Foreshortened Punch Pose Reference

The fist is aimed straight down the lens, which makes this the standard test of foreshortening. In the front view the right fist sits nearest the camera and swells to a size that would look wrong anywhere else, while the forearm and upper arm telescope behind it into a few short, stacked cylinders. Measure instead of assuming: the fist reads bigger than the head, and the visible arm is far shorter than its real length.

Behind the strike, the rest of the body explains where the power comes from. The left fist is chambered at the hip, pulled back as the right arm extends. The shoulders rotate into the punch so the right shoulder comes forward toward the viewer, and the front knee bends to drop the hips and drive the weight through. Even though the arm is mostly hidden behind its own fist, that turn of the torso tells the viewer how far the punch has travelled.

Draw it as overlapping forms from near to far: fist first, as a full box or circle, then the forearm partly hidden behind it, then the upper arm partly hidden behind the forearm, then the shoulder. Skipping those overlaps, drawing the arm at its full side-view length, or keeping the fist the same size as the head flattens the image and kills the depth. Compare the front and low-angle views to see how the overlap changes as the camera drops. The side view is a useful reality check, since it shows the true straight length of the arm and where the chambered fist sits.

Comic covers, fighting game splash art, martial arts manga and any shot where a character attacks the reader rely on this trick. In Edit this pose, turn the view a few degrees off the line of the fist to watch the foreshortening soften, or mirror the figure for a left-handed fighter.