Side-Lying CurvePose Reference
Camera angles
Side-Lying Curve: a lying on side hand on hip pose, the head laid on the outstretched lower arm and the chest lifted in a gentle arc.
Tags: lyingon sidereclininghand on hipfull body
How to draw the Side-Lying Curve pose
three-quarter view 
side view 
back view 
high-angle view
Unlike a flat sleeper, this figure keeps a little effort in the trunk. The right arm runs along the floor beyond the crown and the head leans onto the upper part of that arm, while the ribcage peels up off the ground toward it, so seen from the front the body bows into a shallow crescent. The head ends up about 36 cm above the floor. The left elbow points at the ceiling and its hand settles on the waist, a sharp triangle on top of the body that answers the curve below. The legs stay long: both knees bend only slightly, and the top leg slides a few centimetres ahead of the bottom one, so the two feet do not line up.
The front view, facing the belly, sells the arc best: shoulder higher than hip, waist sagging toward the floor, the arm triangle standing up on top. The back view repeats the curve in reverse and shows the shoulder blade riding over the supporting arm. Our side camera looks along the length of the body, collapsing head, elbow and hips into one stacked knot; it is mainly useful for checking how far the top knee sits in front of the lower one. The high angle stretches the whole bow out across the ground, and the low angle, close to floor level, deepens the dip of the waist.
More on angles and common mistakes
Keep the chest lift modest. Raise it much more and the lower arm becomes a prop, turning the figure into an elbow recline, which this is not; that arm stays extended and flat. Do not drop the top hand to the floor either, because the elbow pointing upward is the strongest accent in the silhouette. Avoid ruling the legs in as straight parallel rails, too, since the soft knees and offset feet carry the ease of the pose.
It suits someone dozing on a beach, resting beside an imagined campfire, or a fantasy character lounging on a stone ledge you add later, and it makes a fine study of the reclining waist line. With Edit this pose, slide the top foot back behind the lower one and lift that knee slightly; the hips start to roll toward the floor, a natural in-between frame for a figure turning onto the stomach.
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.
Side-Lying Curve 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 lying on their right side on the floor, head resting on the lower arm stretched out past the head, chest gently lifted in a side curve, top arm bent with the elbow up and the hand on the waist, legs long and stacked with soft knees, plain background.
Midjourney
full body person lying on side on the floor, head resting on outstretched lower arm, chest gently raised, curved waist, top elbow pointing up, hand on waist, long stacked legs with soft knees, lounging mood, front view, plain background --ar 3:2 --style raw
Stable Diffusion
1person, full body, lying, on side, on floor, reclining, head on arm, arm extended, hand on waist, elbow up, curved torso, stacked legs, knees slightly bent, relaxed, lounging, front view, simple background
Negative prompt
propped on elbow, head in hand, top hand on floor, top arm hanging, rigid straight legs, lying on back, lying on stomach, knees pulled to chest, floating, extra arms, malformed hands, bad anatomy, cropped feet, 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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