Cat Paw HandsPose Reference
Camera angles
Cat Paw Hands: a playful cat paw pose with the right fist raised beside the head and the left fist curled in front of the chest, the head tilted.
Tags: upper bodyhand gesturefistscute
How to draw the Cat Paw Hands pose
three-quarter view 
side view 
back view 
high-angle view
The two arms do different jobs. The right upper arm lifts out to the side to about shoulder height, the elbow bends, and the forearm rises so the fist sits beside and a little above the temple. The left arm stays low: the upper arm hangs slightly forward, the elbow bends sharply, and the forearm angles up across the front of the body so the fist floats in front of the chest. Both hands are loose fists, fingers curled into the palm and thumbs folded across them, and both wrists bend slightly so the curled fingers droop forward like soft paws, in the manner of a beckoning cat figurine. The head leans a few degrees toward the raised fist. The legs stand relaxed with the weight on the right leg, posed in the file but below the waist-up frame.
Asymmetry keeps this lively: the raised arm makes a strong diagonal from shoulder to temple, while the low arm folds into a tight zigzag. Draw each fist as a rounded block with the knuckle row as its leading edge, which is what sells the paw. From the front the low fist overlaps the torso. In the three-quarter view the raised forearm stands just in front of the edge of the head. The side view, from the figure's left, shows the low fist projecting forward of the chest while the raised arm sits mostly behind the head. From above the raised arm reads as a long horizontal from shoulder to fist; from below both fists climb above the face.
More on angles and common mistakes
Things to avoid: a thumb sticking up out of the fist, which turns it into a thumbs-up; both arms raised to the same height, which becomes a cheer; and wrists locked straight, which makes the fists look like punches. Use it for cat-themed characters with imagined ears and tail, mascot art, cosplay planning and cute reaction stickers.
In Edit this pose, bend the right wrist further forward until the knuckles point at the viewer and lower that fist to cheek height. The beckoning motion becomes stronger and the paw reads more clearly from the front.
Free to use (CC0). The pose images on this page are released under CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication). Use them for drawing practice, commercial illustration, reference sheets or AI image generation; no attribution is required. A credit to PoseMaker is appreciated but optional.
Cat Paw Hands pose prompt
Copy a prompt for your AI image generator. Pair it with the OpenPose skeleton in ControlNet so the generated character matches this exact pose.
General prompt
Waist-up view of a person making cat paws: right fist raised beside the head with the elbow out to the side, left fist curled in front of the chest, wrists tipped like paws, head tilted toward the raised hand, plain background.
Midjourney
waist-up portrait, person doing a cat paw gesture, one loose fist raised beside the head, other fist curled in front of the chest, wrists bent like paws, head tilted, playful mood, plain background --ar 4:5 --style raw
Stable Diffusion
1person, upper body, waist up, paw pose, cat pose, loose fists, curled fingers, one hand raised, hand near head, hand in front of chest, bent wrists, elbow out, head tilt, front view, plain background, simple background, cute, playful
Negative prompt
thumbs up, open hands, straight wrists, punching, both arms raised evenly, fists at hips, wrong finger count, extra fingers, fused fingers, deformed hands, extra arms, bad anatomy, cropped hands, nsfw
OpenPose skeleton for ControlNet
Load the PNG into a ControlNet OpenPose unit (preprocessor: none), or import the JSON into an OpenPose editor.
Have a photo of the pose you want?
Upload it to Photo to Pose. We detect the pose in your browser and put it on the mannequin, ready to adjust.