (in this case a pose) into drawing form so an audience can retranslate those drawings back into an experience of that action. You don’t just want to show the audience an action for them to look at it; you want to visualize an action for them to see; that is, to experience. That way you have them in your grasp, your power, and then the story can go on and the audience goes on with it, because they are involved. You have allowed them to experience it.
I have Xeroxed some sketches I made at the airport, the underground, and a museum to show the possibilities of a direct approach to capturing a pose with a minimum of line. Notice the emphasis of putting the weight on one leg in the standing poses; the emphasis on relaxation in the sitting poses. There was no penciling in first — they were done directly in ink!
