Overhead StretchPose Reference
Camera angles
Overhead Stretch rises onto the balls of both feet in a wide stance, joins the hands above the head and bends the ribcage against the shifted hips.
Tags: standingfigure drawingfull bodyarms upstretchingtiptoe
How to draw the Overhead Stretch pose
three-quarter view 
side view 
back view 
high-angle view
Both heels leave the ground, so the figure balances on its forefeet with straight legs set wider than the hips. The arms lift overhead with the elbows softly bent and the hands meeting above the crown, forming a rounded frame around the head and making the figure's outline as tall as it can get without leaving the ground. Lower down, the hips slide toward one side and rotate slightly, while the ribcage bends the opposite way, so one flank lengthens and the other shortens. The lower back arches a little and the head tilts toward the lengthened side, completing a reach that runs from the toes to the joined hands.
Mark the hip line and the rib line first and let them diverge; the twist lives in the space between them. In the front view the counter-tilt and the arm frame are both clear. The side view from the figure's left collapses the arms into a single vertical stroke above the head and shows the raised heels and slight arch, so the figure reads as a tall column. The low angle exaggerates the height of the reach, and the high angle foreshortens the arms into a ring around the skull. Long continuous gesture lines suit this standing stretching pose better than segment-by-segment construction.
More on angles and common mistakes
Common faults are heels flat on the ground, which removes the lift; locked straight elbows, which make the arms look rigid; a perfectly symmetrical torso with no twist; and hands drifting forward of the head instead of staying over it. The wooden figure shows the mechanics only, so treat it as a drawing reference for waking-up scenes, morning routines, dance warm-ups and gesture practice rather than an exercise instruction.
In Edit this pose, unclasp the hands and open the arms into a wide V. The frame around the head disappears and the side bend through the ribcage becomes the main gesture of the figure.
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.
Overhead Stretch 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 stands in a wide stance on the balls of both feet, both arms stretched overhead with elbows softly bent and hands joined above the head. Hips shift and twist to one side, ribcage bends the other way, lower back gently arched, head tilted. Full body, plain background.
Midjourney
full body person in a full-body overhead stretch, wide stance on tiptoe, arms raised with soft elbows, hands joined above head, hips shifted to one side, ribcage bending the other way, slight back arch, head tilted, plain background --ar 2:3 --style raw
Stable Diffusion
1person, full body, standing, stretching, arms up, hands together above head, on tiptoes, wide stance, side bend, twisted torso, hip shift, arched back, head tilt, front view, plain background, simple background
Negative prompt
heels on ground, arms at sides, hands apart, locked elbows, symmetrical torso, arms forward, bent knees, nsfw, extra arms, extra fingers, fused hands, bad anatomy, cropped hands, 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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