Kneeling Side BendPose Reference
Camera angles
Kneeling Side Bend lowers the hips toward the heels, sets the right palm on the floor by the knee and sweeps the left arm upward on a long diagonal.
Tags: kneelingfigure drawingfull bodyreaching uphand on floor
How to draw the Kneeling Side Bend pose
three-quarter view 
side view 
back view 
high-angle view
Both thighs slope steeply back, so the pelvis hovers just above the heels with the shins and pointed feet flat behind. The right arm drops perfectly straight to a flat palm on the floor beside the right knee; it takes real weight and acts as a vertical strut. The torso bends sideways toward that support, and the left arm keeps the bend going, extending up and out with an open hand. The head tips back and turns to follow that raised hand. The whole line of action is a single arc from the right hip to the left fingertips, and the centre of mass, about 44 cm high, drifts toward the supporting side.
Front and back views show the diagonal best; draw the arc first as one stroke, then fit the ribcage and pelvis along it. Notice how the side bend opens a long stretch along the left flank and crowds the right waist into a short, folded contour. Viewed from the figure's left, the raised arm comes nearly toward the camera and the floor hand hides behind the legs. The low angle makes the diagonal arm the strongest line in the frame; the high angle foreshortens it into a short wedge.
More on angles and common mistakes
The support elbow often gets drawn bent, which removes the strut and makes the figure look like it is sagging. Other mistakes include raising the hips into an upright kneel, folding forward instead of sideways, and pointing the free arm straight up so the diagonal is lost. This kneeling side bend pose is handy for dance and floor choreography, stretch scenes, reaching gestures and C-curve gesture drills. The floor is a flat plane; no mat is shown.
Edit this pose: bring the left arm further over the head so it continues the side bend's curve, then check the back view to make sure the support arm stays vertical under the shoulder.
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.
Kneeling Side Bend 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 with the hips sitting back toward the heels, the right arm straight down with the palm flat on the floor beside the knee. The torso bends sideways toward that hand while the left arm reaches up and out on a long diagonal, head tipped back following the raised hand, plain background.
Midjourney
full body person kneeling, hips toward heels, right palm flat on floor, straight support arm, torso side bend, left arm reaching up on a long diagonal, head tilted back following raised hand, plain background --ar 2:3 --style raw
Stable Diffusion
1person, full body, kneeling, side bend, hand on floor, straight support arm, reaching up, arm raised, diagonal arm, open hand, stretching, leaning sideways, head back, looking up, hips on heels, front view, dynamic pose, plain background
Negative prompt
bent support arm, both hands on floor, arm straight up, leaning forward, upright kneel, standing, floating hand, twisted wrist, sitting cross-legged, extra arms, extra fingers, bad anatomy, cropped hand, 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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