Hands on ThighsPose Reference
Camera angles
Hands on Thighs is an upright kneeling pose: hips stacked over both knees, arms hanging straight and both palms resting on the fronts of the thighs.
Tags: kneelingfigure drawingfull bodyhands on thighs
How to draw the Hands on Thighs pose
three-quarter view 
side view 
back view 
high-angle view
Nearly vertical thighs keep the pelvis directly above the knees instead of letting it sink toward the heels. Behind them the shins and insteps lie flat with the toes pointed, so the legs make the long horizontal foot of an L that the side view shows plainly. The torso carries on from the thighs with only a few degrees of backward lean, the head sits level and the gaze goes straight ahead. From relaxed shoulders the arms drop with the elbows almost locked, and each palm comes to rest a little above the middle of its thigh.
With nearly every mass stacked on one vertical axis, proportion matters more than gesture here. On the 175 cm mannequin the top of the head sits about 110 cm above the floor, so check that thigh, torso and head together fill that height without a squashed waist. In the front view the forearms almost merge with the outer thighs; keep a thin slit of light between each arm and the waist. The high angle compresses the thighs into short blocks and shows the shins fanning back behind the knees, while the low angle swells the kneecaps and shrinks the head. From the back you see both soles and the pointed toes.
More on angles and common mistakes
Three errors appear again and again: lowering the seat onto the heels, which turns it into a different, settled kneel; bowing the arms outward; and sliding the hands down onto the kneecaps. This kneeling hands on thighs pose works for waiting, listening, formal or ceremonial scenes, and as a clean proportion drill. The mannequin kneels on a bare floor; any mat or cushion under the knees has to be added by you.
Edit this pose: lower the pelvis about halfway toward the heels, then reopen the side view and confirm the palms still meet the thighs rather than hovering over them.
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 Thighs 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 kneels upright on both knees on the floor, thighs vertical so the hips sit over the knees, shins and feet flat behind. Back straight, arms hanging straight down, palms resting on the front of the thighs, head level, looking straight ahead, plain studio background.
Midjourney
full body person kneeling upright on both knees, hips stacked over knees, shins flat behind, straight arms, palms on front of thighs, tall calm torso, level head, looking forward, plain background --ar 2:3 --style raw
Stable Diffusion
1person, full body, kneeling, upright kneel, both knees down, hips over knees, shins on floor, pointed feet, hands on thighs, straight arms, straight back, level head, looking at viewer, front view, symmetrical pose, calm, plain background, simple background
Negative prompt
sitting on heels, seiza, hands on knees, arms bowed outward, leaning forward, hunched back, floating knees, crossed arms, extra fingers, extra limbs, fused legs, bad anatomy, cropped feet, cushion
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.