Open Arms Hug Pose Reference

The quickest way to ruin this pose is to draw it like a T-pose. Arms locked straight out at shoulder height read as a scarecrow, not as someone about to hold another person. Here the arms open wide but also reach forward, elbows soft, so seen from above they form a broad horseshoe ready to close around a body. The shoulders are not level and stiff either: the chest lifts, the head tilts, and the upper body leans slightly into the step.

That step matters. One foot moves ahead of the other and the weight starts to travel onto it, giving the line of action a gentle forward curve from the back heel up through the lifted sternum. Feet placed together kill the motion and leave the figure waiting rather than arriving. Opening the arms also draws the shoulder blades toward the spine, so in the back view the upper back narrows and the arms seem to spring from behind the shoulders.

The high angle is the best study view, because it reveals the curve of both arms as one open shape. From the front, the forearms and hands come toward the camera and need foreshortening: let each forearm overlap its upper arm and draw the hands slightly larger. The side view shows how far ahead of the chest the hands travel and how much the torso tips into the step, and the three-quarter view is the one most illustrators pick for a greeting scene.

Only one mannequin appears in the image, so the person being hugged is up to you. For an embrace, use Edit this pose to add a mirrored second figure facing the first, then decide whose arms go over the shoulders and whose wrap the waist; lower one figure's arms and raise the other's so they interlock instead of colliding. On its own, the pose suits airport reunions, a parent greeting a running child, a host welcoming guests at the door, or the last panel of a romance comic just before two characters meet.