Hands on CheeksPose Reference
Camera angles
Hands on Cheeks cups the face between both palms, heels at the jaw and fingers reaching toward the temples, with the elbows meeting low before the chest.
Tags: upper bodyhand gesturehands on cheekscute
How to draw the Hands on Cheeks pose
three-quarter view 
side view 
back view 
high-angle view
Both palms lie against the cheeks. The heels of the hands sit on the jawline, and the fingers run up the sides of the face toward the temples, each finger only slightly bent and gently spread, the index finger nearest the outer corner of the eye and the little finger lowest. The thumbs lie along the lower jaw, angled outward. Down below, the elbows meet in front of the chest, so the forearms rise from that point in a narrow V to the face. The head faces front and bows a little into the hands, and the expression it suggests is surprise, delight or a blush. Out of frame, the legs stand easy with the weight on the right leg.
Unlike a chin rest, the hands here hold the sides of the face, so the chin and mouth stay visible between the heels of the hands. Draw each palm as a slightly curved plate that follows the cheek, then lay the fingers over the temple area as long tapering shapes with small gaps between them. From the front the backs of both hands frame the face and the forearm V hides the chest. In the three-quarter view from the figure's front-left the far hand partly disappears behind the face. The side view from the left shows the flat back of the left hand on the cheek and the angle of the forearm. The high angle makes the meeting elbows obvious, while the low angle foreshortens the forearms so the palms seem to rise from underneath.
More on angles and common mistakes
Typical problems: elbows set wide apart, which breaks the V; fingers drawn straight and parallel like boards; hands sliding down over the mouth. The wooden hands rest lightly, so squash the cheeks only if you want a comic version.
This hands on cheeks pose works for receiving a gift, kawaii reaction faces, chibi stickers and a comic-style scream parody with the mouth open. In Edit this pose, part the elbows a little and tilt the head toward one shoulder for a dreamy swoon, or slide both hands upward until the fingertips cover the eyes for a peekaboo variation.
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.
Hands on Cheeks 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 waist-up view of a person with hands on cheeks: both palms cup the face, heels of the hands at the jaw, fingers running up toward the temples, elbows meeting low in front of the chest so the forearms form a narrow V. Head facing front and bowed a little, surprised and delighted, plain background.
Midjourney
upper body portrait, person cupping both cheeks in palms, fingers toward temples, elbows together in front of chest, narrow V of forearms, head slightly bowed, surprised delighted expression, plain background --ar 4:5 --style raw
Stable Diffusion
1person, upper body, hands on own cheeks, hands on own face, palms on face, elbows together, forearms raised, head down, surprised, happy, blush, looking at viewer, front view, waist-up shot, cute, plain background, simple background, five fingers
Negative prompt
hands covering mouth, chin resting on hands, elbows spread wide, stiff parallel fingers, squashed face, head tilted back, wrong finger count, fused fingers, extra hands, full body, nsfw, deformed hands, blurry
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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