Crouch, Looking AsidePose Reference
Camera angles
Crouch, Looking Aside drops the figure onto its heels with the right palm flat on the floor, left hand on the knee and the head turned hard right.
Tags: crouchingfigure drawingfull bodyhand on kneehead turned
How to draw the Crouch, Looking Aside pose

three-quarter view 
side view 
back view 
high-angle view
Both feet stay on their balls with the heels lifted and tucked under the seat, so the pelvis almost rests on the heels while the knees stay pressed together in front of the chest. That narrow, raised-heel base would rock on its own, and the right arm fixes it: it drops nearly straight from the shoulder and sets the palm flat on the floor beside the right foot, turning a two-point crouch into a tripod. The torso tilts toward that support, so the right shoulder sits lower than the left. The left arm folds across the front of the body and the hand rests on top of the left knee, elbow pointing out to the side. Finally the neck rotates sharply to the right and the head follows, the face looking out past the right shoulder toward the planted hand.
Draw the legs as two stacked wedges. In the side view from the figure's left, thigh lies on calf, the raised heel tucks under the buttock and the whole lower body becomes one compact block about knee high. The front view is clearest for the tripod: the straight right arm stands as its own column beside the shins while the left elbow juts the other way. From the three-quarter angle the left forearm crosses in front of the knees, so leave a sliver of gap between wrist and thigh. The back view hides the face and shows only the turned head above a tilted back.
More on angles and common mistakes
A frequent error is setting the heels flat, which shoves the knees forward and turns the crouch into a resting squat; keep the weight on the toe joints. Another is turning the face without the neck, so the head swivels on a rigid post. Only a shadow marks the floor under the mannequin, so draw one ground line through both feet and the right palm before anything else.
This crouching looking to the side pose suits a scout reading tracks, someone hiding behind imagined cover and checking a noise, or a person reaching for something dropped beside them. In Edit this pose, rotate the head back toward the left knee and the figure shifts from alert to waiting while the tripod stays put.
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.
Crouch, Looking Aside 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
A person crouches low on the balls of both feet, knees together and hips sunk to the raised heels. The right hand is planted flat on the floor beside the right foot, the left hand rests on the left knee, and the head turns sharply to look over the right shoulder. Plain background.
Midjourney
full body person in a deep crouch on the balls of the feet, knees together, heels raised, right palm flat on the floor, left hand on knee, head turned sharply to the side, alert expression, plain background --ar 2:3 --style raw
Stable Diffusion
1person, full body, crouching, deep crouch, on toes, heels raised, knees together, hand on floor, hand on knee, head turned, looking to the side, looking over shoulder, leaning sideways, alert, front view, plain background
Negative prompt
heels flat, flat-footed squat, knees apart, sitting on floor, both hands on floor, floating hand, looking at viewer, stiff neck, extra arms, extra fingers, bad anatomy, cropped feet
OpenPose skeleton for ControlNet
Load the PNG into a ControlNet OpenPose unit (preprocessor: none), or import the JSON into an OpenPose editor.
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